The Annual Akwesasne Freedom School Quilt Auction
Photo: Akwesasne Freedom School
The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne is an avid supporter of the preservation of Mohawk Language and Culture. The Akwesasne Freedom School is featured here because they are the ones who started this brave path to preservation of our language. An immersion program exists under the Akwesasne Mohawk Board of Education for elementary grades and is gaining great success.
The Akwesasne Freedom School has been holding an annual dinner and quilt auction now for approximately 20 years. This has been our yearly fundraiser and dinner where we say thank you for all the support that the community has given us. The event has been organized and put on by the parents of the school.
Many beautiful quilts are highlighted during this event. Every year we have one outstanding quilt made and donated by the Peicemakers quilting group of New Paltz, NY. For roughly the past seven years this group has been bringing a quilt to the auction. One quilt titled “Creatures Great and Small” was purchased for $3,000 to $5,000. Not all quilts are auctioned off at such prices, on average our quilts are priced at $500 - $1,000.
For more information about quilts and their care you can check this website: http:// www.rmqm.org and follow the links to quilt care and other valuable information concerning quilts.
The annual dinner is usually started with a tobacco burning at sunrise with a couple of our staff and parents in attendance. As vendors and people come in we start the event off by giving thanks to the natural world with the Ohenton Karihwatekwen. With this we ask for a safe event for all of our visitors and supporters.
During the day people can walk the grounds of the school and talk with parents of the children attending the school. This a great way to get to know the people who made the school happen and what kind commitment it takes to keep such a unique school open for the children and the future of the community.
All in all the Annual Dinner and Quilt Auction is a great way to spend the weekend and also a great way to support a very worthwhile cause.
History of the Akwesasne Freedom School
The Akwesasne Freedom School is a model for any Indigenous people who are concerned with losing their language, culture and identity. The school was formed to help the Mohawk Nation become strong again, by focusing on the young people. Our survival is dependent on the understanding of the old ways and preserving the knowledge that is passed down from grandparents to children. We want to help nurture strong, spiritually, physically, and emotionally healthy people who will eventually become the leaders in our community.
Through knowledge we can gain a better understanding of the traditions and values that our elders have preserved for generations; values such as self-respect, community, and kinship with the natural world. Our language is taught thematically, based/patterned on the Ohenton Karihwatekwen (Thanksgiving Address or Words Before All Else). The language is learned through speaking, singing, and eventually writing and reading.
English is taught in the levels 7 & 8 to ease the transition into the public high school systems. This transition class will bring our students to a level equal to that of academic standards of other schools.
The Freedom School is not like other schools in the community, whereas subjects are taught set to a specific time frame. Here the subjects are taught in a holistic manner with no time frame restrictions. The Freedom School strives to keep our traditions and culture alive by bringing them into the classroom as everyday activities. We are hoping that this will in turn be welcomed into the family and the home. Encouragement for the children to speak at home is a must in order to have the language gain a foothold. Reinforcement of the language is the most important part of the survival of the language.
The knowledge that our students learn is parallel to what the children are learning in the other schools in the community. With the Kahswentha (Two-Row wampum) in mind, our students are learning subjects that are relevant to our culture and traditions. For history, our students learn when the Onkwehonwe leaders of our nation, instead of the presidents and senators of the united states. In the social aspect of academics our children learn how our government runs, who our chiefs are past and present.
