ON THE ROAD: Live! Folklife Concert: Akwsasne Women Singers

This is a second free performance at our partner site, the Historic Salem Courthouse.

Akwesasne Women Singers / Kontiwennenhá:wi, translated as “Carriers of the Words,” is a women’s singing group that originated from the Mohawk Nation at Ahkwesashsne. The group is made up of young women, mothers, aunties and grandmothers, who work full time as teachers, social workers, students and retirees.

Kontiwennenhá:wi hail from Ahkwesahsne, a Kanien’kehá:ka Territory that straddles the St. Lawrence River and includes portions of northern New York and southern Ontario and Quebec. In Ahkwesahsne, as in other Kanien’kehá:ka communities, women’s singing societies have always helped community members in times of need. When performing outside their community, Kontiwennenhá:wi do not call themselves a singing society; that title is reserved for their work within their Territory and other Haudenosaunee communities. They continue many of the same functions, directing funds generated by their performances back to their community.

While men and women sometimes have different singing repertoires and their songs serve different functions, women take care to learn the men’s songs as well, so that the Mohawk way of life can be preserved even in times of crisis.

In the spirit of this traditional role, Kontiwennenhá:wi, the Carriers of the Words, have embraced the “duty to help our language survive.... We believe that if our language dies, so will we as a Nation. Without our language we will have no culture. We proudly share our songs and teach children so that we may honor everything that is natural to us. Through our songs we honor our Mother the Earth, our Grandmother the Moon, our Grandparents from every generation, the teachers of the Mohawk language, the Great Law of Peace, and more.”

https://www.facebook.com/kontiwennenhawi

Live! Folklife Concerts are produced, hosted and recorded for the Folklife Center’s YouTube page by the Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library. The series is made possible in part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Governor’s Office and the New York State Legislature.