Mohawk Elder Sakokwenionkwas (Tom Porter)
at Robin Hood Waldkindergarten
The Haudenosaunee Message of Peace
An Iroquois Perspective of the World
Thursday, 6 June 2019, 17:00 -21:00
Tadodaho – A Story about Good and Evil / A Historic Landmark in the History of Reconciliation. What does it mean to the modern world?
Friday, 07.06.2019, 16:00 – 21:00
The Great Law of Peace – The Haudenosaunee Constitution: Over 800 years old and still a Model for the Future
Background
Tom Porter (Sakokwenionkwas “The One Who Wins”) has been the founder, spokesperson and spiritual leader of the Mohawk Community of Kanatsiohareke (Ga na jo ha lay gay) located in the Mohawk Valley near Fonda, New York since 1993. He is a member of the Bear Clan of the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne. (Akwesasne, also known as the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, straddles the New York State/Canadian border near Massena, New York.) He is married to Alice Joe Porter who is Choctaw, and has six children.
Tom "Sakokwenionkwas" Porter has been a nationally recognized figure in Indian Country since the 1960’s when he co-founded the “White Roots of Peace”, a travelling university of Indigenous Elders who toured North America with traditional teachings and encouraging Indians to embrace their respective Native traditions. Recognizing that Mohawk language and culture were dying out, he also co-founded the Akwesasne Freedom School. Tom is recognized nationally as a compassionate, humerous and inspirational speaker. As an educator, Tom has taught at the Akwesasne Freedom School and Trent University and has worked as a cultural researcher and consultant for the North American Indian Traveling College.
For 21 years he has been one of the nine chiefs of the Longhouse Council of Akwesasne, the traditional government that follows the “Great Law of Peace”, the confederacy’s constitution which was in existence for centuries long before Europeans came to North America. Members of the confederacy are the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora. The Six Nations of the Iroquois call themselves Haudenosaunee – People of the Longhouse. Their matrilinear clan system and their constitution has influenced the early feminist movement as well as great thinkers like Henry L. Morgan, Friedrich Engels and Benjamin Franklin.
Tom Porter is the author of many books, among them “Our Ways” and “And Grandma said”. He has received numerous human rights and education awards and holds three honorary doctor degrees.
Event Details
Place: Waldkindergarten Robin Hood, Dietzgenstr. 66, 13156 Berlin (Entrance from the Courtyard)
Costs for both days: 55 Euro, reduced price tickets 40 Euro. Individual Workshop days: Tadodaho – A Story about Good and Evil – 25 Euro. The Great Law of Peace – 35 Euro
Please RSVP per Mail by 05.06.2019 to robinhoodwald@gmx.de
Please Make a Bank transfer labelled with your first and last names and the event name to: Waldkindergarten Robin Hood, GLS-Bank: DE 10 4306 0967 1158 417900
We will eat together in the evenings. Please bring something for the Potluck. Thank you.