We are the Archaeology Unit at the  Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, we created the Onkwehónwe website, through the worldview of the Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawà:ke. The Onkwehónwe website is part of the Digital Registry component of the Tiohtià:ke Project. It is a digital collection of artifacts, specifically Haudenosaunee Pottery Sherds, which will be expanded to include more pieces from more regions, across North America.

We produced this digital database to benefit our future generations and to maintain our cultural values related to Ancestral artifacts. It can be used to further Indigenous research and projects. This digital database endeavor has never been done, so the sharing of knowledge gathered from archeological sites and collections have been limited to researchers and scholars. We would like to share this knowledge with the greater public and to have an inclusive digital database that was made by Indigenous peoples for Indigenous peoples; to build healthy relationships between Indigenous communities, scholars and researchers, through the acceptance and understanding of Indigenous worldviews regarding our own cultural heritage, the artifacts of our ancestors. This tool will benefit the next generation in education and promotes stronger visual understandings of the history that has been written on our cultural heritage. The Onkwehónwe website has made us the predecessors for generations to come, from our community, other Indigenous communities and the greater public of Canada.

We would like to acknowledge the Anthropology Department at the University of Montreal (UdeM) for providing the space to photograph the collections, and other partners in the Tiohtià:ke project: the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, and Pointe-à-Callière Museum of Archaeology and History.

We would also like to acknowledge financial support of the Government of Canada, under the Museum Assistance Program, to help fund this project.