The Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign is pleased to announce that the short film Guswenta: Renewing the Two Row Wampum by Gwendolen Cates is available for public showings. The 33-minute film won the award for best short film at the Rated SR Socially Relevant Film Fest in New York City in March.

Guswenta features stunning footage of the 28 day paddling journey from the Onondaga Nation to the United Nations in New York City during the summer of 2013, along with powerful words from Haudenosaunee leaders including Onondaga Faithkeeper Oren Lyons, Onondaga Clanmother Freida Jacques, Mohawk spiritual leader Tom Porter, and Tadodaho Sid Hill.

“The film inspires people, indigenous and non-native, to consider our collective responsibility 400 years after the Two Row Wampum Treaty was created,” notes Freida Jacques. “We have a responsibility to heal our relationships with one another and with the Earth.”

“I was honored to work with the Onondaga Nation to create a film that brings awareness to this historic agreement and shares the powerful journey with a broader audience,” says filmmaker Gwendolen Cates. Cates is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, photographer, and author. Her photography book about contemporary Native Americans, Indian Country (2001) was a USA Today top ten illustrated book, and her multi-award-winning documentary film Water Flowing Together, a portrait of Navajo/Puerto Rican NYCB ballet dancer Jock Soto, premiered on PBS Independent Lens in 2007. 

Fees are negotiable to bring the film and speakers from the Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign and the filmmaker to present to indigenous communities, colleges, school classes and community groups. For more information, or to make arrangements, see honorthetworow.org or call 315-701-1592. The Two Row Campaign is an educational and advocacy project organized by the Onondaga Nation and the community group Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation.