“Kanien'kehá:ka Kahnistensera: Aging, Activism, and Gender” is an oral history project with a group of older, activist women based in Kahnawake. With engAGE New Syns award funding, the team organized a public, group interview with the Kanien'kehá:ka Kahnistensera on March 8th, International Women’s Day, titled “Reconciliation on Trial: The Kanien'kehá:ka Kahnistensera Speak for Themselves.”

The group interview recorded the Kahnistensera’s struggles, successes, and their experiences as aging Indigenous women in a culture that underestimates older women in general, and disadvantages Indigenous communities in particular.

The recording will become part of Dr Hammond’s larger project on urban memory in Montreal, “La ville extraordinaire” (SSHRC PDG), and will be shared publicly in an exhibition at the soon-to-open Centre des mémoires montréalaises (MEM). New Syns funding made it possible for the Kahnistensera to share their story and was an important milestone in the Mohawk Mothers’ fight for Indigenous values and priorities.

Researcher

• Dr. Cynthia Hammond (Art History)

Funding

• SSHRC Partnership Development Grant
• New Syns Award (engAGE Centre for Research on Aging)