Rematriation

Rematriation is a Haudenosaunee-led digital media storytelling platform uplifting Haudenosaunee and Indigenous women’s voices so we may share knowledge and heal together. In addition to hosting in-person gatherings, Rematriation creates Indigenous women only digital environments that enable Haudenosaunee women to push back against patriarchal narratives and reclaim our full authority across our Haudenosaunee Confederacy, within our nations and within our own bodies and spirits. The Sullivan-Clinton campaign of 1779 scattered Haudenosaunee communities and contributed to a silencing of our women that exists to this day. Rematriation provides digital spaces that reignite women’s only spaces, keep us connected (even while social distancing) and if scaled could allow us to engage confidentially with Indigenous women across Turtle Island. Increased access to our Sisters is what will enable us to heal together and create healthy futures for our family, communities and seven generations. 

As social media platforms like Facebook are unbundled and web3 emerges, Indigenous peoples again face a choice, if and how to engage with technologies that were not designed by or for us. Our traditional ways of being “social” and sharing information are reliant on intimate, in-person gatherings that happen around kitchen tables, at community gatherings, or in ceremony. As we engage the digital world, our conversations are often siloed into ones that we can have publicly and the private, off-line community discussions that are shaping the future of our Nations. Haudenosaunee women in particular are in need of a place that is just for us. Three years ago, we created an exclusive Facebook group to share our dreams and ideas with each other, but data security concerns made this an imperfect solution.  A history of exploitation makes it vital that our women feel safe when discussing matters paramount to survival and well-being. COVID-19 further challenged us to find new, data sovereign ways to connect. In response, Rematriation is expanding our platforms and launching a login portal on our website and a custom app. This will serve our growing community of 1,200+ Haudenosaunee and Indigenous women and provide an additional trustlayer.

Our solution is to create data sovereign, Indigenous women only digital platforms that serve as an extension of the trustlayer created in our sacred, annual, in-person gatherings. We serve a Sisterhood of 1,200 women organically Returning the Sacred to the Mother. Our aim is to grow our relationships and shared healing with one another in a virtual space. Our app and members only login-in section of our website are designed exclusively and especially for Haudenosaunee and Indigenous women. Our platforms are a space where our women can access security, Sisterhood, community and culture 24/7/365. Our website customizes Wordpress to highlight culturally relevant imagery, design and a personalized experience on the login side. We are also working with Honeycommb to create an easily downloadable, customized app that will feature interactive elements such as personalized meditations, live morning discussion style podcast shows, and topic specific groups. We are making existing technologies work for us, by only engaging applications that mirror and are complimentary to our cultural norms, values and traditions. Where there is a gap, we are piecing and creating elements together in creative ways to ensure that our community is served in the most meaningful, representative and relevant ways possible. 

Rematriation headquarters are nestled in the heart of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy on Onondaga lands. This matters because our work purposefully reaches outward from our central fire and core values to the furthest boundaries of our nations including our Western and Eastern doorkeepers. We serve six distinct nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora) which have been bound together by the Great Law of Peace for 1,000 years. Guided directly by Clan Mothers, Faithkeepers and a Sisterhood of spiritually and traditionally grounded women, our team creates solutions that amplify and compliment the brave healing work that so many of our women are choosing for themselves. Our digital work is innovative because we do not exclusively rely on social networking to learn about the needs and interests of our community. Annual in person gatherings and outreach provide a window into the hearts and minds of our women. 

We recognize that when our women heal, our men, children and non-binary peoples have a greater chance to heal as well. Our women shape the trajectory of our nations. When we have space to heal and nourish ourselves we are able to have direct impact on our peoples health and wellness, education, food sovereignty and future financial security. Our work is deeply aligned with all aspects of this challenge because these are precisely the topics that our women are discussing in our closed platforms. Our solution provides space and support for our women to create their own solutions. 

Our work at Rematriation has been formally emerging for about three years and has grown exponentially in response to the COVID-19 crisis. We are currently at the prototype stage because although we are a formally registered 501(c)(3), we are currently primarily serving Haudenosaunee women. While we are inclusive of other Indigenous women, men and Two Spirit folks who may want to join us, our current cultural orientation, original content and audience is Haudenosaunee women focused. We have 1,200 Haudenosaunee and Indigenous women actively engaging our platforms. When we launch our app in June 2021, we expect an immediate sign-up up 500 women and for numbers to grow from there. Financially, we are also still in the prototype stage and are actively seeking partners interested in helping us grow our work. 

There is currently no similar networking or community app that connects Haudenosaunee women and even more broadly Indigenous women across Turtle Island. By making it easier, more accessible and faster for Indigenous women to communicate with each other we are combatting feelings of isolation and loneliness while simultaneously charting futures for our nations. The ways in which we are applying traditional knowledge and technologies to the digital space is especially innovative. For example, the ability for our women to listen to the Thanksgiving Address in 6 Haudenosaunee women, then pop over to a group discussing how to make a butternut squash or drug addiction and recovery and then tune into a live video stream interview with an Indigenous woman entrepreneur beaming in from Squamish land is unprecedented. Unlimited possibilities emerge when our women feel connected, supported and are provided with a platform where they can pitch ideas just as easily as they can consume content. 

The core technology that powers our solution is the traditional ways our people have gathered, communicated and shared knowledge for millennia. We use contemporary technologies to enhance, replicate where possible and expand our traditional ways of gathering and apply them to digital settings. As a small team, we currently use widely available and where possible free technologies to produce and disseminate our original articles, podcasts and films. Our platforms are hosted by Wordpress (website) and Honeycommb (app). We also integrate with platforms such as Vimeo, Soundcloud and Mailchimp to engage as wide an audience as possible. We are a small open-minded team eager to grow and experiment with new technologies with the intent of benefiting our communities. In the future, we anticipate our multi-media content to include innovations such as 360 degree videos, holographics, AR/VR and AI. 

Social media networks have been and continue to be an everyday way that people around the world connect with one another. Honeycommb is a growing company making it possible for social communities to customize and build their own apps. We are excited to partner with them as they grow and play a role in shaping the type of technologies that are available to use in their customized app product.

The primary risks we see are potential breaches of security that could occur in two ways. The first risk is that someone could lie on our application questions. We vet potential members before we allow them to join our closed community of Indigenous women. We ask extensive questions to ensure that each applicant is an Indigenous woman and connected to an Indigenous community. There is a risk that someone would lie, however, our questions are so unique to Indigenous cultures that it is likely false information would be obvious. Our team that consists of Indigenous women community members and leaders, takes time with each applicant to ensure each person’s identity. The second risk, is if actual security breach occurred on one of our partner platforms. This would put our women and our knowledge in jeopardy, which is why we develop close relationships with our partners and ensure that this risk is mitigated to the highest degree possible. We are also thoughtful and cautious about the type of information that is shared on our app. Even as we increase and innovate the types of information that are shared digitally among our people, we are deeply aware that some information and teachings will and should remain sacred and offline.

Our Theory of Change is that if Haudenosaunee women are provided with a confidential, digital space to gather and share knowledge then they will develop innovative nation-building solutions that will benefit our communities today and in the future. Our Theory of Change is deeply grounded in Haudenosaunee traditions and teachings and its success is tied to our understanding of the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our people and the specific ways that colonialism has created lasting trauma. Our  Theory of Change relies on the inherent authority Haudenosaunee women have within our matrilineal communities. By investing in our women and uplifting their voices, balance will be restored in our communities and the world. We connect with our women through sacred in-person gatherings, closed conversation spaces in-person and online and by attending community gatherings and events. By showing up and participating in our communities, the trust between our Sisters grow which by extension grows the strength of our collective voice and perspective within our own nations and around the world. 

We currently serve a Sisterhood of 1,200 Haudenosaunee and Indigenous women. In one year we expect that number to grow to 2,000 and we hope that in 5 years we will be serving 10,000 Haudenosaunee women. Our total population includes 75,000 Haudenosaunee women within a Confederacy of approximately 150,000. The number of women we serve will also grow even more substantially as we continue to invite and include Indigenous women from across Turtle Island and around the world. 

Our organization is extremely relational. The women who participate in our gatherings and engage our digital platforms know our team members personally or know a Sister in our collective that invited them personally. This means that every Sister has at least one person on our platforms that that know intimately and the vast majority are connected to dozens. Our digital platforms are an extension of our real-life communities which enhances the trust and vulnerability that we are able to have with one another online. 

As we scale and the number of women we serve increases to the thousands or tens of thousands, we aim to maintain the same relational and personal community feel to all of our interactions. We will always create opportunities for small groups to meet on our platforms, so the intimacy of a kitchen table conversation is never lost. 

Broad stroke social media metrics are a useful indicator for base level engagement, but we find the # of likes or post views only scratches the surface. More useful to us is the quality of comments on a post, how many women are moved to start their own discussion thread or lead a community group on our app. We are also interested in how many women stay involved in our community from year to year and how many women who attend our in-person gatherings also go on to interact with us on our digital platforms.

We are a small, grassroots team of 5 with only 2 full-time staff members. Our biggest barrier to success is the fact that our time and resources are limited. In order to scale and create the daily level of communication that we wish to give our community, we need to be able to compensate our existing staff, fund our existing and planned projects and offer stipends for relevant fellowships and partnerships as needed. 

Culturally, a barrier to our work remains the lack of awareness and representation of Indigenous peoples in mainstream U.S. culture. Narrative change work takes time and we will need to gain the trust and following of non-Native allies who are willing to learn about and support our work publicly. We are committed to building the right partnerships that feel mutually respectful and honoring, so that we can continue and grow this work in a good way. 

We will be launching a Turtle Island wide campaign to teach the public about what the process of rematriation means, what it looks like in practice, and how they can get involved. A central teaching of the campaign will be that rematriation is an Indigenous women led movement. 

We plan to engage high profile Indigenous and non-Indigenous supporters to help us spread this message. 

We have 3 board members and 5 staff members, two of which are full-time. We occasionally work with contractors as needed, but this is typically part-time and limited in scope.

Rematriation is a 100% Indigenous women-led, intergenerational team of 5 with a 100% Indigenous women-led board. Among our team, we carry the wisdom of an Oneida Faithkeeper, a formerly elected Oneida Chief, a mid-life Oneida mother, a Seneca millennial and an up and coming Diné Gen Z.

As Haudenosaunee women, we lead following the direction of our Clan Mothers, Faithkeepers and a Sisterhood of over 1,200 Indigenous women with whom we dream, grow and heal alongside. Additionally, we draw on our collective experience and training in traditional leadership, public service, law, digital media, journalism and international diplomacy to actualize our vision.

All of our original content is inspired by closed conversations that happen in community spaces we create solely for Indigenous women. This means that our work represents the heart of a group of Indigenous women committed to embracing and asserting our full matrilineal authority. We consider this to be a unique and values-driven approach to narrative change. 

Our decision-making process also includes the voices of our children, our Elders and the lessons of Mother Earth. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is bound together by the Great Law of Peace and it is this specific legacy of peace — which keeps us united to this day — that makes us uniquely capable to envision a new future for this land based in balance, equity, fairness, honesty, and integrity. Our platform gives voice to women of the oldest continuous democracy on earth, one that has existed in peace for more than 1,000 years.

Our team is committed to learning and growing. Increasing accessibility to traditional knowledge and confronting painful legacies of colonialism that continue to hurt our community members is at the forefront of our work. This often leads to challenging conversations about belonging, generational knowledge and our future as Haudenosaunee people. Our diversity, equity and inclusion work is deeply integrated with our commitment to spiritually and traditionally grounded healing. 

Outside of our nations and immediate community, we also look to engage and learn from partners, friends and allies about the equity and accessibility actions being led by other BIPOC organizations. We rely on the teachings of the Two Row Wampum belt to guide our actions and relations with the non-Indigenous world. The fundamental teaching is mutual respect and recognition that we are all traveling on the river of life together. This teaching shapes our approach to DEI. 

In addition to gaining much needed funding, we are motivated to join the SOLVE community and specifically the Indigenous Community Fellows network. We are eager to connect with other innovate entrepreneurs who are living and actualizing their visions toward a world where all Indigenous peoples are thriving. 

We are also interested connecting with the SOLVE network to see who and where you may be interested in getting involved with our national campaign around the process of rematriation. We are looking for high profile allies to speak in support of this Indigenous women led movement.