just a really expansive kind of conversation that can happen from planting a seed in the dirt."

At each step of her program, Whyte cultivates traditional Mohawk teachings on life cycles, relationships, identity and even sexual anatomy.

She tells me, humblingly, that her three-year-old daughter "can name every single part of a uterus."

And most kids in her parenting program can probably boast the same anatomical prowess. In one of the activities, parents and children, armed with cloth and thread, sew stuffed uteruses, identifying the tubes, layers and lining as they go. "My little one can tell you what happens in the uterus, where it's located, and how important it is. And that knowledge leads to using language like 'my body is mine.'"

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For Whyte, it's about instilling teachingsfor young Mohawk parents, but she's also reclaiming traditional ceremonies and teachings.

"Your body is framed as this gross negative thing and that stigma carries on for generations, so it's like trying to break that and reclaim and re-integrate our female ceremonies," she says.

Recently, Whyte's parenting group was part of a ceremony in a moon lodge that celebrated a women's moon time – or, in Western terms, her period. The lodge is made of a frame of willow branches and covered in cloth and blankets.

Participants sing songs and speak words to honour the moon and celebrate being a woman. Traditional and modern teachings are shared through ancestral stories that carry lessons about roles and relationships. Outside of the lodge, a sacred fire is lit and kept ablaze by a