Lots to do for Cultural Awareness Month

The Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center (KOR)’s event calendar for April is fully loaded, with activities, classes, and workshops that should appeal to a wide audience of Kahnawa’kehró:non for Cultural Awareness Month.

“There are so many things that are in demand right now. There are even workshops I had to leave off because there’s just so many hours in a day, and there’s only so many days in a month,” said Tióhrhano Zack Diabo, the KOR’s cultural development specialist, who put together the event calendar for Cultural Awareness Month.

Included on the docket are multiple kinds of Kanien’kéha language classes: beginner classes Thursdays at 6 p.m. as well as a specialty class specifically for babysitters Mondays at 6 p.m. Both classes will be given by Ratiwennahní:rats students to showcase what they have learned so far, and they will be given at the KOR’s new offices. Registration is required.

“We asked for beginner classes because I find it almost imbalanced, now there’s so many more advanced language things, so literally, it’s going to cover a lot of the basics,” said Diabo.

Many of the events are being done by or in collaboration with other organizations in the community, including the Kahnawake Youth Center (KYC), Kahnawà:ke Shakotiia’takéhnhas Community Services (KSCS), Kahnawake Tourism, and the Kahnawake Education Center (KEC).

That includes workshops crafting corn husk moccasins (April 12, 19, and 23 at 1 p.m.) at Kanatahkwèn:ke, multiple kinds of beading and sewing classes given by the KOR and KSCS, the Tetewatierónnion variety show on April 14th at 6 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus, traditional medicine workshops hosted by Elaine Delaronde (April 15, 22, and 29 at 5 p.m.) , and free guided tours of the community Mondays at noon.

Registration is required for each workshop.

Exactly what workshops are scheduled is a matter of what people have expressed interest in, but also a matter of availability, particularly for artists.

“Our ways are coming back more into the forefront of life and being important to people’s minds. There are a lot more artists, and they could be in an art show across North America,” said Diabo.

He hopes that the workshops will prove useful to return certain traditional practices to the community in the long run.

“The whole point of the workshops is to make new artisans. In a workshop of 15 people, hopefully one or two or three will really like it and pursue it,” said Diabo.

“We don’t want to get too focused on it being workshops where the point is just the workshops, we want to try to bring it back into the daily life of people.”

The process of creating the schedule starts months in advance, Diabo said, to properly coordinate with the other organizations - particularly as other organizations start to hold their own cultural events outside of the scope of Cultural Awareness Month.

“It’s better for everyone that you touch base with everyone to see what everyone wants to do. We don’t want to step on anyone’s toes and do the same types of workshops, and definitely not at the same time,” said Diabo.

Having other organizations than the KOR doing events does help make Cultural Awareness Month wide reaching, while also allowing more to be done in April than the KOR has the resources for on its own, he added.

As the KOR moves into Kanatahkwèn:ke - with its new offices having a “soft opening” on April 1 - work will be done to continue to accentuate the place of culture in the community outside of April.

You are part of CAM just by buying this newspaper, as THE EASTERN DOOR is once again translating an article per week into Kanien’kéha for the month of April, including our front page this week, to help people read and learn at home.

The full schedule can be found on the KOR’s website and Facebook page, and below this article.

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