Protecting Feathers, Connecting Community, Creating Art

AUNTIE: Wa’tkwanonhweráton Sewakwékon! We’re starting strong in this Ohserá:se – this New Year – on The Aunties Dandelion podcast as we visit with Iehstoseranón:nha, who is Kanyen’kehà:ka and Bear Clan.

Iestohseranon:nha is a feather protector, community connector, and graphic artist. She is also a survivor of the Sixties Scoop – a term that refers to Canada’s mass removal of Onkwehón:we children into the welfare system and non-Indigenous families without consent of their own families or communities. That removal began in the 1960s and continues to this day.

Iehstoseranón:nha was 18 in 1989 when she found her biological family and spent these past decades reconnecting with her Mohawk territory at Akwesasne. She recognizes the unique emotional and spiritual perspective this epic journey brings.

IESTOHSERANON:NHA: Adoptees like me – Indigenous, Native, Onkwehón:we that are just coming home – we have spent our lives on the colonial side, with a Native heart and a Native spirit. And so we see in each other and we see our colleagues: we are the bridges, right? Because we can sit in both worlds and we can connect that in a different way than anyone else.

AUNTIE: Iehstoseranón:nha centers Indigenous women creatives as the owner, writer, and artist at Pass the Feather Indigenous, and founder of Indigenous Arts Collective of Canada – a registered charity. She was the first facilitator of the National Day of Truth Reconciliation on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill and founder of the National Indigenous Women Arts Conference. She takes the gifting of feathers seriously and I was grateful to receive a beautiful feather fan from her as we began our visit.

IESTOHSERANON:NHA: To be really, really truthful – it is friendship making, it’s relationship making. And I don’t give them to many people but when I do it’s because someone has touched me in a way and given me time in a way that I never expected them to. And so my first response is to share that medicine with them because that is important medicine that I think that people forget about. It’s that flight and that connection to Sky World.

AUNTIE: I feel a particular connection with Iehstoseranón:nha – whose name means “she keeps the feathers” because my name – Kahstoserakwathe – means Bright Feather – can you hear the similar Mohawk root word for feather - oshstòseri - in our names? It’s all about the feathers. We are Yetinistenha ne Tekaronkyakánere – the Aunties Dandelion and we’re sending a big wa’tkwanonhweráton to the Indigenous Screen Office – teyonkhiwihstekénha – who are providing us financial support for the third year in a row. And can you do us a big favor by liking and sharing our episodes – and subscribe to our feed on your favorite platform. It goes a long way to help us bring stories of Indigenous changemakers your way.

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