She:kon, Ske:nen.

Hello, greetings.

My name is Dawn. I am an Indigenous person of Turtle Island. My nation is Mohawk. I am currently a student in the Queens-Trent concurrent education program. I hope to teach my language, Kanienkeha, to my community and possibly become a graduate student.

I am really interested in culture and languages when travelling. I research and study the connections between Indigenous nations, land and language. When I travel, I hope to experience the culture of the places- not a persona that media, marketing, and resorts put on.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am fairly new to this. It was recommended to me through a friend who travelled in Europe through couchsurfing.

I am open to meeting up, staying at other places, sharing a couch, stories, and food.

Interests

Reading, hiking, adventure, adrenaline, learning languages. concerts, learning about cultures, storytelling, poetry- spoken word! and karaoke :)

• culture
• poetry
• concerts
• education
• dining
• running
• reading
• traveling
• karaoke
• spoken word
• hiking
• communications
• teaching
• languages
• medicine

Music, Movies, and Books

City and Colour, Florance and the Machine, Lenard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, anything really

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Spent a month in Mexico studying and researching about corn with Gutavo Esteva at the Universidad de la Tierra, Oaxaca. Now I'm running a corn project at my university (Trent in Peterborough Ontario) where we are growing and hand-pollinating Non-GMO corn seeds that were kept in storage for over 25+ years. This upcoming spring 2016 will be our second growing season and last year we had a 90% germination rate. Revitalizing traditional Indigenous corn seed that hasn't been tainted or disturbed by GMOs is so exciting to me

Teach, Learn, Share

Sharing stories and hearing Indigenous stories or stories that have connection to land. Sharing language- I believe knowing the deeper meaning of language and the stories that can relate to one word is truly amazing and, I believe, is a way to connect on a deeper level.

i.e. the word "kanonronkwa" (I love you) comes from the word "ohnonkwa" (medicine). So in my culture, to love someone is to give them good medicine. And also because I am a teacher, the word "senoronkwake" come from medicine as well but means "a love for language" or "a love for learning" #translationsareweird

What I Can Share with Hosts

I have two couches (I live with 4 other roommates who are open to guests)
I can share stories, food, laughs, language and a good time

Countries I’ve Visited

Greece, Italy, Mexico, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada