My Name Is Kahentiiosta

My Name Is Kahentiiosta

| 29 min
Free
streaming

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This short documentary by Alanis Obomsawin tells the story of Kahentiiosta, a young Kahnawake Mohawk woman arrested after the Oka Crisis' 78-day armed standoff in 1990. She was detained 4 days longer than the other women. Her crime? The prosecutor representing the Quebec government did not accept her Indigenous name.

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My Name Is Kahentiiosta, Alanis Obomsawin, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

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Credits
  • director
    Alanis Obomsawin
  • producer
    Alanis Obomsawin
  • script
    Alanis Obomsawin
  • executive producer
    Don Haig
  • camera
    Jean-Claude Labrecque
    André-Luc Dupont
    Susan Trow
    Roger Rochat
    Zoe Dirse
    Sylvain Julienne
    Alanis Obomsawin
  • animation camera
    Raymond Dumas
    Pierre Landry
    Jacques Avoine
    Lynda Pelley
  • sound
    Raymond Marcoux
    Ismaël Cordeiro
    Hans Oomes
    Alanis Obomsawin
  • editing
    Ruby-Marie Dennis
  • sound editing
    Don Ayer
  • re-recording
    Jean-Pierre Joutel
  • music
    Claude Vendette
    Francis Grandmont

  • None

    A courageous people!

    None, 18 Jun 2021
  • LuvinJesus2

    I was at McMaster University taking the Addictions Counselling Course and there were many natives there. On one Sunday, when the crisis had first begun, we all met for prayer. We kept praying daily till the course ended. I rejoiced when it was ended...I spoke about it in my classes (I taught ESL) and the kids all loved 'Lasagna'...this is one of the saddest moments in the 20th Century of Canada, and I am disgusted that Canada's army had so little respect for the members of a nation within our nation. That the judge balked at using any other name but an English name is pure bigotry. I am so happy she stood up to them and did not back down. A name is important. 'They already took so much from us', was a good reply. (tears) Trish

    LuvinJesus2, 5 May 2013
  • aukjesreflections

    I remember as if it were yesterday - the day the Oka Crisis ended --- I was on the way to a Reserve in Alberta -where I was working--listening to the radio - had to stop the car and weep -- weep for the courageous acts, for the deaf ears, and for the need of people who had defended their land to go back and look after families and life... This film brought it all back --- it also gives it such a hopeful spin. Thank you.

    aukjesreflections, 7 Jan 2012

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