Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Photo Voice, on display at the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery from January 17 to March 13, 2024.
Marjorie Kaniehtonkie Skidders, SLU ’79, MA ’90, a member of the Bear Clan of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation Territory, has a bachelor’s degree in art that turned into a 25-year career in education as a teacher, director, Indigenous content curriculum writer, and school principal. After retiring in 2007, she returned to her roots as an artist focusing on writing and photography. Her work has been acquired by the New York State Museum; Adirondack Experience, the Museum at Blue Mountain Lake; and St. Lawrence University.
Kaniehtonkie is also an award-winning photographer. Among other awards, she earned first and second place at the prestigious Adirondack Mohawk and Abenaki Art Markets in 2018 and 2019. In 2021, she had a one-woman show at the Native North American Traveling College, and in 2022, she won second place in the juried Ganondagan Museum’s Hodinöhsö:ni’ Art Show in photography. As proud Ista of four children and eleven grandchildren, she is currently the editor of Indian Time newspaper.
Image: Matrilineal Order of Haudenosaunee Women, photograph by Marjorie Kaniehtonkie Skidders. In the summer of 2023, a delegation of Haudenosaunee women traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to support the Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee at the United Nations’ 16th session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP). Easily identified by their splint backpacks and traditional ribbon skirts, they were looked upon as stalwart fighters of Indigenous human rights. Their presence at the event also commemorated the 100th anniversary of Deskaheh’s attempt to address the League of Nations in 1923.
Free and open to the public.