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Oneñhohgwa' (Corn Soup), 2009, digital video

Oneñhohgwa' (Corn Soup) is a short Native American documentary regarding the importance of maintaining tradition as it evolves, challenging and rejecting the dominant society's notion and understanding of time as linear. Oneñhohgwa' examines the cultural and spiritual significance of corn soup for the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse), specifically the Onondaga Nation. The minimal use of an audio track emphasizes the roles of listening and patience in a traditionally oral culture, while parallel themes of nature and family reinforce their prominence in such a cultural and spiritual tradition. The spiral or circle is also a thematic element that binds all acts from the planting, tending and harvesting of corn to the caring, raising and instruction of children in this most important tradition. Oneñhohgwa' is a shift away from the dominant culture's representation through the lens, which provides a Native voice and perspective on one of the most significant cultural traditions for the Haudenosaunee. Oneñhohgwa' is an important step toward cultural preservation of the seventh generation in such a traditionally oral culture. The use of digital video comments on the anthropological and ethnographic approach often utilized to portray Native Americans by the dominant culture. Oneñhohgwa' is a Native perspective which is inclusive and not distanced by the need to study its subjects, instead digital video allows for a subjective Native lens and not a quasi-objective anthropological or ethnographical interpretation. Credits: Jeanne Shenandoah, narrator.

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