(both laughing) (musical chord) - Shima, you share parts of yourself, and people love that you do.

You are everyone's mother, grandmother, friend when they need.

You share openly, bare your soul with no fear of it being naked.

It's not in a way to fill a silence in the room.

Silence is welcomed.

Silence is your friend.

You want to share your stories, your parables, your words, your love.

(gentle piano music) - Cut!

I didn't like that.

(laughs) (crew murmuring) Okay, so just start anytime?

- [Man] Yeah, whenever your ready.

- (sighs) Lini Wilkins (speaks in another language) Now that I'm in my sixth decade of life, I think I've sort of found what I was meant to be.

Reconnecting with the small person in me 'cause I remember my grandmother telling me, you know, "Leave her alone.

She knows exactly what she wants to do."

That was the case before six, before boarding school.

It just suppressed that young person that really knew exactly what she wanted to do.

And it took four decades to find her again after a couple of changes in my life.

A divorce, colon cancer, and then an empty nest.

And there I was, you know, what am I gonna do?

And then she emerged.

Says, "We're a writer.

We're a story teller."

"Don't rub on tree barks.

(speaks in another language) You're growing hair on your elbows.

Little brother thinks it's cool.

Little sister said it's... - [Boys] Gross!

- Gross!

And he comes in (indistinct) rolls in.

"I see you're still climbing trees."

She reminds her of the age old traditional decrees.

To love all living things on earth.

(speaks in another language) I remind you of that faithful oath."

Oath means promise.

Means make a promise.

Oaths.

(indistinct) says, "Don't rub against the tree."

That means you just respect the plants.

You respect trees.

I'd always promised my grandmother I was gonna write the parables.

Parables are little sentences that teach us about relationship.

Relationship with ourselves, how to take care of ourselves, how to be there for ourselves, how to love ourselves.

And then relationship to others.

(gentle music) - The words flow from inside you passed down by your grandmother, our ancestors, our people.

You want to share them with those that need them, and the world does need them.

You want to pass them down to your grandkids, their children, and their children, as children are our future.

Every child is your child, every living entity is your relative.

Shima, your share to relate to all as you are the embodiment of love.

(gentle music) - Going to boarding school, you know, a lot of my people that have gone through it in history, you know, it was hard to undo the layers of all of being suppressed, of your talents being suppressed.

Your gifts, your language, your custom.

You know, it's hard to emerge outta that, and that's what I continue to do that, you know.

That emerging, that unfolding, and the parables is just a gratifying way for me.

My writing is a gratifying way that that is happening.

There goes the tree.

Oh!

(laughs) There it is!

It's flowering!

Okay, (indistinct), let's see if you can get a different one.

- Ooh !

- Yeah!

- Oh, (indistinct).

What would you do if you had long hair growing from your elbows?

What would you do?

- Cut it off.

- Oh!

(boy giggles) You won't leave it?

- Uh-uh.

- You don't wanna leave it?

Ooh!

(lips smacking) (boys squealing) An Indigenous way of thinking is that you have to be a good relative.

And my storytelling is about that.

How to be a good relative through the stories that I write, through the screenplays that I write.

Through the children books that will come.

- You share to create (indistinct), growth, change.

Shima, you share yourself, and all who relate to you will leave this world a better relative.

- Oh, yeah.

(daughter chuckles softly) Aw.

I remember when my grandmother was ready to transition.

She was in her bed, and everybody was visiting.

She's 104, and she looks at me, and she goes...

This is coming from a woman who, in my opinion, has accomplished so much.

Medicine woman for 50 years, just helped so many people.

And she looks at me, and she goes, "I didn't even hardly do enough.

I could've done so much more."

Which basically she's saying there's so much in the universe for us to do.

Why limit ourselves?

Why stop?

We gotta keep relating, is what she was saying.

(laughing) That's it.

(laughs) - [Man] Cut!

(all chuckling)