Women of Wampum
Estimated reading time: 1:45
Across the salt-sprayed shores of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, a gathering of Indigenous women come together to rematriate wampum as a living system of justice, truth and inherent relationship.
Co-directed by Dr. Kelsey Leonard, professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Waters, Climate and Sustainability, Women of Wampum is an intimate documentary that follows women knowledge keepers as they restory wampum’s role in governance, truth-telling and intergenerational responsibility. It is rooted in reciprocal relationships with mollusk relatives and coastal homelands.
At the University of Waterloo, Dr. Leonard's research focuses on Indigenous water justice and its climatic, territorial and governance underpinnings. Leonard seeks to establish Indigenous traditions of water conservation as the foundation for international water policymaking.
The documentary follows the Women of Wampum Collective which began in 2022 with the goal of empowering Indigenous women to reclaim their roles and leadership in wampum traditions, stewardship, fashioning and treaty-making through collaboration and knowledge sharing rooted in cultural resilience and ecological sustainability. This initiative was created by women, for women, to amplify Indigenous women’s voices and perspectives on Wampum within the cultural, climate and political waterscapes of Turtle Island.
Through practices of teaching, making and collective remembrance, the film examines how patriarchal disruption, colonial extraction and climate-driven coastal change threaten not only living shores but the relationships that sustain them. It invites audiences to reflect and engage in critical conversations about environmental justice, climate resilience and Indigenous sovereignty, and the role of women’s knowledge and leadership in these spaces.
The film has been selected as an “Official Selection” and nominated for Best Subject of a Documentary at the New Bedford Film Festival with a screening on April 12 at 11:30 a.m. The film will also appear as an “Official Selection” at the Off Hamptons Film Festival, Toronto Short Film Festival and Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival. Stay tuned and follow Women of Wampum on Instagram for more screenings near you.
*Wampum refers to carved quahog and whelk shells harvested by Indigenous Nations along the Atlantic coast, woven as Wampum belts, and is a living practice that carries stories, teachings, relationships and memories, while also reflecting connections to water, land, food and community. Wampum forms the foundation of historical and contemporary understandings of sustainability for many Indigenous Nations.
