Tentsítewahkwe

In the latest Native women-centered film by Mohawk filmmaker Katsitsionni Fox (Ohero:kon - Under the Husk, Without a Whisper - Konnon:kwe), Tentsítewahkwe; a young woman goes on a journey across four seasons and multiple Native territories to connect with other knowledge keepers reviving the land-based knowledge of our ancestral grandmothers in order to return to time-honored practices of pottery making, mat weaving, hide tanning, medicine making, food gathering, and more.

As a young girl, Jessica Shenandoah (Wolf Clan from the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation) learned about harvesting medicine and food plants alongside her mother and grandmother. Contemporary Native People are often separated many generations from their traditional knowledge due to the effects of colonial realities such as boarding school, forced religion, and land theft.

During Shenandoah's childhood, 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.

Katsitsionni Fox, Director, 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. 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.

This film is at once a thank you to the Native women who imbued their descendants with blood memory of these practices and a promise to future generations of Native people that these practices will stay alive for generations to come.

Katsitsionni stated, "Personally I'm honored to share films of our Indigenous women stepping into their powers and gifts."