HUMANS: McMaster Chancellor Santee Smith

Esther Liu

HOM Staff Writer

The Silhouette: Please introduce yourself. Santee Smith: Santee Smith, Tekaronhiáhkhwa iónkiats, Kahnyen’kehàka, niwakonhwentsio:ten, Wakeniáhten. Ohswekén nitewaké:non.

My name is Santee Smith, Tekaronhiáhkhwa, I’m from the Kahnyen’kehàka Nation, Turtle Clan from Ohswekén also known as Six Nations of the Grand River. I have a long connection to McMaster University, first as an undergraduate student in the faculty of physical education and psychology. [Now], I am the current chancellor of McMaster University.

Please give a brief description of what you do as the chancellor and at the Kaha:wi Dance Theatre.

I’m also the artistic director of the Kaha:wi Dance Theatre. Kaha:wi in the Mohawk language means to carry. We are a performing arts organization who is really focused on embodied storytelling and sharing Indigenous narratives that are often underrepresented or misrepresented in popular mainstream culture.

As chancellor, I have the honorary position of being the head of the university. I am responsible for convocation, my name is on every single student’s diploma. I am also the chair of the honorary degree committee and I also am a speaker at events. For example, the upcoming Remembrance Day event, I’ll be delivering a message and [am] responsible for any other messaging and connection to faculties that would like the chancellor there to connect with the students, staff and faculty.

What inspired you to go into this work?

It was an invitation. I have a very back-andforth connection to academia. I have a professional artistic career but also my background is supported through two degrees at McMaster University and a master’s degree from York University. One of the interesting things about being a chancellor at McMaster University is that you have to be a McMaster alumna, so I fit the hat.

Also, I had a connection over the years to the president’s office and especially past president Patrick Deane, who visited Six Nations, who visited my family. I also have connections to the Indigenous studies department. Recently in 2018, [I was] a part of the Socrates project which brought in community artists and speakers to share their work with the McMaster campus. So I was in-residency through Socrates and the Indigenous studies department and that’s really how I became even more present in McMaster. The work that I was doing as part of that was called the Mush Hole. The Mush Hole is a performance that shares the history of Canada’s first residential school called the Mohawk Institute Residential School. My job not only as a creative, but as an Indigenous artist, is to share that truth and to educate others. I was invited by Patrick Deane to consider being chancellor. That was a wonderful surprise and something that I didn’t plan for or didn’t know was coming down the road for me in my life. So I gave it some important thought because of what I can contribute, especially due to my very busy artistic career, but also the important parts of representing the Indigenous and representing the arts and experiences that I would bring forward as chancellor.

What inspired you to become involved with the Kaha:wi Dance Theatre?

I was a dance artist and my training is in classical ballet. Since I was little, I attended the National Ballet School for six years. And then really, when I was a teenager, thinking about identity and being away from my home community and family, I felt something was missing. And I returned home. Then I pursued academics, but nothing really filled that passion and drive for performing arts. The first opportunity I had to be creative and create choreography based on stories that are within my culture, I put two things together: my love of performance and body storytelling and sharing about my culture and being an Ohswekén Indigenous woman. My first choreography was in 1996. Since that time, I have been dedicated to creating, introducing new work and sharing with audiences around the world. Collaborating is a big part of it, being able to share with Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborators.

What are your goals as Chancellor and as a dancer?

My goal for both is Indigenous representation and visibility. It’s nice to see even for myself, people in positions that are — I don’t want to say powerful in a colonial hierarchical power way, but that they’re in positions of prestige and influence in offering that different perspective, in offering Indigenous perspective. For example, when I was growing up and studying classical ballet, I didn’t have any role models who were Indigenous, except for one: Maria Tallchief. She was from the United States and she was a prima ballerina dancer. My parents showed me her and wanted me to have an Indigenous role model. So I think that representation is really important, that offering different perspectives and stories, narratives that come from this land, Turtle Island, is really important. I want to do that as Chancellor, as an artist, as a speaker and offer that out both for role modelling within Indigenous communities and for everyone.

Do you have a favourite memory as chancellor?

For being chancellor, it was my installation in November 2019. That was the first time I became officially chancellor. Being a part of that ceremony and putting on my robes for the first time, being in the presence of all the graduates and the faculty on the stage and being able to hear the singing of my Indigenous colleagues and being dressed in robes with students within the Indigenous faculty. I would have to say that was a major highlight — a major life highlight — it was a bit surreal and it has a very ceremonial feeling to it.

Do you have a favourite memory regarding dance?

I had so many dance memories. Because all of my experiences are quite different and all of my productions are quite different, it would be hard to choose one. I love performing and I love performing artists. I just feel like out of all of the times of performing, the experience of falling into performance and being able to share with audiences in an 100 per cent committed, talk-inspired and dedicated way is why I do what I do.

Do you have a big takeaway from your experiences or message to others?

I think the biggest takeaway, for myself personally, that I continue to hold, is lifelong learning. Learning is never-ending. It keeps you inspired. It keeps you curious. It keeps you asking questions and developing and transforming. So, I hope to continue to be a lifelong learner. And I encourage everybody else to find that for themselves as well.

Arts & Culture

Reclaiming culture, one bead at a time

Local artist Paige Porter is rediscovering her Indigenous heritage through her

beadwork Porter had created. Her mother’s encouragement incited the transformation of her passion into a business, now with over 1,500 followers Sarah Lopes Sadafi on her combined social media platforms. A&C Staff Writer Porter fondly recalled memories from the Together in Dance Festival at Mohawk College, which she attended as a vendor in February Beading has a historical and cultural significance among Canada’s Indigenous commu2020. The celebration of diversity and multiculturalism was one of Porter’s first times presentnities as an art form passed down through gen- ing her work to the public. After the festival, erations. For Paige Porter, the Hamilton-based Porter went on to collaborate with Sweet Peas Indigenous beadwork artist behind House of Baby Company, a seasonal subscription box for Beads, it is a means of reconnecting with her parents of young children, where her bead art heritage and carving out a cultural identity of was featured. her own. “My products are handmade and take

Porter’s small business specializes in time. You’re getting something that is authentic Indigenous beaded jewellery, accessories and handmade by an actual Indigenous person and custom commissions. Though beading is rather than Indigenous-inspired and when you traditionally passed from parent to child within support an Indigenous business, then you’re Indigenous communities, Porter’s journey to also supporting the Indigenous community. beading arose out of a self-driven search to When you go and shop in Canada, those prolearn more about her heritage. She is Haude- ceeds go into Canada,” said Porter. nosaunee and On^yota’a:ka from Six Nations Beyond her bead art, Porter stressed the of the Grand River. As an intergenerational sur- importance of bringing awareness to injustices vivor of the residential schools system, Porter committed against Indigenous peoples in Candescribed feelings of disconnection from her ada. She called students to action to educate culture within her family in her formative years. themselves on Orange Shirt Day, Truth and Rec-

“Growing up, I didn’t know that much onciliation Day and the missing and murdered about my culture. Down the line, my family Indigenous women, girls and two spirit. was afraid to acknowledge and speak the Porter’s small business has helped her to language. Over the years it died off, which is build a bridge back to the Indigenous culture sad to say, but because of residential schools I know some older Indigenous people went “Beading is usually that was stolen from her and her family and her art is a reminder of the importance of Indigethrough especially traumatic experiences and were ashamed of being Native. That’s how they a tradition passed nous culture and legacies. were brainwashed. Being Indigenous, I grew up and had to learn about my culture myself,” down generations and explained Porter. generations, but in my case,

my family was never taught beading . . . It’s not only for myself, but also so I can pass it down to my family and my grandkids — I can be that grandma that teaches them how to do it.”

In her efforts to reconnect with her heritage, Porter became involved with the Hamilton Regional Indian Center, where she gained more exposure to resources and other Indigenous community members. She began beading in November 2019 to rekindle the traditional art form within her family, entirely through self-teaching and her own devices.

“Beading is usually a tradition passed down generations and generations, but in my case, my family was never taught beading . . . It’s not only for myself, but also so I can pass it down to my family and my grandkids — I can be that grandma that teaches them how to do it,” said Porter.

PHOTO C/O @beadsintobeauty PHOTO C/O @beadsintobeauty

Paige Porter

Owner of House of Beads

Porter began learning to bead through online resources and imitating designs, before beginning to create original designs of her own. The learning process has provided her with a sense of resilience and pride in her heritage.

Initially, Porter never saw herself as a business owner. Along her self-teaching journey, she began posting her work on Instagram. She started to amass a following and it was her mother who first had the idea to sell the art