Tentsítewahkwe
Haudenosaunee people follow the season cycles of the earth. Our mothers and grandmothers knew how to take what was harvested from the land to create what was needed for their families. They gathered clay to create intricate pottery and pipes, they wove matts from bullrush and cattail, they tanned moose hides and adorned them with quillwork. Much of this land based knowledge went to sleep as a result of colonial practices including boarding schools, forced religion and land theft. Today we can marvel at the work of our ancestral grandmothers from behind the glass cases of museums. Sometimes generations separate us from the knowledge of how our grandmothers created these things, but there is a connection, a blood memory that we carry inside of us.
Jessica Shenandoah is Wolf Clan from the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation and comes from a large family of knowledge keepers. As a young girl it was normal for her to go with her mother and grandmother to pick medicines, berries and wild food plants. She is now a mother of four, seeking to bring back the land based practices that have been lost. Jessica reaches both inside and outside Haudenosaunee territories to find those who have reconnected this knowledge, so she can bring it back to our community and the future generations. She embodies Tentsítewahkwe, as she picks up knowledge of the old ways, these slow methods of creating and connecting in reciprocity with the earth.
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Katsitsionni FoxDirector
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Taylor HenselProducer
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Adam MazoProducer
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Kavita PillayProducer
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Tracy RectorProducer
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Tracy RectorExecutive Producer
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Hindou IbrahimCo-Executive Producer
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Yo-Yo MaCo-Executive Producer
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Cristina MittermeierCo-Executive Producer
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Kiliii YuyanCo-Executive Producer
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Project Type:Documentary, Short
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Genres:Indigenous, Climate Change, Youth
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Runtime:17 minutes 21 seconds
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Completion Date:January 1, 2024
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Production Budget:50,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Katsitsionnni Fox is a Mohawk filmmaker sharing empowering stories of resilient Indigenous women. Her debut film was the award winning Ohero:kon - Under the Husk a 26-min documentary following the journey of two Mohawk girls as they take part in their traditional passage rites to becoming Mohawk Women. Katsitsionni received the Jane Glassco Award for Emerging Filmmaker at the imagineNATIVE Film Festival in 2016 as well as the Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking Award at LA Skins Fest in 2016. This film received funding from Vision Maker Media and has been broadcast on many PBS stations since 2017. Her most recent film, Without a Whisper - Konnon:kwe is the untold story of how Indigenous women influenced the early suffragists in their fight for freedom and equality. Without a Whisper received an audience award at Woods Hole Film Festival, Best Short Film Winner at Female Voices Rock Film Festival and Best Documentary Short at Red Nations Film. Katsitsionni was selected as a 2021 Nia Tero Storytelling Fellow, focused on amplifying Indigenous creatives working on innovative projects rooted in culture, environment and story. She is a 2023 PBS Ignite Fellow. She is currently in production for Kanenon:we - Original Seeds a documentary featuring Indigenous women seed keepers protecting and rematriating our seed relatives for future generations.