Tálukhowané Kawyhuhatáti - An Indigenous Way of Knowing and Being

Abstract

This capstone project initiates developing a culturally grounded interpretive plan for Duck Creek, a waterway central to the Oneida Nation's landscape, identity, and cultural memory. Rooted in Indigenous methodologies, place-based theory, and Haudenosaunee worldviews, the project centers on listening to community voices, reclaiming land-based knowledge, and supporting cultural revitalization. The project explores the waterway as a living entity with ecological, spiritual, and intergenerational meaning through site visits, interviews, and collaborative fieldwork with community members and knowledge holders.

This capstone project offers insight, research, and partnership as a prerequisite to building a process and context for community members reconnecting with Oneida culture, history, and language. I do this by focusing on relationship building, storytelling, and embedding a Haudenosaunee lens applied to the deliverables—conceptual design elements of a walking trail, interpretive displays, and a framework of guiding principles that can inform future programming and partnerships across tribal departments. The plan emphasizes cultural themes of connectedness to a biome, urgency for language revitalization, storytelling as an Indigenous methodology, and art for social change to foster healing, reflection, and education spaces. Through a lens of stewardship and relational accountability, the project advances a vision for community-centered heritage interpretation that honors Oneida values, histories, and futures.