A Clan Mother's Call: Reconstructing Haudenosaunee Cultural Memory

Jeanette Rodriguez

Aug 2017 · State University of New York Press

About this ebook

Indigenous communities around the world are gathering to both reclaim and share their ancestral wisdom. Aware of and drawing from these social movements, A Clan Mother's Call articulates Haudenosaunee women's worldview that honors women, clanship, and the earth. Over successive generations, First Nation people around the globe have experienced and survived trauma and colonization. Extensive literature documents these assaults, but few record their resilience. This book fulfills an urgent and unmet need for First Nation women to share their historical and cultural memory as a people. It is a need invoked and proclaimed by Clan Mother, Iakoiane Wakerahkats:teh, of the Mohawk Nation. Utilizing ethnographic methods of participatory observation, interviewing and recording oral history, the book is an important and useful resource for capturing "living" histories. It strengthens the cultural bridge and understanding of the Haudenosaunee people within the United States and Canada.

About the author

Jeanette Rodriguez is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University. She is the coauthor (with Ted Fortier) of Cultural Memory: Resistance, Faith, and Identity. Iakoiane Wakerahkats:teh is Condoled Bear Clan Mother of the Kanien'kehá:ka Nation.