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On April 20, The O’Shaughnessy was filled with riotous laughter and thoughtful reflection as three women shared anecdotes and insights at the world premiere of The Aunties, a contemporary Indigenous storytelling series. Justice Anne K. McKeig ’89, JD (White Earth Nation), Lyz Jaakola (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), and Sandy White Hawk (Sicangu Lakota) took to the stage and spoke candidly about career, family, romance, justice, music, and their variegated life paths. 

The event will be a part of a documentary series produced by  featuring stories by Indigenous matriarchs from multiple locations across the country. Previously, The Aunties hosted storytelling events in Santa Fe, New Mexico (Traditional Tewa [Tanos] Territory); Olympia, Washington (Squaxin Island Territory); and Bellingham, Washington (Lummi Nation).

With The Aunties, The O’Shaughnessy wrapped up its 2023–24 season with a program inspired by St. Kate’s Integrated Learning Series' recent theme of Indigenous thought leadership.

Sparking important discussions

Ahead of the event at The O’Shaughnessy, artists in residence Andre Bouchard, director, producer, and founder of Indigenous Performance Productions, and Sean Eve, a writer and producer of The Aunties, were on campus for a grant presentation with St. Kate’s public health department. Bouchard and Eve shared their experience of effective grant writing with students and discussed the intersection of art and health in the nonprofit sphere. 

The public health department also collaborated with the O’Shaughnessy to host a discussion between Sandy White Hawk and Aunties director Kendra Mylnechuk Potter as part of the weeklong residency. The women discussed art, storytelling, and healing in social justice movements, particularly from their perspective as Indigenous adoptees. 

Potter talked about how statistics can sometimes impart truths, such as the pain of separating children from their family and culture, in a more meaningful way when they are paired with stories and art. “We hear numbers and it’s very difficult to absorb that information, and to understand impact in the same way,” Potter said. “To see the family in response at reunion, or hear the family talk about the removal, and see the impacts that the tribe had when the child comes back — and the utter confusion and identity crisis — you say, ‘Oh, this is the downstream impact of policy’ in a way that’s very difficult to understand when you’re just looking at statistics.”

White Hawk agreed that stories have a special power: “Stories and experiences are meant to impact your heart, help you be self-reflective, maybe even give you some courage to make a move of some kind in your life.”

Caring for the next generation

Student Sofia Vanderlan ’26, a member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and co-founder of St. Kate’s Indigenous Student Alliance, opened the keynote event with a welcome and a land acknowledgment, recognizing that St. �������� sits on the ancestral homelands of the Dakȟóta People. Kendra Mylnechuk Potter, member of Lummi Nation, theater artist, and director of The Aunties, introduced each of the storytellers. 

Minnesota Supreme Court Justice McKeig spoke first, sharing a humorous and poignant story of her journey from Federal Dam, Minnesota, to her role as the first Indigenous woman on any state supreme court — including an entertaining anecdote about setting her mother’s lawnmower on fire. She shared the doubts she experienced after being nominated and how she came to find her niche in the role. 

“What is my value? What do I add to the court?” McKeig asked herself. “I really care about kids. If I only focus on one thing in my career, it’s that I want to leave things better for kids.” This mission was solidified by a tour of a prison she took after becoming a district court judge, during which she saw a young man she had known when he was a kid. She saw how the world had failed this young man, who had entered the child protection system after being abused as a child and had passed through 17 different placements before ending up as a juvenile delinquent. Punitive structures and a lack of resources and support kept him in and out of the criminal justice system. McKeig kept in touch with him: “He needs, deserves, and desires to have somebody care for him — so I will continue to do it.” 

Her concern for others, especially children —  implanted in her by watching her own parents care for others — was something she could contribute to her profession, and to the world. McKeig finished by asking the audience to acknowledge children: “Let them know you see them and care about them.” 

Sharing stories through song

After McKeig, musician and educator Jaakola took to the stage with her guitar and hand drum. Jaakola, whose Native name means “The Lady Who Knows How to Sing Well,” alternated music and storytelling. She told the audience about growing up with a large family, including her own “aunties” who were women who “knew how to get things done.” Being all together, Jaakola shared, was particularly important to her family because her great-grandparents and other relatives were taken away from their homes and sent to boarding schools as children, a legacy of separation that has impacted generations of Indigenous families.

While most of the women in her family were healthcare workers, Jaakola turned to music as a healing art. She sings and drums with a group of women and also plays in a family band. She spoke about how music helped her practice using her voice, which she also uses now as a Cloquet City Council member.

On stage, Jaakola performed songs in both Anishinaabemowin and English. One of the songs, fittingly for her visit to St. Kate’s, was called the “Strong Women Song.” She said, “It’s to acknowledge that together, strong women can get through anything.”

Finding love and community

The final speaker of the night was Sandy White Hawk, founder and director of . White Hawk touched on her youth as a child who was separated from her Native family and adopted out to white missionaries, sharing some of the difficulties that followed during her life, a path that included abuse, addiction, divorce, and eventually sobriety, reconnection with her Lakota family, and advocacy for Indigenous families. 

But largely that evening, White Hawk’s stories painted a vivid picture of the rewarding life she has shared with her husband and fellow activist, George McCauley, who she met in her early fifties. Though it took several meetings at various conferences across the country before the couple got together, they have now been together almost 20 years. White Hawk spoke with humor about how their relationship propelled them both to confront fears and flaws shaped by their pasts. McCauley, who was in the audience that night, stood up at the end for a lively round of applause.

The event ended with a Q&A moderated by Mary Kunesh ’95, Minnesota state senator and member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. McKeig, Jaakola, and White Hawk answered questions submitted by audience members and shared advice for people finding their own paths: “Always trust your heart,” White Hawk advised. “Your heart has more wisdom in it than your mind ever will.”

Photos by Rebecca Zenefski Slater ’10