Top News - March - 2002
Casha, 3, and Ember, 11, take time to relax at the Canadore College annual powwow held in North Bay on Feb. 23 and 24.Photo: Abby Cote
A stitch in time...
Caribou Song a big success with Toronto audiences
Eco-tourism grows in remote places
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L.M. VanEvery, Windspeaker Contributor, Brantford
If the walls of the Woodland Cultural Centre museum could talk, they would relay the conversations of women quilting in a bee, chatting with one another about important issues like family, community and culture.
Fourteen quilts from the University of Michigan's larger collection of 40 quilts hang on the museum walls, each exhibiting artistry and creativity of Indigenous women of North America. They are works of art. They tell stories. They are a part of the culture of a people. They are part of the traveling exhibition, To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions. The name of the exhibition was itself stitched into a quilt that hung on a wall.
Quilting was introduced to the Native people by Europeans when they arrived on the shores of North America. Prior to European contact, Native people did not have manufactured fabric or steel needles. However, they did have porcupine quills and moose hair and were familiar with stitching in theory.
The Native people soon learned the craft of quilting and adapted it to their own communities and cultures. They incorporated cultural symbols, history and legends into the quilts they made and making quilts became a part of Aboriginal community life.
In the beginning, quilts were used as a necessity for bed, shelter and horse coverings and shawls. Later, communities used quilts in ceremonies and when honoring individuals upon graduation, when naming a baby or returning from war.
Making quilts brought the women in the community together. The time spent making the quilt was time also spent conversing, and sharing.
Relationships grew stronger from this time spent together. Valuable information was also passed between generations around the quilting rack. Individual imagination and visions began to show up in quilts. The art of quilting began to evolve in Native communities.
Hawaiian quilts were the most intricately sewn and inspired by marine life, volcanoes, flowers and Hawaiian royalty. Most consisted of a large appliqué sewn onto a fabric base with thousands of short even stitches. They were identified with a particular island by certain blossoms or colours that adorned them. It was understood that the patterns created were the property of the quilter, who created them and would not be copied.
Thunderbird Star quilts were popular with Woodland Natives because the thunderbird held an important place in Woodland cosmology. The diamond shaped tapestry of the Star quilt was most common with the Plains Indians. These were sometimes referred to as the morning star design.
Indian doll quilts were popular designs with the Comanche women of Oklahoma. Variations to this design were adopted by other nations and personalized by changing the hairstyle and clothing on the doll to suit the community.
Some quilts took two to three years of a person's life to finish. When it was finally finished and given away in a ceremony, the gift became more than a gift of a blanket. It was a gift of part of a person's life.
The exhibit is also equipped with audio of women who made the quilts discussing quilting in their own words. Nancy Cougar, a Navajo and Eastern Cherokee, is the designer of the quilt titled Eagleman 1987. The decision to incorporate an eagle into her quilt is spiritual.
"We are connected to Eagle in heart and Spirit. Eagle energy carries pure prayer to the Creator. Eagle helps our spirit fly."
Quilter, Bernyce Courtney, whose quilt, Life Between Sunsets 1985, is reminiscent of basketry design, explains why she makes quilts.
"I am honoring this culture but the culture is comforting me."
Quilting was adopted, evolved, and perfected by the Native communities of North America. It took on a new and deeper meaning in the communities and cultures that embraced it. The quilting bees of the 18th century and those of today are all represented on the walls of the Woodland Cultural Centre museum in beautiful colors and thousands of stitches. Although diverse in their stories, all shared the pride of a culture in each stitch.
The history and diversity of all the quilts speak loudly to the celebration of quilting in Native communities.
To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions runs to April 28.
Caribou Song a big success with Toronto audiences
Abby Cote, Windspeaker Contributor, Toronto
On Feb. 23 Tomson Highway's children's book Caribou Song was joined with music performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and premiered as a staged theatrical production at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto.
Caribou Song was 18 minutes long, and comprised the middle part of the one-hour Toronto Symphony Orchestra performance of Kids Klassics Oh Canada, a production of orchestral music and comedic opera aimed at families and especially children aged five and up.
This performance of Caribou Song was performed by Sandra Laronde (artistic director for Red Sky Performance) as the narrator and actor in the production, as well as her partner Carlos Rivera as the other dancer/actor.
The orchestra members were the caribou, using their instruments and feet to make the caribou come to life.
Imagine the sound of 10,000 caribou stampeding around you while you watch two people perform a mythical dance. The music and the dance sequence blended so well that you were transported to the tundra where you shared in the joyous laughter of two children as they danced to call the caribou.
Sandra Laronde hails from the Temagami First Nation. She is an award-winning performer, dancer, writer, publisher, founder and artistic producer of Native Women in the Arts and past co-artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts Inc. of Toronto.
Laronde first started work on bringing Caribou Song to the stage in 2000. The production began as a chamber piece when the Scarborough Philharmonic commissioned composer Barbara Croall to write a new work for "Ancestral Voices," a concert performed in February of that year.
Since that time, Croall and Red Sky Performance have collaborated in the creation of a new version for large orchestra and another version for touring chamber ensembles.
"The touring chamber version is written for two flutists and a percussionist and is the version that we performed in Winnipeg and Switzerland. It is very powerful," said Laronde. "We are hoping to tour this version to remote communities so that they can experience the blending of Aboriginal performers and orchestral musicians, who have come together to tell a story about a Cree family and their ties to the caribou," she said.
Barbara Croall, Eagle hails from M'Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. Croall is a former affiliate composer (1998-2000) of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and a graduate of the Musikhochschule in Munich, Germany and holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Toronto (1991) where she was the recipient of the Glenn Gould Award in Composition (1989). Her works have been performed across Canada, in Britain and several other European countries.
Carlos Rivera is of Mixteco Indigenous descent and hails from Mexico. He is a dancer, teacher and choreographer of traditional Mexican and contemporary dance. Currently he is a member of the Minotauro Contemporary Greek Dance Company, as well as director and choreographer of the Yumare Company of traditional Mexican dance. He has worked on projects in Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Switzerland and Canada.
The production of Caribou Song blends the storytelling of world-renowned playwright Tomson Highway with the theatrical talent of Indigenous dancers/actors Laronde and Rivera along with the musical composition by Croall performed by the musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Hearing the orchestra perform a portion of the traditional round dance song Only She Looks Beautiful"by the Red Bull Singers gave the round dance a full, melodic quality.
Both the 1:30 p.m. and the 3:30 p.m. performances saw an 85 per cent or better attendance, with the majority of the audience being by far from the non-Native community.
Forty-nine people traveled more than five hours by bus from Bear Island, Temagami First Nation to attend the first performance, and several others, including Sandra's brother Tommy, also made the drive to attend the second show.
Michelle Twain and her four-year-old daughter, Raven Turner, were part of the Bear Island, Temagami group.
"I thought it was good. I liked the way the music intertwined with the performance, with the dance. You could feel when the music was the caribou", said Michelle.
"I liked it," Raven said. "The best part was the Anishinabe part. I want to dance on stage when I grow up."
Delma Pishabo of the Temagami First Nation said the show was very dramatic.
"Sandra is a very good actress. I would like to see it tour the First Nation communities."
Thirteen-year-old Jayne Paul from Bear Island said that she didn't really like the lady who sang opera but "Caribou Song was cool. I liked it. The music sounded like the caribou and I liked the story."
Brad Paul of Bear Island who is 8 said, "I'm not used to this kind of music, but I liked the story and seeing Anishinabae people on the stage was good."
Barbara Laronde, Sandra's mother was beaming from ear to ear as she said, "That's my daughter and I'm very proud of her."
Although seeing a performance of this type is not the norm for many of the people from Bear Island and Temagami, they were pleasantly surprised and all of them enjoyed the show. The only criticism was that Caribou Song was too short.
With a tour of Caribou Song being planned and other pieces being developed, Red Sky Performance is hoping to bring more Aboriginal productions of this calibre to the world stage.
"What Red Sky Performance is trying to do is bring together north and south American Indigenous people. We have other pieces too that also bring north and south America together. We want to explore what the imaginative possibilities are within Aboriginal performance, because often we see something that is predictable and cliché and this is something that is really outside of that box and it moves into a whole other world that I think a lot of people don't get a lot of exposure to," said Laronde.
"To see our work in houses like Roy Thomson Hall, we deserve to be here too at Roy Thomson Hall. We should be taking up space all over the place in many other places like this. I think that this is a really important step in Aboriginal performance in Canada as a whole because it hasn't happened before. So it is like a step for all of us, not just for Red Sky Performance, not just for Caribou Song, but for everyone. It opens the door. It opens a big, big door that has been shut to us for many, many, many, many years. It is very exciting."
Eco-tourism grows in remote placesJoan Taillon, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Moose Cree First Nation
Only a few short years ago, the James Bay coast was the last place most people thought of as a tourist destination. But the industry and creativity of the Omushkegowuk, the Cree people of the James and Hudson Bay lowlands, is ensuring they get to capitalize on a spectacular upsurge in interest in their remote communities.
Europeans, especially, want to experience a pristine wilderness environment. But eco-tourism is starting to catch on at home too.
The Moose Cree band hopes to accommodate them all. They've already had experience offering customized packages to people as a First Nation, now they're moving up in scale.
They are building a $2.2 million facility, known as Wa-sh-ow James Bay Wilderness Centre. The centre will highlight Cree culture while providing a get-away destination that is as rustic or royal as individual tastes require. Construction could be completed by early September this year, subject to weather that can affect shipping across James Bay.
They've been planning this since 1993, according to tourism officer Darrell O'Connor.
"It took us a little while to have everything off the drawing board and have everything ready to approach the funding sources for it," he said.
About three years ago they had their business and marketing plans ready to submit to Aboriginal Business Canada, FedNor and more recently they've approached the Indian Affair's Opportunity Fund and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.
"Right now we're just waiting for word on whether we're going to have final financing in place to finish it off. We've got about 50 per cent of it complete."
They've already spent $1.1 million. Costs for shipping and construction in a remote area have driven the costs considerably higher than originally estimated.
A lot of people stand to benefit though. Moose Cree First Nation has about 1,700 members, about 1,300 or 1,400 of whom live on the reserve.
O'Connor said to start with, their eco-tourism venture will create about eight full-time jobs and three or four seasonal positions. The spin-off potential is tremendous.
The Moose Cree's world-class wilderness destination is located at Hannah Bay, which is 10 kilometers upstream from where the Harricanaw River flows into James Bay.
In summer, guests can either paddle down the Harricanaw, Kesagami or Katawagami rivers, or they can get to Wa-sh-ow via the freighter canoe at Moose Factory, located 75 kilometres west.
During freeze-up and break-up, access to the resort is by helicopter only.
Visitors can also get to the wilderness centre from Waskaganish, Que., 85 kilometres northeast of Hannah Bay.
In winter, skis, snowmobiles or float planes are the preferred modes of transportation.
When they get there, guests will be able to live many aspects of authentic Cree culture in a totally hands-on experience.
There's plenty of sight-seeing too, with experienced guides to introduce them to animals such as moose, caribou, bear, 160 kinds of migratory birds, as well as sea animals and abundant fish.
The 4,200 square foot main lodge will provide eating, sleeping and meeting accommodations. Designed in the shape of a goose, the wings will contain six guest rooms with room for up to 22 guests. There will be a circular west lodge to house an additional 12 guests in six rooms.
The structures will be entirely modern, with every eco-convenience built in, including waste management. Energy efficiency will be achieved through renewable wood, solar and wind energy sources.
Away from the main lodge, the Crees will build three villages along the Harricanaw River, where guests can savor seasonal activities that expose them to hunting, trapping, gathering and camp life in an absolutely authentic traditional manner.
Wa-sh-ow will be a place for energetic youth to experience retreats and for stressed-out executives to take time out or to hold their conferences. The Moose Cree people are particularly interested in bringing children from single-parent homes to Wa-sh-ow to experience the strength of the communal way of life while learning traditional skills.
O'Connor said they will look nation-wide, if necessary, to hire a general manager with experience in operating a facility such as Wa-sh-ow James Bay Wilderness Centre.
"And alongside this general manager we'll have someone from the community who will be a general manager in training. So, you know, this local person could take over in say, four or five years, once the business is up and running and its successful."
The first year they may only operate about 20 weeks. But O'Connor said if all goes well, they'll aim to stay open year-round the second year.
"We feel that the centre and the programs that we want to offer are based around the seasons, so we believe our guests would have to come back four times in order to get the full experience. Like in the fall time we'd be harvesting geese or moose. Summertime is more of a time for gathering, getting together, families at the location. There are families here who use that area traditionally for hunting, trapping and fishing.
"But summertime would offer a different experience because you can travel and use the rivers." Fall time is usually wet, cold and windy, but O'Connor said they can get them in by freighter canoe or float plane. In rough weather they can offer helicopters. In winter, there are the snowshoeing, skiing, snowmobiles "and we're looking into the possibility of offering dogsledding. We don't have anybody here locally that offers dogsledding day trips, but we're looking at maybe getting somebody interested here in the community in doing that."
