Kasennisaks: I'm Looking For A Name, A Mohawk's Woman Story of Survival
Apr. 20—PLATTSBURGH — Emily Kasennisaks Cecilia Stacey channels familial oral history, lived experience, and epigenetic memory in a multimedia work she co-created with director Julia Devine at SUNY Plattsburgh.
Stacey steps into into her power as storyteller in a portrayal of herself in "Kasennisaks: I'm Looking For A Name, A Mohawk's Woman Story of Survival," 7 p.m. today in Krinovitz Recital Hall located in Hawkins Hall.
"So for the first time in life, I'm able to tell the stories of my ancestors and the people who came before me," Stacey said.
"I think this is something that generations before me wished they could have done and never got the opportunity. I think something lined up for me to be able to do this. I think that my parents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents would be very proud that I have arrived."
BACKSTORY
Born and raised in Plattsburgh, Emily, 41, is the oldest daughter of Thomas Taronhata Stacey and Guadalupe Andrea Vanderhorst.
Her sisters are Erika Kairhoktha "She ends a message or word" and Evita "She has two canoes" Stacey.
Her children are Emilio Stacey-Mora, Valerie Stacey-Patrie, and Robert Stacey-Patrie.
Her grandparents are Edward and Valerie (Cross) Vanderhorst, and Harry and Cecilia (Foote) Stacey.
Emily attended Broad Street Elementary School, and while in the 4th grade, her teacher, Brenda O'Neill gave her books on the origins of America and Native Americans.
"In 1992, was the first year that my parents said we could be really open with people who asked us what we were," Emily said.
"Because of the influence of the government on both sides, the United States and Canada. My father was very afraid. Very afraid. My mother respected that."
Tom is a survivor of a Canadian residential school as were more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children, according to www.globalnews.ca
"So even though we did things like tree plantings, people just shook that off as us wanting to learn about another culture," Emily said.
"They didn't necessarily see us being Native little girls. They didn't. Even when my Dad went to the City Council about his fishing license and his rights, they didn't take him seriously that he was a Native. It was very easy to slip under the rug."
Emily described her life here as hard.
"Very difficult," she said.
"I never felt like I fit in. I always had to work very hard. There's a quote that I was going to include in the program, but opted to take it out, Russell Means (Oglala Lakota activist), he said, I'm paraphrasing, that 'American Indians have to work twice as hard in half the time.'
"That's my life. Not stealing the quote, just relating to it. That's me. I've always had to struggle. I've always had to fight. Never being good enough. Being always overlooked for something, and then people think, 'Oh, why aren't you trying hard enough?' It's not about trying hard enough, it's about you not being inclusive of people who have a right to be here just like you and afforded the same opportunities. I speak like you. I can think like you. I can be like you. But yet, I'm still not you."
TEEN MOM TO COLLEGE GRADUATE
Emily said she was kicked out of Plattsburgh High School because she was pregnant with her first born, Emilio.
"I got my GED and two weeks after I got my GED, I enrolled at Clinton Community College in criminal justice because I said there's more than one way you can skin a cat," she said.
"My oldest son's father ended up leaving, so I ended up having to become a single mom. Then, I quit college and I had to work. I ended up having a couple of more kids."
In the Plattsburgh City School District, Emily started to share and teach about her Mohawk culture.
"I read the book from (Chief) Jake Swamp, 'Giving Thanks.' It was an honor to read that because of the relationship that my parents had with Jake and Judy. That was great, so I could educate the community. I started that about 2004, and I stopped about 2011."
Emily held a few jobs here and there, until in 2017 she decided to finish her degree.
"I've been running ever since," she said.
"I went to Clinton Community College to finish what I started."
Emily received her associate of applied science degree in criminal justice, and then attended SUNY Plattsburgh to earn a 2021 bachelor's degree in criminal justice.
"I was an adult learner," she said.
"That was challenging. It was something that I wanted to have. Since I was 8 years old, I wanted to have my degree in criminal justice. My kids were getting older. I had more time. I could focus on that, so I did. It's something that I wanted for myself, so I did it."
WHERE ONE SCOOPS WATER
Emily met Julia while working on the Tsi ietsenhtha/Plattsburgh Art Project sculpture park at Peace Point.
Tsi ietsenhtha (Gee Yeh Jon' Ta) is the Mohawk name for Plattsburgh, and it translates as "where one scoops water."
"Emily and I struck up a friendship," Julia said.
The Tsi ietsenhtha/Plattsburgh Art Project wanted to do more events and things bringing awareness to Native American culture in our midst, that' we're still here. So, we applied for a grant for this piece."
The co-creators received a 2022 Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts Community Arts Grant.
"We started meeting about this time last fall," Julia said.
"Emily has so many stories. We had to pare down the stories that we were going to use and see how it worked. We started rehearsing and meeting in February. We gradually gave a shape to the piece.
"It's a new experience for me working with a non-actor because there's not always the repeatable process. You're not always saying things the same way. Nor should Emily because it's organic. It's coming from her heart. It's coming from in the moment."
"The key points of interest, my mother had a sister who was murdered, then my mother's sister's daughter was murdered, my cousin was murdered," Emily said.
"So, I talk about murdered and missing Indigenous women. I touch on them. I talk about the residential schools. My dad being in a residential school. His mother being there. It's coming out more now than it was before. I discuss about how that affected us.
"I talk about cellular DNA, which is a teaching of the Mohawk people, how we carry trauma through our DNA, more specifically mitochondrial DNA. I talk about how we carry that with us even if we don't think so. Even if we tried our best, there's just something that's there and sometimes something can trigger it and pop up again, which I think is very relatable to everybody. How you know things, how you feel things, but never experienced them. There's a reason for that, and I touch on that in this."
The multimedia work features music by the Akwesasne Women Singers, Chenoa Egawa & Alex Turtle, and Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tanya Tagaq.
"We sort of giving a map of where we're going with the transitions," Julia said.
"We start together with unity, a journey. When you walk in, you're going to receive a rock and some white pine. They are supposed to help ground you during the piece but also the rock comes from the dirt just like Sky Woman with the muskrat.
"Emily is going to tell a little bit of the Creation Story, and the white pine is the Tree of Peace. We are going to call upon everyone's ancestors. Emily wants to really make a connection with everyone. Emily will call some women up on stage to drum with her, and then that's the transition into Emily mentions that before she can share her story she has to share her family stories."
Emily will share family stories, recall residential school trauma, and transition out of that into more personal stories of her experience here.
"And then closing out on a hopeful piece and the idea of seven generations and a call to everyone how will you choose to live," Julia said.
Julia, a lecturer at the college, reached out to the Theater Department and the Truth, Racial Healing & Campus Transformation Center to collaborate on this project.
"They are doing a storytelling circle at 5 before the piece, if people want to go to that in the HUB," she said.
"And then, they are going to moderate a Q & A after the performance. It's such a great name because the piece in a sense you are looking. You are searching."
"I talk about how I got the name at the Longhouse," Emily said.
"How there was an argument."
"This is new for Emily," Julia said.
"I've never done this before," Emily said.
Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
Twitter@RobinCaudell
