“Restoring Mohawk” is my own story; my family’s story. It’s a story about secrets and shame; about fear and being invisible and seeking and finding our own voice and identity and place. My grandfather Albert Hill was Mohawk Indian raised on Six Nations of the Grand River First Nations reserve southeast of Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Mildred Hill, my grandmother came from a poor Irish farming family near Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Mildred was feisty and funny as well as racist against her husband and children. Her fear and secrets and longing for place still impacts our family profoundly.
My mom Patricia Moore bore the brunt of my grandmother’s insecurity and a century-old Canadian policy called the Indian Act allowed and in fact encouraged my mom to erase the Indian identity that her mother taught her to despise. In 1970 my mom sold our family’s Indian rights for less than $100. That meant our family relinquished all treaty and statutory rights as Native people and the rights to live in the reserve community. That action was called "Enfranchisement" also known as "The Gradual Civilization Act".
Click here to read the Full Story.
Click here to read the Full Story.
Click here to read the Full Story.
Audio Podcasts Part 2
Original music created and performed by Kate Ofwono
Paulette Moore
Moore is currently Associate Professor teaching digital media production & research and is with the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA and a consultant with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland, creating films and a blog to promote gender justice and diversity within the organization.
