America’s former first daughter (fight me) is apparently keeping busy now that her dad has stepped down from the presidency. Malia Obama marked her first week as a “normal” person by attending an event supporting the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Monday, USA Today reports.
The protest comes as President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead for construction to continue on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, reigniting the conflict between Native Americans and activists fighting for their sacred lands (in North Dakota) and against other health and environmental problems that the pipelines could bring.
As the report notes, Malia blended in so flawlessly that it seemed to take days for anyone to notice. Her attendance came to public attention only after actress and activist Shailene Woodley mentioned her appearance in an interview with Democracy Now!:
It was amazing to see Malia. To witness a human being and a woman coming into her own outside of her family and outside of the attachments that this country has on her, but someone who’s willing to participate in democracy because she chooses to, because she recognizes, regardless of her last name, that if she doesn’t participate in democracy, there will be no world for her future children.
Anyway, it’s bound to be a busy year for the eldest Obama daughter. She’s still currently taking her gap year before enrolling at Harvard University this fall. In the meantime, she is slated to begin an internship with the Weinstein Co. in February.
Read more at USA Today.