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‘Resident Orca’ film shows Lummi elders’ quest to bring captured whale home to the Salish Sea

two elder women in woven cedar hats lean on the railing as they admire the whale they consider their lost daughter  swimming in a tank full of bright blue chlorinated water. The whale's body is halfway out of the water as she shows off with a jump called a spy hop. She is mostly black with white eye patches and white chin and chest.
courtesy of Everyday Films
Lummi elders Tah-Mas Ellie Kinley and Hy’oltse Shirley Bob had a short but meaningful encounter with the orca they call Sk'aliCh'ehl-tenaut at Miami Seaquarium, seven months before her death of kidney failure in 2023.

The opening sequence of the movie shows some of the last footage ever of the orca the Lummi people call Sk'aliCh'ehl-tenaut.

She was captured at Penn Cove, off Whidbey Island, in 1970, and sold to the Miami Seaquarium. She lived there for 54 years, performing under the stage name Lolita. Trainers and others who got to know her as more than spectators also called her Tokitae, or Toki for short.

In 2019, leaders of the Lummi Nation held a ceremony to mourn and honor all the lost orcas, which they consider their relatives under the sea. At that time, they also re-named Toki "Sk'aliCh'ehl-tenaut," which means roughly "girl from Penn Cove."

In the first minutes of the film, peeling paint, rusty pipes and empty bleachers frame glimpses of her huge body swimming in her infamously small tank at Miami Seaquarium. And underwater footage shows her eye looking straight at the camera.

“That was a bit of a miracle that we were able to get that footage," said Simon Schneider, one of the film's co-director and writers.

The orca’s eye connecting with the viewer is a recurring motif throughout the story. 

“When you look in her eyes, there is this overwhelming understanding of her looking back at you, and it's a mutual recognition,” Schneider said.

“I think that was what we were really hoping to capture, and seeing her like that.”

Miami Seaquarium retired Sk'aliCh'ehl-tenaut from performing in 2022, due to her declining health, and restricted access to her.

“We tried for years to get into the aquarium to film, and we were given one opportunity to do that," he said. “We had a couple hours.”

Sk'aliCh'ehl-tenaut still from Resident Orca
Everyday Films
Sk'aliCh'ehl-tenaut in her tank at Miami Seaquarium in a still from the film Resident Orca.

That lack of access was the hardest part about making this movie, the filmmakers said, as they followed the quest of the two Lummi women who claimed the whale as a lost daughter, to bring her home.

Despite the obstacles — and changing plot lines as the Seaquarium was sold to new owners — once they started filming, they couldn’t stop, said Co-director and writer Sarah Sharkey Pearce.  

“We were so compelled, like I've never worked on a project before, where there was just no choice not to continue,” she said.

“And it was exhausting, but it was also like, one of the best filmmaking experiences of my life.”   

The film tells how, thanks to years of effort from several activist groups and benefactors they recruited to support their plan, the orca Sk'aliCh'ehl-tenaut almost made it to a sanctuary in the Salish Sea.

This homecoming was envisioned to include a reunion with her presumed mother, L-25 or Ocean Sun, the matriarch of the L-pod in the Southern resident population. Ocean Sun is the oldest living southern resident orca, estimated to be 96 years old. She was swimming in the waters where hunters violently captured her 4-year-old daughter more than five decades ago.

Sk'aliCh'ehl-tenaut was estimated to be 57 years old when she began training for transport in Miami, then died suddenly in 2023 of kidney failure.  

But her Lummi relatives did make it in to see her, while she was alive.

Elder and spiritual advisor Hy’oltse Shirley Bob sang a soft song that sounded like a lullaby, as Squil-le-he-le Raynell Morris and Tah-Mas Ellie Kinley greeted her and spoke with her.

The orca responded with several spy-hops out of the water — seemingly showing off — then a sideways flop to splash her guests, who squealed and laughed with delight.

Co-director Schneider said that scene was his favorite part of the movie.

“That was just such a phenomenal moment to witness, to really see that connection in the flesh, and to feel that moment of people reuniting with their loved ones, was tremendous,” he said.

Lummi elders Morris and Kinley served not just as the main subjects, but also as executive producers of the movie.

Sk'aliCh'ehl-tenaut looking at the camera. The orca’s eye connecting with the viewer is a recurring motif throughout Resident Orca.
Everyday Films
Sk'aliCh'ehl-tenaut looking at the camera. The orca’s eye connecting with the viewer is a recurring motif throughout Resident Orca.

Based on feedback at several festival screenings, the makers say the film is resonating in two different ways. It’s a call to action to do what’s needed to protect the 73 southern resident orcas remaining in the wild. But it’s also an opportunity to grieve the many losses, from the capture era and beyond.

“If our apex predators, if the southern residents, go extinct in the Salish Sea, what does that mean for us?” said co-director Sharkey Pearce. “What does that mean for salmon? What does that mean for the Pacific Northwest?”

Resident Orca has won multiple awards, including best documentary at the Miami Film Festival and best director at Whistler Film Festival.

The film made its Washington debut in late January with a sold-out screening in Bellingham. Upcoming screenings will take place in Whitehorse, Canada, on Feb. 14 and Berkeley, California on March 26.

A theatrical run in the Pacific Northwest is planned, in advance of a streaming launch around Earth Day in April. Updates will be posted to the film’s website and Instagram.

Bellamy Pailthorp covers the environment for KNKX with an emphasis on climate justice, human health and food sovereignty. She enjoys reporting about how we will power our future while maintaining healthy cultures and livable cities. Story tips can be sent to bpailthorp@knkx.org.