I think when I started acting it was the first time I got the freedom of expression.
ADAM BEACHI think when I started acting it was the first time I got the freedom of expression.
ADAM BEACHEver since I started acting, I’ve always spoken to our people about identity. I’ve spoken to kids, telling them: “Where do I get my strength to push through the barriers to get me where I’m at today? It’s my culture and my traditions, you know?
ADAM BEACHWhen faced with structural injustice, especially in the form of oppressive military occupations,
ADAM BEACHThose traumas when it comes to the historical past generation to generation; our children, our grandchildren, our future grandchildren learn these behaviors.
ADAM BEACHSuccess isn’t about the biggest house in the world. Success is about loving your family, taking care of your child.
ADAM BEACHI’m not gonna fall. I’m tired of falling. I’m tired of seeing our people fall. I don’t believe in failure.
ADAM BEACHThis movie shows that perspective from Scott’s character, and I love it. It shows the American Indians as the ones who respect and help out when people are needed. It’s a nice little twist.
ADAM BEACHSmoke Signals really mirrored the way I grew up and how I felt, and that movie was the first time I’d dealt with my parents’ death and how I felt that loss and sadness and anger.
ADAM BEACHWith this film, it’s nice to see that the trauma is presented from a white male that was in the Civil War and that trauma affects him in a way that still exists.
ADAM BEACHI carry two traditional pipes and I sing my songs and pray that us as human beings treat each other with respect. So when it came to trying to portray a connection on screen, that’s what you see.
ADAM BEACHWe have to know that they exist and we have to take care of those traumas and learn to heal from them.
ADAM BEACHIt’s what we put in our minds and our hearts to succeed. And success isn’t about money.
ADAM BEACHI could be a ninja, I could be a pirate or I could be in a play y’know.
ADAM BEACHGrowing up with sexual abuse and having to be in gangs and dealing with my own trauma; finding the cultural identity when I was 16, and learning those traditional ways saved me from hurting myself.
ADAM BEACHWe [Native Americans] respect being human beings, but also the natural and spiritual world and I thought that came across wonderfully
ADAM BEACHWell to me growing, up I’ve had my own psychological war with my parents dying at such a young age. My mother was killed by a drunk driver, then two months later my father drowned.
ADAM BEACH