Sayokla Kindness is an internationally recognized, award-winning multi-disciplinary bead and wampum artist from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Turtle Clan, whose work has been exhibited and celebrated for its extraordinary beauty, technical mastery, and cultural depth. Rooted in Haudenosaunee teachings, her practice bridges ancestral knowledge and contemporary Indigenous art in ways that are unmistakably her own.

In this conversation, Sayokla shares the winding path that brought her home. We talk about her journey as an artist, the responsibilities of carrying cultural knowledge, and the profound teachings embedded within her work. One powerful story (among so many) after recently harvesting quahog shells with a mentor, then attempting to make dozens of wampum beads, only fourteen were successful. Rather than seeing those failed attempts as setbacks, she speaks with deep gratitude for the fourteen that survived.

Today, she is a Haudenosaunee woman who can recite the Thanksgiving Address, while holding wampum beads that she strung herself. Sayokla's work demonstrates that artistic excellence and ancestral knowledge are entangled pursuits. Whether exhibiting internationally or sitting with the teachings of wampum, she shows us what it looks like to carry Haudenosaunee knowledge forward with generosity, integrity, and joy.

Host/Producer: Kahstoserakwathe

Production Manger: Tamara Louks

Editor: Eve Krogman

Audio Engineer: Mariana Hutten Czapski

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What can food tell us about who we are?

This month, we visit with Kendal Garlow, a Kanyen'kehà:ka food sovereigntist, entrepreneur, and recent graduate of McMaster University's Master of Indigenous Studies program.

Through a Haudenosaunee lens, Kendal explores the relationships between food, identity, language, health, community, history, and belonging. Her master's research asked a deceptively simple question: How do Haudenosaunee food decisions influence identity, and vice versa?

In this conversation, Kendal shares how Indigenous methodologies shaped her research process, why relationships mattered more than extraction, and what she learned from a significant so-called "failure" in previous academic adventures. Not a spoiler - but she let herself release the program, then came back super strong in her Indigenous Studies masters.

She also discusses a decision that challenges conventional academic expectations: choosing not to publish portions of her research in order to protect the identities and stories of community members, including residential school survivors.

Along the way, we talk about food sovereignty, Indigenous education, community wellbeing, and her work co-founding SproutSync, an Indigenous-led greenhouse technology company working to increase access to fresh food in communities.

In this episode you'll learn:

-How Haudenosaunee food systems shape identity, culture, and community wellbeing

-How failure can be our greatest teacher

-What Indigenous research methodologies look like in practice

-Why relationships and responsibility matter in research

-How food connects to language, health, memory, and belonging

-What food sovereignty means beyond nutrition and agriculture - especially in food deserts such as Six Nations of the Grand River

-Why some knowledge is meant to be cared for rather than published

-How Indigenous entrepreneurship can support community food security

Whether you're interested in Indigenous knowledge, research, food systems, community development, entrepreneurship, or simply understanding the deeper stories carried by the foods we eat, Kendal offers practical insights and powerful reflections rooted in Haudenosaunee ways of knowing.

Guest Bio

Kendal Garlow is a Kanyen'kehà:ka woman from Six Nations of the Grand River, Wolf Clan, food sovereigntist, entrepreneur, and graduate of McMaster University's Master of Indigenous Studies program.

Her work explores the intersections of food, identity, health, culture, and community through a Haudenosaunee perspective. Drawing on her background in psychology, Indigenous Studies, and community-based research, Kendal has focused on understanding how food choices both shape and reflect Indigenous identity.

Kendal has also worked with Six Nations Department of Well-Being and food-focused initiatives that connect Indigenous foods with community health. In 2025, she and her husband Thomas Sweeney launched SproutSync, an Indigenous-led greenhouse technology company designed to help communities increase access to affordable, locally grown food.

Links & Resources:

Credits

Hosted by Kahstoserakwathe

Produced by The Aunties Dandelion

Co-Auntie and Treaty Partner: Tamara Louks

Editor: Eve Krogman

Audio Engineer: Mariana Hutten Czapski

#ListenToYourAunties

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alycia Two Bears practices birthing as ceremony and sees support for pregnant and birthing bodies as key to healthy communities. Through her work and as a mother of five, she advocates for home births, midwifery, and informed access to birthing choices. Alycia recently won University of British Columbia's Carol Hird Memorial Award for dedication to practice in underserved communities.

Alycia is a Two-Spirit storyteller and an award winning poet. Her work has appeared in Red Rising Magazine’s matriarchy issue and has been recognized through the Kemosa Scholarship for Indigenous Mothers in Alberta. She speaks about identity, kinship, and connection in ways that are grounded, expansive, and important for all of us.

Also check out Alycia as host of our 2025 Aunties Emergent visit with Otakwan of Métisse, Otipemisiwak Nationan who is educator, supermodel, producer, and activist. The two talk discuss how to take on bullying, and the Big Love they have for each other.

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On this dynamic episode we welcome back award-winning Auntie/Film Director Paige Bethmann (Mohawk/Oneida) to discuss what film looks like when it is led through our Onkwehón:we/Haudenosauenee ways of knowing, being, and doing. Paige is the director of the 2025 breakout film REMAINING NATIVE - which premiered at SXSW and won both Audience and Special Jury Awards there.

REMAINING NATIVE, a coming-of-age documentary told from the perspective of Kutoven (Ku) Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner, struggling to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete as the memory of his great-grandfather's escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present, and future.

We first spoke with Paige in 2022 just as she was uprooting from her native New York to Nevada. She spent more than three years in Reno to document Ku’s journey into adulthood, and also embed herself with the community and the reality of life on the land. In 2023, REMAINING NATIVE had been selected to participate as one of the four films in the Sundance Institute Edit and Story Lab.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Indigenous Women’s Leadership with NMAI Director Cynthia Chavez Lamar and co-hosts Kahstoserakwathe and Taiawentón:ti' 

It’s an Awesome Auntie co-hosting collaboration this month as Taiawentón:ti' Chelsea Sunday (Kanyen’kehà:ka) joins Kahstoserakwathe to visit with Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Director Cynthia Chavez Lamar (San Felipe Pueblo, Hopi, Tewa, and Navajo).

Cynthia is the first woman director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, including its three locations in Washington, D.C., New York City, and the Cultural Resources Center in Maryland.

Taiawentón:ti' and Kahstoserakwathe first met Cynthia last summer at the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Taiawentón:ti'’s land-based language revitalization organization, Ionkwahronkha’onhátie’, was one of four groups featured for their language, place, and ways of learning. Kahstoserakwathe was there co-producing a documentary about their work.

When Cynthia came to visit the group on the National Mall, Taiawentón:ti' noticed her openness and the path she has taken as an Indigenous woman in leadership. That moment sparked this conversation.

In this episode, the three talk about leadership, creative direction, and building institutions that remain accountable to Indigenous communities.

Cynthia is a curator, author, and scholar whose work focuses on Southwest Native art and collaborative practice with Indigenous communities. She has served on national arts and cultural boards, including the Institute of American Indian Arts and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development and the New Mexico Arts Commission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Aunties Dandelion Season Five begins with a full house, a generous conversation, and stories grounded in land, memory, and care. Last fall at the Cambridge Public Library, Kahstoserakwathe moderated a sold-out evening with celebrated author and media creator David A. Robertson of Norway House Cree Nation. This was TAD's first episode recorded with a live audience.

Together, they explored how land shapes emotional health, how identity unfolds through writing, and how family stories guide us across time.

David is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Literary Award, recipient of the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and the Writers' Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award. In this conversation, he shares tender memories of his father, Dr. Donald Robertson, a pioneering educator whose influence continues to shape his work and life.

We also speak about David’s powerful six-part podcast Kiwew (S/he returns home), which became an unexpected and moving tribute to his father after he passed away during its creation.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What a dynamic visit this month with Tuscarora Turtle clan scholar, curator, historian, and artist Dr. Jolene Rickard. At Cornell University, she teaches in the History of Art and Visual Studies and Art Departments, where she has long guided students through Indigenous studies leadership and practice. She co-curated two of the four permanent exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Across her work, Dr. Rickard centers Indigenous knowledge, lived experience, and visual sovereignty.

Jolene is the curator of the ambitious outdoor exhibition Deskaheh in Geneva 1923 to 2023: Defending Haudenosaunee Sovereignty, which opened along the Quai Wilson in Geneva in 2023. The exhibition marks 100 years since Deskaheh Levi General sought to speak for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy at the League of Nations. Working with the Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee, the City of Geneva, and Docip, Dr. Rickard highlights the ongoing struggle for Indigenous sovereignty. Her work also addresses the health of her homeplace, including the impacts of the Niagara Falls Power Project and Love Canal on the Tuscarora community, bringing these conversations into museums, classrooms, and public life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Betty Osceola (Miccosukee, Panther Clan) grounds us in the spectacular land and life of the Everglades in this visit with host Kahstoserakwathe. She explains how the region’s natural filtration system protects fresh water for millions, carries cultural memory for the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, and sustains plant, animal, and water relatives.

Betty is well known for her prayer walks that became especially urgent when the cruelty of the “Alligator Alcatraz” outdoor immigrant detention camp surfaced last summer on traditional homelands in South Florida, and her research is instrumental in ongoing lawsuits around the facility. She says our struggle for equitable treatment cannot be separated from the health and well-being of the natural world.

Betty spent decades living what environmental justice looks like from an Indigenous perspective: caring for water as kin, community mobilization as a responsibility, and finding joy in walking, guiding, laughing, and listening. She asks us to consider how we reconnect to our own sources of care and to show up when the land says it needs us. This conversation is a clear invitation to walk our lands and raise our voices to protect the natural world and the humanity of our hearts. Stay to the end for her cute stories about mama ‘gators and their babies.

 Key Takeaways from Our Conversation with Betty Osceola

1. The Everglades is a living relative, not a resource.

Betty reminds us that the River of Grass is alive, speaking, and essential for the fresh water that sustains millions of people. Protecting it is not just an environmental act; it is a kinship responsibility. The "river" is a slow-moving sheet of water, full of swamp grasses, that flows from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, moving only about a quarter-mile per day.

2. Ceremony is a form of resistance.

Through prayer walks and gatherings, Betty and her community practice ceremony as a form of activism. Each step, song, and offering re-centers human presence within a network of life that has been disrupted by extraction and control.

3. Alligator Alcatraz is part of a larger pattern.

Betty describes the proposed detention facility as one more example of how industrial and political systems see Indigenous land as empty or disposable. Her organizing through prayer, education, and direct presence helped bring national attention and legal action to pause construction.

4. Environmental justice and Indigenous rights are inseparable.

The conversation links the Miccosukee Tribe’s struggle for full federal recognition with the broader movement to restore balance between governance, ecology, and Indigenous sovereignty. Justice begins when Indigenous knowledge leads.

5. Joy and community are forms of survival.

Even amid ongoing fights for land and water, Betty’s stories centre laughter, family, and collective prayer. Joy is not a distraction from struggle; it is what keeps the work alive.

Photo by Lisette Morales, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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Here is our lates Aunties Emergent episode, hosted by Cayuga curator and media artist Alex Jacobs-Blum. This is the second Aunties Emergent episode Alex has hosted this year - the first was with Grandmother René Thomas-Hill and her grounded approach continues to nurture the next generation of Indigenous storytellers. In this episode, Alex visits with Jaime L. Montour, an Indigenous woman of the Delaware, Turtle Clan, and Lenape Nations who lives in the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.

Jaime, whose name Iotenerahtatenion means “leaves scattered by the wind,” brings a lifetime of experience connecting law, wellness, and spirit. She is a paralegal and the founder of JLM Professional Outsource and JLM AWAKENS, initiatives that weave together legal advocacy, holistic healing, and ancestral knowledge. With over 13 years of experience in family law and community service, Jaime shares powerful reflections on restorative justice, trauma-informed advocacy, and spirit-led reconciliation. Her voice reminds us that healing and accountability are deeply connected, guided by wisdom of land, language, and ancestor. ATTENTION: This episode includes stories of addiction and healing.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Aunties Dandelion is proud to share this new instalment of our Aunties Emergent series, guest-hosted by Alycia Two Bears, Mistawasis Nêhiyawak First Nation—an author, poet, full-spectrum birth worker, and land-based yoga teacher—who visits with Otakwan, Métisse, Otipemisiwak Nation—an educator, supermodel, producer, and activist. This mentoring series highlights the voices of young Aunties who are stepping into their gifts and responsibilities with courage, creativity, and honesty.

In this episode, Alycia leads a powerful dialogue on the urgent need to address bullying and lateral violence in our communities, focusing on expansive approaches to healing. Both Aunties share from the heart in a conversation that is as complex as the women themselves. They speak openly about the intersections of their identities, the responsibilities they carry, and the challenges of navigating community expectations. They invite us to reflect more deeply on how we care for one another, how we confront harm, and how we continue to build the full spectrum of our peoples.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.