Colleen Ann Keane Archives

This archive was created to preserve and share the life’s work of Colleen Ann Keane, journalist, filmmaker, educator, and advocate, whose work centered Indigenous communities, environmental justice, and historical memory throughout the American Southwest.

Colleen Ann Keane (1949–2023) dedicated her life to Indigenous rights, advocacy, journalism, and documentary filmmaking throughout the American Southwest. For over five decades, she worked alongside Native communities including the Navajo Nation, Acoma Pueblo, Santo Domingo Pueblo, Salt River Pima Maricopa, and the Los Angeles Indian Center as a filmmaker, journalist, radio and television producer, social worker, educator, and grant writer.

In 1987, she wrote, produced, and directed The River That Harms, the groundbreaking documentary investigating the Church Rock uranium mill spill on Navajo land, the largest radioactive wastewater spill in United States history. The film brought national attention to the devastating environmental and human consequences of uranium contamination in the Southwest and remains an important document in the history of Indigenous environmental justice movements. Through interviews, investigative reporting, and firsthand accounts, the documentary amplified voices that had long been ignored and preserved an essential historical record of the ongoing impacts of nuclear extraction on Navajo communities.

Throughout the 1970s, Colleen directed educational programs supporting the implementation of the Indian Child Welfare Act, working to reunite Native American children with their families and tribal communities. She also taught broadcast journalism at the Alamo Navajo and Rock Point community schools in New Mexico and Arizona, helping train a new generation of Native storytellers and reporters.

During the final decade of her life, she worked as a journalist for the Navajo Times, reporting on stories ranging from historical memory and cultural preservation to contemporary political and environmental issues affecting Diné communities.

Colleen was also the author of Crashing an American Wake (2021), a historical novel inspired by the life of her Irish father, Barney Keane, and the broader history of Ireland, immigration, war, and family lineage.

She held two Master’s degrees, one in Social Work from Arizona State University and another in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Southern California.

Her parting words were, “Go n éirí an bóthar leat,” or “May the road rise up to meet you.”