On this dynamic episode we welcome back award-winning Auntie/Film Director Paige Bethmann (Mohawk/Oneida) to discuss what film looks like when it is led through our Onkwehón:we/Haudenosauenee ways of knowing, being, and doing. Paige is the director of the 2025 breakout film REMAINING NATIVE - which premiered at SXSW and won both Audience and Special Jury Awards there.

REMAINING NATIVE, a coming-of-age documentary told from the perspective of Kutoven (Ku) Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner, struggling to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete as the memory of his great-grandfather's escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present, and future.

We first spoke with Paige in 2022 just as she was uprooting from her native New York to Nevada. She spent more than three years in Reno to document Ku’s journey into adulthood, and also embed herself with the community and the reality of life on the land. In 2023, REMAINING NATIVE had been selected to participate as one of the four films in the Sundance Institute Edit and Story Lab.

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Indigenous Women’s Leadership with NMAI Director Cynthia Chavez Lamar and co-hosts Kahstoserakwathe and Taiawentón:ti'

It’s an Awesome Auntie co-hosting collaboration this month as Taiawentón:ti' Chelsea Sunday (Kanyen’kehà:ka) joins Kahstoserakwathe to visit with Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Director Cynthia Chavez Lamar (San Felipe Pueblo, Hopi, Tewa, and Navajo).

Cynthia is the first woman director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, including its three locations in Washington, D.C., New York City, and the Cultural Resources Center in Maryland.

Taiawentón:ti' and Kahstoserakwathe first met Cynthia last summer at the 2025 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Taiawentón:ti'’s land-based language revitalization organization, Ionkwahronkha’onhátie’, was one of four groups featured for their language, place, and ways of learning. Kahstoserakwathe was there co-producing a documentary about their work.

When Cynthia came to visit the group on the National Mall, Taiawentón:ti' noticed her openness and the path she has taken as an Indigenous woman in leadership. That moment sparked this conversation.

In this episode, the three talk about leadership, creative direction, and building institutions that remain accountable to Indigenous communities.

Cynthia is a curator, author, and scholar whose work focuses on Southwest Native art and collaborative practice with Indigenous communities. She has served on national arts and cultural boards, including the Institute of American Indian Arts and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development and the New Mexico Arts Commission.

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The Aunties Dandelion Season Five begins with a full house, a generous conversation, and stories grounded in land, memory, and care. Last fall at the Cambridge Public Library, Kahstoserakwathe moderated a sold-out evening with celebrated author and media creator David A. Robertson of Norway House Cree Nation. This was TAD's first episode recorded with a live audience.

Together, they explored how land shapes emotional health, how identity unfolds through writing, and how family stories guide us across time.

David is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Literary Award, recipient of the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and the Writers' Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award. In this conversation, he shares tender memories of his father, Dr. Donald Robertson, a pioneering educator whose influence continues to shape his work and life.

We also speak about David’s powerful six-part podcast Kiwew (S/he returns home), which became an unexpected and moving tribute to his father after he passed away during its creation.

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