Meet Alex, Lisa, Renee, Beth, Barb, Jaime, and Amanda

Meet Alex, Lisa, Renee, Beth, Barb, Jaime, and Amanda. Together, they make up the Seven Roots Rising Collective, a group of seven Indigenous women from Six Nations, Ontario, who came together as intergenerational creatives, storytellers, learners, knowledge carriers, and healers. The women carry connections to several Haudenosaunee and Indigenous nations and clans: Alex is Cayuga Nation, Wolf Clan; Lisa is Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan; Renee is Mohawk Nation through her father and Cayuga Nation through her mother, and is Bear Clan; Beth shared that her mother was Cayuga and her father was Mohawk, and that the government identifies her as Mohawk and she is Wolf Clan; and Jaime is Delaware, with connections to Mohawk, Cayuga, Delaware, and Oneida. Together, these women bring different family histories, identities, experiences, and relationships to the land into one shared journey.

Their journey has brought them across Upstate New York, traveling through their ancestral homelands and following the path of the Peacemaker, an ancient Haudenosaunee story about a man who traveled across the Confederacy more than a thousand years ago, bringing the nations together in peace. Now, the women are retracing that path while telling the story through a perspective that has often been overlooked: the perspective of women. At the heart of their journey is Jigonsaseh, the woman within the Peacemaker story whose role has historically received only a small part of the story. Through their journey, they hope to bring her voice forward and share the strength, wisdom, and history of the women who helped shape their people.

For these women, each place they visit carries its own story and connection to their ancestors, including Howe Caverns. The cave is significant to their history because their ancestors used caves such as this as places of refuge and hiding while Indigenous people were being displaced from their homelands and facing the destruction brought by warfare and settlers. Standing inside the cave today gives the women an opportunity to reconnect with a piece of the land and remember the people who came before them. Their journey is about much more than traveling from one destination to another; it is about returning to the land and reconnecting with the places their ancestors once called home.

They spoke passionately about their responsibility to care for the Earth, water, air, animals, and all creation. Along their journey, they have noticed animals appearing around them, including an eagle and a blue heron, which they view as meaningful reminders that they are walking a path connected to something much greater than themselves. They also spoke openly about the painful history carried by these lands, the displacement of Indigenous people, the destruction of resources, the wars, and the ways their history has been erased from places that were once their homelands.

Their journey is also deeply personal. Through genealogy, some of the women have spent years uncovering family connections and learning about ancestors whose stories were nearly lost. One spoke about tracing nine generations of her family before discovering an important connection to a female ancestor, ultimately realizing that her journey was about more than determining which nation she belonged to; it was about understanding who she was. Others described learning to trust their intuition, dreams, visions, and the feelings they believe connect them to their ancestors. They spoke about trauma, loss, addiction, sobriety, identity, and the difficult process of learning to use their voices. One woman described reaching a point where she had to release the pain she had carried so she could make room for healing and better understand the messages she felt she was receiving. Their stories show that reconnecting with your roots can be more than discovering where you came from; it can be a way of discovering who you are and who you have the power to become.

What makes the Seven Roots Rising Collective so powerful is not only the story they are telling, but the connection they share with one another. Their lives had crossed through family, friendship, ancestry, loss, and years of shared experiences in ways they never could have predicted. Together, they are carrying forward the stories of those who came before them while creating space for Indigenous women to be seen, heard, and remembered. Their message is one of healing, responsibility, unity, and hope: protect the land, honor the ancestors, listen to the wisdom that has been passed down, and remember that the future belongs to the generations still to come. They are not simply retracing an ancient path; they are carrying their history with them and making sure the stories that once went unheard have a place in the future. Thank you so much for visiting