In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian presents Without a Whisper – Konnon:Kwe, a film about the lesser-known history of Native women’s influence on the early women’s rights movement in the United States. Through March 31, viewers can watch the movie at americanindian.si.edu/calendar.
The screening is followed by a prerecorded panel discussion with Bear Clan Mother Louise Herne (Mohawk), Sally Roesch Wagner, founder and executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and Center for Social Justice Dialogue, and filmmaker Katsitsionni Fox. The conversation is moderated by Vision Maker Media’s Director of Programs and Projects Georgiana Lee-Ausan (Navajo).
This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.
Without a Whisper – Konnon:Kwe (USA, 2020, 27 min.)
Director: Katsitsionni Fox (Mohawk)
Without a Whisper uncovers the hidden history of the profound influence Indigenous women had on the beginnings of the women’s rights movement in the United States. Before the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, European colonial women lacked even the most basic rights, while Haudenosaunee women had a potent political and spiritual voice and authority in all aspects of their lives. The contact that the early suffragists had with Haudenosaunee women in New York state shaped their thinking and had a vital impact on their struggle for equality that is taken for granted today. The film follows Mohawk Bear Clan Mother Louise Herne and Professor Sally Roesch Wagner as they seek to correct the historical narrative about the origins of women’s rights in the United States.
To learn more and stream the film, visit americanindian.si.edu.
