Jillian Morris is Kanien’kehá:ka, turtle clan and band member of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory now living in Collingwood. She will be sharing stories and experience passed down through the oral traditions of Kanien’kehá:ka culture in her regular column, entitled Ka’nikonhrí:io, (The Good Mind) published on CollingwoodToday.ca.
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Shé:kon sewakwé:kon, greetings to all.
Let us begin with thanksgiving. The season is in change and brings with it hope for renewal, reemergence, rebirth. Spring! I know I am not the only one filled with gratitude for this time we are in.
Life cycles continue. The blanket that covered Mother Earth over the past season is melting. The Maple is providing. Our hibernating relations are waking. Days are getting longer and warmer. The blessings of this time of year are abundant.
Earlier this month we celebrated International Women’s Day. I had the honour of being in (virtual) circle with a small group of Indigenous women on this special day. I was given support to offer my story and some teachings that I carry.
I took time in the days and weeks after to marinate in the sacredness of what I experienced. Sitting among our matriarchs is precious.
I want to share a few things that aren’t well known outside of the Indigenous community. Why some Indigenous women may see International Women’s Day in a different light.
I speak now specifically from my perspective as a Haudenosaunee woman. These truths have lived within our oral history. Now being affirmed by mainstream historians and scholars.
The Haudenosaunee (builders of the longhouse) people come from matriarchal societies. Nations and clans are passed down from our mothers. It doesn’t stop there. Both traditionally and today the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s governance is shared among chiefs and clan mothers.
The appointment of chiefs and faithkeepers is the responsibility of clan mothers. They also have the authority to remove leaders from these positions. They are active in decision making and oversight.
Colonization deeply impacted our social and political structures. The imposition of elected councils forced a patriarchal model onto our communities. Removing balance and stability.
On some reserves, traditional councils continued and co-existed with elected councils. However only elected councils were/are recognized by federal, provincial, and territorial governments.
Indigenous women are not rising from timeless oppression. Our fall from equal status happened in modern history. We are not building anew, we are reclaiming.
The suffragette movement in the United States was birthed in the heart of Haudenosaunee territories in upper New York State. This was no coincidence.
Haudenosaunee women are fierce. We are warriors.
I heard this sentiment that rings true for me. It goes something like this: If you want to bring a nation to its knees, attack the hearts of its women.
How is that accomplished?
Separate her from her children.
The reverence of our matriarch continues to exist, but it lives among the fallout and residual effects of the cultural genocide that is now widely known.
Our hearts are healing. There is hope.
Reconciliation starts with the truth.
Did you know that the United States Constitution was modelled after the Haudenosaunee Confederacy? Right down to the bundled arrows that represent unity and strength.
All except that vital piece of the inclusion of women. As we know that addition came much later.
You can watch a documentary entitled Without a Whisper via the PBS Short Film Festival here. It's about the Haudenosaunee influence on the suffragette movement.
The erasure of this influence, among many others, robs us of mutual understanding. Redressing history and the evolution of Indigenous-Crown relations will serve us all.
To new beginnings.
Skén:nen, Peace.
