AMBE Sponsors Tewatero:rok 8th Annual Film Fest

AMBE Submission

Tewatero:rok simply means “Let’s All Watch” and watch we did on Ohiariha/June 14th at the Galaxy Theatre in Cornwall, Ontario.

Sponsored by the Ahkwesahsne Mohawk Board of Education as a venue to promote Kanien’keha and to highlight students’ learning of the language, each year’s event brings in a larger crowd than the year before.  AMBE invites other organizations and film makers to showcase their films as well as to promote and provide the community an opportunity to see and hear Kanien’keha being spoken by people of all ages from the daycare centers, the Headstart Program, students from the Skahwatsi:ra School, the Ahkwesahsne Freedom School, and the Salmon River Central School.  A showing of the SUNY Potsdam Mohawk 102 class also did a skit on Tim Horton’s to showcase their learning of Kanien’keha in a conversational format.

AMBE also encourages local filmmakers to produce multi-media and this year the viewers received a viewing of Ohkwari’ko:wa, an animation done by Rarihwenhawi Lafrance narrated by his grandfather Jake Lafrance entirely in the language.

It was heartwarming to see the Totas from Iakhihsohtha come and be able to view on the big screen films in Kanien’keha, some featuring their own grandchildren speaking Kanien’keha, or to see films by SRCS students with students in front of, and behind the camera.

 About the Film Fest, Barry M. Montour, AMBE Director of Education said, “The annual Native Student Film Festival is a great opportunity for our students to showcase their talents and to promote Kanien’kéha to a large audience.  We appreciate the efforts of Katsitsiioni Fox and Margaret Peters who work so hard every year to ensure that it’s successful.”

Kanien’keha resources are not easy to come by and they are items that all have to be developed. Each year’s showing highlights many of the new resources being developed that will be used to implement into the classroom as useable resources.  AMBE Skahwatsi:ra has produced their Skahwatsi:ra Volume VI video that shows highlights from the classrooms and some interactive activities to engage learners in speaking Kanien’keha.  The videos will be provided to families of Skahwatsi:ra as gifts and will be implemented into the Kanien’keha classrooms as yet another resource and are available for sale to the general public.  For information on how to obtain resources the number to the Kana:takon School is 613-575-2323.