AUNTIE: Wa’tkwanonhweráton Sewakwékon. You just heard a clip from one of the most profound and healing Ted Talks I’ve ever heard by our friend Chandra Maracle – the Auntie with whom we are visiting today. Chandra is a Kanyen’kehà:ka or Mohawk mom and artist, educational trailblazer, language carrier and philosopher who is deeply focused on practices of hospitality and community care. You might want to listen Chandra’s Ted Talk before you listen to our visit– I’m putting a link in our show notes. Chandra’s work renames and redefines what ails our communities – beginning AT the beginning – with the care mothers need and receive as they bring new lives into the world. AUNTIE CHANDRA: I don’t really think, except in extreme cases that post partum depression is aptly named. It is really post partum community care deficit disorder. We have a deficit of being cared for by our community especially in our most vulnerable states. AUNTIE: Chandra looks to our Haudenosaunee – or Rotinonhsyón:ni peoples’ tradition being marvelous hosts and food producers as the foundation for her vast ability to connect the thought and practice she feels will lead us back to places of abundance. AUNTIE CHANDRA: What is it that made the Haudenosaunee who they were as a society, I feel, was the lifestyle that was created around corn. You can’t have the high levels of thinking that you have when your daily life is subsumed by where is your next meal coming from. When you create a society that has a stable food supply, you have time to elevate your thinking. AUNTIE: We are Yéthi Nihsténha ne Tekarónyakénare. The Aunties Dandelion. We’re focused on revitalizing our communities through stories of land, language, and relationships. And we want to say Nyá:wenkò:wa – or big thanks – to Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office – teyonhkiwihstekénha – for making this podcast possible through their New Media fund. We make space here for real conversations to unfoled so take a breath, make some tea – and listen to your Aunties. And when you are done – please follow us, provide some feedback, and share these visits with others. It helps us continue these visits together.
Here is Chandra Maracle's Ted Talk on renaming post-partum depression
Kanikonnríyo - The good mind
Kahkwa'ónwe - Original Food
Skaronhyasekò:wa - The Everlasting Tree School on Six Nations of the Grand River Rotinonhsyón:ni Territory