Kaha:wi Dance Theatre

Braiding earthy and cinematic media, sound design and performance, Homelands—Yakón:kwe places Yethi’nihstenha (many womxn) within their ancestral homelands and waters in Kahnyen’kehàka territory of upper state New York and around the Six Nations of the Grand River territory.

In a solo offering for Matriarchs Uprising, creator/performer Santee Smith makes her alignments to Ka’satstenhsera’kó:wa Sa’oyé:ren—the movement of the immense creative intelligence. The Kanyen'kéha word Yakón:kwe refers to one womxn.

The performance opens a space to remember our connection to land, how to console, yield, listen and dance in the direction of the way of the forever. It’s a performance honouring Kahnyen’kehàka umbilical ties to our lands and waters: past, present, and future. Media projections represent the movement of Yethi’nihstenha through time eras and portals demonstrating how the everlasting cycles of Yethi’nihsténha tsyonhwentsyà:te (Mother Earth) are regenerative and depicts the perpetual passage of generations of Yethi’nihstenha: unbroken despite colonial disruption.