CASA of Missoula is excited to bring the award-winning documentary Daughter of a Lost Bird back to Missoula on October 9th, 2023 at the Roxy Theater. This event is free to the public, and is a way to learn more about Montana ICWA, and CASA of Missoula. To reserve tickets to this event, please contact [email protected]!

Daughter of a Lost Bird centers around Kendra, a Native American adoptee, who grew up assimilating in a white family with no connection to her Indigenous heritage. Now, as an adult with a family of her own, she embarks on a seven-year journey to find her biological mother, April, and return to the Lummi Nation. Together, Kendra and April, also a Native American adoptee, navigate what it means to be Indigenous and to belong to their tribe, the Lummi Nation. The film exposes the multifaceted personal costs of the genocide that was inflicted upon Indigenous people by the United States government through forced adoption programs and other assimilation tactics. The feature is directed by Brooke Pepion Swaney, a writer, producer, director and educator who was a PBS Wyncote Fellow and a Sundance Native Lab/Time Warner Fellow. Daughter of a Lost Bird is a co-production of Same Land Film and Vision Maker Media. 

The documentary has received many accolades and appears courtesy of filmmaker Brooke Swaney and co-producer Kendra Mylnechuk Potter, both of whom live and work in Western Montana. The film is an insightful look at the various lives impacted by the child welfare system in the United States. CASA of Missoula is a local non-profit organization providing independent, trained volunteers to advocate for the best interests of children within the child welfare court system. The role of a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) is to connect with the children and learn about them and their family in order to provide consistent, long-term, family-centered advocacy.

CASA of Missoula is proud to present this film both as an educational opportunity for current Court Appointed Special Advocates, but also to help the community see how they can help children and families in our community by getting involved as CASAs. Currently, 66 Court Appointed Special advocates in Missoula are serving 121 youth in Missoula and Mineral Counties. 12% of all CASA volunteers have taken on cases with more than one family because CASA of Missoula is in need of more community members to step up as volunteers. For those who are interested in doing this important work, come to the film screening at the Roxy and learn more about CASA, or email Development Manager Kate Morris at [email protected].


To reserve tickets to this event, please contact [email protected]!