Creating conversation with neighbours

For former Chateauguay mayor Sergio Pavone, the reason for educating non-Indigenous people on the lived experiences and history of Kahnawa’kehró:non is simple.

“If we don’t have this dialogue, we’re living side by side with ghosts,” he said.

That’s why Pavone has launched a new video project, sitting down with community members from Kahnawake with the goal of starting conversations and educating people, especially residents of Chateauguay, about Kahnawake.

The multi-part series is airing on Television du Sud-Ouest (TVSO), and is available to view on the TVSO YouTube channel, with three introductory episodes and six full episodes covering various aspects of Kahnawake’s history.

“We’ve been living next to Kahnawake for generations, and apart from sports and a couple social activities, it’s pretty rare that there are occasions to actually exchange and share our culture, and live as neighbours,” Pavone said.

The three introductory episodes feature Pavone talking directly to viewers, explaining the intentions behind the project and contextualizing the conversations with guests that will make up the rest of the series.

“I felt that it was important for me to have this conversation with neo-settlers, to let them know from a neo-settler’s point of view what I know, how I perceive this, and prepare people for the conversation,” Pavone said.

“You can’t talk about Indigenous culture or issues if you don’t have minimum knowledge about it, so I wanted to talk about the whole process and all the aspects that bring us to today, and then finally we meet our neighbours and they can talk to us.”

One of the first episodes will feature a conversation with Kahnawake’s own Joe Delaronde, who will be sharing his experience in the world of media, specifically discussing how outside media has portrayed Kahnawake throughout the years.

He said that when Pavone approached him for the project he was instantly on board - he remembers his first interaction with Pavone at the intermission of a lacrosse game, when he was mayor of Chateauguay.

“I’d asked him, ‘Why are you here?’ and he said, ‘Well, we’re neighbours, I want to know who my neighbours are,’ and that’s how he’s been all along,” Delaronde said. “He’s delved a lot deeper than others, he’s actually taken the time to learn about who we are, and he’s helped create some bridges with the community.”

He hopes that the video series can help people in Chateauguay understand more about Kahnawake, something that’s important particularly during moments of tension between the two communities - like recent online discourses sparked by ongoing traffic issues.

“Any opportunity like this is going to be helpful, because when people see that we’re human beings like them, we’re not that different, they can understand who we are and it should make the road that we share a lot easier to navigate,” he said. “I think it’s a wonderful thing.”

For a focus on the history of the community, Pavone invited historian Gerald Taiaiake Alfred to join the show as a guest.

He said that he’s been impressed by Pavone’s efforts to educate non-Indigenous people about the community.

“This is the kind of thing that needs to be done, and the time and energy that Sergio puts into this relationship between our people and doing this public education is something I wanted to support,” he said.

In his episode, Alfred will share about perceptions of history and the legacy of agreements like the Seigneury of Sault St. Louis, explaining how what happened in the past impacts people today.

“He wanted to get our perspective on what it’s like to exist as Mohawks knowing all of this, and how we relate to people on the outside who either have no conception of it, or who don’t care,” Alfred said. “How do we feel, knowing what we know, and being surrounded by people who have no clue?”

He’s hopeful that what’s discussed could have a big impact on viewers.

“The quality of our lives is really shaped by the relationships that we have, and people’s view of themselves and what they assume to be their own rights, and the attitudes they carry when they interact with us,” Alfred said.

“It’s bringing awareness to the fact that they’re living on stolen land, and their responsibility is to not build their lives ignoring the reality of that.”

The series will continue to be uploaded to TVSO’s YouTube channel in the coming weeks, and Pavone hopes it can be used as an educational resource for years to come.

“We have to get to the point where we’re neighbours that care about each other,” Pavone said. “We have to decide to be partners and help each other out.”

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