Sewatokwa'tshera't - The Dish With One Spoon

Directed by Dr. Dawn Martin-Hill 2007 Haudenosaunee Confederacy 75 minutes On February 28th, 2006, a dedicated group of Six Nations women set in motion a series of events that would forever alter national and international consciousness about Indigenous land rights. Backed by Haudenosaunee Chiefs and Clan Mothers, they took a stand to prevent further encroachment and environmental damage to their territories by reclaiming land near Caledonia, Ontario, Canada. This documentary provides an overview of the principles of the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace, early treaty arrangements verifying Six Nations' long-standing relationships to lands in the southern Ontario region, and subsequent nation-to-nation agreements made between the Crown and the Six Nations Confederacy. In 1923, Cayuga Chief Deskaheh journeyed overseas to expose the Canadian government's illegal dispossession of Six Nations lands, monies, and the forced removal of the Confederacy governance at Grand River. Beginning in 2005, three young women re-energized this 200-year long conflict when they approached the Confederacy and Elected Council to oppose the development of a housing project on disputed lands adjacent to Six Nations. The story of this ongoing struggle is told here by those who live it every day - the Haudenosaunee people of the Grand River. Hear them express their responsibility to the earth as is laid out in the 1701 Wampum Belt, "Sewatokwa'tshera't" (The Dish With One Spoon) and why they had to take a stand yet again for the generations still to come.