Haudenosaunee women are reclaiming traditional teachings around their periods

Haudenosaunee women are learning traditional "moon time" teachings so their daughters can approach their menstrual cycle with support instead of stigma. 

Prompted by a need for increased health support and education in her community as well as her own personal struggles with her moon time, Sateiokwen Bucktooth started Snipe Clan Botanicals in 2018 and is sharing her knowledge by providing workshops.

Bucktooth is a traditional ecological knowledge teacher from Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, on the Ontario-Quebec-New York state border.

"I had a really rough moon time every month," she said.

"It was pretty uncomfortable and it affected my quality of life so I started really delving into what types of plants I can use to help support my reproductive health."

She said raspberry leaf, stinging nettle, chamomile, hibiscus and yarrow are her go-to herbs to help to ease menstrual symptoms. 

In addition to education, engaging youth through activities like botanical scavenger hunts, Bucktooth said her workshops normalize talking about reproductive health so these types of conversations can become more common.

She said people who menstruate who learn to better understand their bodies can then advocate for their own health at the doctor's office, for example.

"Most times it's the moms who are willing to share because the young girls are still a little bit uncomfortable talking about the details of a menstrual cycle," she said.

"I like to bring that up so it becomes almost normal for us to discuss these things out in the open and not that it's a dark, bloody secret that we can't really share."

Bucktooth said the response so far has been great and there's requests for additional workshops that follow the whole journey of reproductive health from menarche into perimenopause and menopause.

Facilitates mother-daughter talks

Steevi King brought her daughter Kanekanoron Lazore, 12, to a workshop she helped organize in Akwesasne last year.  

She said it provided a space for mothers and daughters to discuss and celebrate reproductive health through Haudenosaunee teachings.

"As a mom, I want to give the things that I didn't get when I was her age," King said.

"I kind of just had my mom and my aunties there to help guide me and nobody talked about these things and it was almost kind of like shame behind it. My moon time was shameful."

King said she didn't want her daughter to feel that way and wanted her to feel guided through this sacred time in her life. 

"I just wanted her to love her body. I wanted her to not be blindsided by it," King said.

She said the workshop made it easier for them to talk about it without feeling uncomfortable.

King said she's also empowering herself by relearning these teachings.

"We have people who are showing us the way and bringing back [teachings] and putting that love and that empowerment onto our young girls and even women my age," she said.

Lazore said Bucktooth provided them with little packets of herbs and taught them how to prepare teas for their moon time. Although she hasn't had her first period yet, she said she feels more prepared and comfortable talking about it now.

"It definitely does make me feel, like, weird about it but it's all right because it's how Shonkwaia'tíson [Creator] made us," she said. 

"It might be weird, but you'll definitely thank whoever taught you that for whatever actually comes. Then you're not freaking out."