Composer creates unique style

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R. Carlos Nakai, Native composer and educator, blends both talents during performances as he introduces cultural traditions and instruments to audiences.

Nakai has developed a unique musical style utilizing traditional flute instruments that combines his study of 'Western Asian' theory and practice with his own cultural research. (Some archaeologists and anthropologists believe Indians in the Americas migrated over a land bridge between Asia and the far north thousands of years ago, before the two continents were separated by the ocean.

The haunting sounds emanating from the mellow sound of bone, cedar and ceramic flutes are a composite of his study into traditional music and instruments from other tribes.

One type of flute he plays is a combination of the pipe organ, a European invention prior to the 1500s, and the flaeolet, a small end blown flute.

Nakai discovered the inside workings of Native traditional flutes were equal to the design of European instruments but were used on this continent long before Western Asian settlement.

"I have found that in both south and central America, our whistles and flutes were made out of ceramics with very intricate working with air chambers, etc. and so the practice and application of these sound-producing mechanism, in these cultures, were so highly developed we couldn't possible be a 'new' arriving culture from Asia.

"The traditional design, it's like a tipi, there's no way to improve on it, other than the fabric," he explains.

His fascination for wind instruments dates to his school years as a cornet player and later on as a symphonic trumpeter. This thirst for experience, knowledge, exploration and history of his own traditions has shaped a personal philosophy drawn from a rich individual history.

Nakai studies American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona and lectures throughout the U.S. on how to survive the cultural transition from reservation to university life.

He has combined years of self-study with the Kiowa, Blood and Cheyenne and his own people, the Dine (Navajo), with the exploration of other cultures establishing an importance between past, present and personal histories.

It is through the understanding of history and the discovery of other cultures that we learn how we fit into things, he explains.

"You must acknowledge your history. It is this knowledge that makes what our ancestors did important and assists in knowing yourself."

Living in Tucson, Arizona on the edge of the Sonoran desert has given Nakai a different perspective on American attitudes. He sees that "people are coming to Native people to see if there's a way to deal with the environmental situation, deal with the political situation, social situation - the problem is, they are coming with the colonial attitude and they are coming with a pretty skewed philosophy on how the world is organized."

According to Nakai, it is unfortunate that the exploration of Native traditions comes from the "generalized federal and governmental history" rather than the recording of personal histories. He sees that through the understanding of personal histories there could be an awareness and that could lead to a change in attitudes.

"In my culture, it's always been said, you can't dwell on the past, or fix it because it has happened already, so why worry about it, why deal with it? The primary recognition of a people is to look to the future not to continually look back to what was and wish they could bring it here. The survival of the country as a whole depends on everyone working together, rather than fighting."

"People (Western Asians) came with the motivation in mind...social subjugation. It is no longer necessary. What we have to do is go beyond it."

Nakai promotes the need to learn from old cultures and traditions and from that understanding and knowledge, make the necessary choices for change.

"What I am promoting is learn what it took to get you here, learn from those old philosophies, skills and mechansms they used to survive."

The first step in survival is to know yourself, who you are and how you got here.

"Self awareness, personal history is how you can obtain that personal knowledge.

"Every person out there has a history, and that's an important history. Go within is important. I call it a personal responsibility."

Connected to that responsibility is the feeling of self-respect.

"You're still here, I always tell people.

"There's a shadow behind them of time, of all the time that human beings have been on the plant.

"That shadow extends backward, a shadow of history, of being a time traveller

and now it is time to find that story and shadow and feel good about it."

For Nakai, his music, research and education are ways of bringing the old oral tradition up to date.

"It's time to create a new story...writing your own story and stressing the importance of being a human being."