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radiantfracture(Imperfect Offering is a series for Indigenous History Month about Indigenous authors and storytellers who have meant a lot to me and to the students I teach.)
(Photo Credit Doug Griffin; Picture from Toronto Star Archives, Toronto Public Library)
Kahentinetha Horn
Kanien’ke:haka Bear Clan, Kahnawake
1940-
Activist, civil servant, fashion model, storyteller
Listen, do you know about Kahentinetha Horn? Because if you don’t, you need to.
In all the informational entries about her scattered across the Internet, she’s listed as an “activist, model, and civil servant” in some order. “Advocate, troublemaker, revolutionary” might work, too.
Here, this is from an article by Lisa Gregoire at the Carleton Newsroom: “Horn was a successful fashion model in the 1960s, but it wasn’t enough. She used her fame and political clout to overturn just about every well-set colonial table of oppression she came across.”
My favourite way to get to know more about her is to listen to the podcast she made with her daughter, actor and broadcaster Kaniehtiio Horn — Coffee with My Ma.
There's this one episode, "Ma Steals Larry the Cree Baby, Surviving the 60s Scoop." I assign this story in Indigenous Literatures and Oratures because it is a perfect story — it’s about the resourcefulness of and mutual care between Indigenous women, the love of community, and triumphant resistance to horrifying tyranny — and Horn also manages to be hilarious, which is some feat under the circumstances.
Horn does that thing Daniel Heath Justice asks for — she tells stories that (unavoidably) involve oppression without making them stories of lack. In her story, Horn is young and she’s broke, but she’s not helpless — she’s incredibly resourceful, and she creates community wherever she goes.
I'm following a thread here. Basil Johnston cites Horn as a cultural force at the beginning of “Is That All There Is?” And “her career in fashion involved daily modelling at the Canada Pavilion during the Expo 67 World’s Fair in Montréal,” according to Library and Archives Canada. And all this ties into the next profile...
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* * * * * *
Note: Horn’s name is also spelled Kahn-tineta on some sites, but I’m using the spelling she and her daughter use on the Coffee with My Ma site.
(Photo Credit Doug Griffin; Picture from Toronto Star Archives, Toronto Public Library)
Kahentinetha Horn
Kanien’ke:haka Bear Clan, Kahnawake
1940-
Activist, civil servant, fashion model, storyteller
Listen, do you know about Kahentinetha Horn? Because if you don’t, you need to.
In all the informational entries about her scattered across the Internet, she’s listed as an “activist, model, and civil servant” in some order. “Advocate, troublemaker, revolutionary” might work, too.
Here, this is from an article by Lisa Gregoire at the Carleton Newsroom: “Horn was a successful fashion model in the 1960s, but it wasn’t enough. She used her fame and political clout to overturn just about every well-set colonial table of oppression she came across.”
My favourite way to get to know more about her is to listen to the podcast she made with her daughter, actor and broadcaster Kaniehtiio Horn — Coffee with My Ma.
There's this one episode, "Ma Steals Larry the Cree Baby, Surviving the 60s Scoop." I assign this story in Indigenous Literatures and Oratures because it is a perfect story — it’s about the resourcefulness of and mutual care between Indigenous women, the love of community, and triumphant resistance to horrifying tyranny — and Horn also manages to be hilarious, which is some feat under the circumstances.
Horn does that thing Daniel Heath Justice asks for — she tells stories that (unavoidably) involve oppression without making them stories of lack. In her story, Horn is young and she’s broke, but she’s not helpless — she’s incredibly resourceful, and she creates community wherever she goes.
I'm following a thread here. Basil Johnston cites Horn as a cultural force at the beginning of “Is That All There Is?” And “her career in fashion involved daily modelling at the Canada Pavilion during the Expo 67 World’s Fair in Montréal,” according to Library and Archives Canada. And all this ties into the next profile...
{rf}
* * * * * *
Note: Horn’s name is also spelled Kahn-tineta on some sites, but I’m using the spelling she and her daughter use on the Coffee with My Ma site.
