Скачать или смотреть Kahsenniyo performs a poem reckoning with the wounds of colonialism and breaking cycles of trauma

As part of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Mohawk artist offers her poem Decolonizing Love for a new edition of Poetic License.

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As Canadians observe the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we bring together four Indigenous female poets to speak their truth in the sixth edition of the CBC Arts series Poetic License.

Hamilton-based poet Kahsenniyo's name means "a good name" in Mohawk. She credits her mother's sense of humour for her name — but as an artist, matriarch and 1492 Land Back Lane activist who uses her words for social change, her mother may have predestined the empowered woman her daughter would grow up to be.

Watch Kahsenniyo perform Decolonizing Love in the video above and follow her at @landback_and_lipstick – also a good name. In this deeply personal poem, Kahsenniyo reckons with the ways in which colonialism has decimated Indigenous lands and family structures and offers her own strategies to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma.

This video was filmed on location at the Woodland Cultural Centre, a site at which a small but mighty group has transformed the original intent of the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School into a place of reconciliation and learning to promote Indigenous art and history.

Special thank you as well also to multidisciplinary artist Kelly Greene. Greene is of Mohawk-Oneida-Sicilian ancestry, a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve, and a descendant of the Turtle Clan. Her work centres around environmental, political and cultural themes that have been impacted by colonization. Her incredible installation "The Haldimand Coupe" (2015) is featured in the video.

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Video by Lucius Dechausay and March Mercanti. Post text by Lucius Dechausay.

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