Top Stories - August - 2001 Published August 20, 2001 Heritage Days Festival Dallas Arcand, 22, who performed Aug. 5 at the Heritage Days Festival in Edmonton, has been dancing for seven years and always ranks high in international events. Photo by Inna Dansereau Alexis youth experience their traditions to a new beat Saddle Lake artist designs sculpture for children Native entertainers rock the Worlds This is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the August 2001 issue of Alberta Sweetgrass. If you are not receiving your own copy of Sweetgrass, then you have missed out on a lot. Alexis youth experience their traditions to a new beat Inna Dansereau Sweetgrass Writer Alexis First Nation A special night for residents of the Alexis reserve and their guests included a meal and entertainment in a very unusual atmosphere July 5. The doors of the Alexis First Nations Hall were shaded so that no outside light would get in through the thick glass. A few minutes would pass while people's eyes adjusted to the darkness and they could identified people and subjects. Drums formed a circle around microphones in the centre of the hall. Above them hung a large metallic construction of modern disco lights. Red, green, blue, yellow - they playfully blinked on dancers' faces. On a large screen, scanned images of memorable pictures from people's albums changed continuously. Some of them were glorious moments of junior hockey games. Some were just faces of people's loved ones. "This is all done for the first time ever," said Rob Alexis, one of the organizers, with obvious satisfaction in his voice. "It looks very different, modern." This atmosphere should attract younger generations of the First Nations to traditional gatherings, he said. "Our younger people are more into Madonna than powwows. Now we have the technology. The slide presentation brings you back to the roots, shows the honor in your family and presence of cultural values," said Alexis. The show was organized by the Logan Alexis Singers, who raise money by singing at graduations and other social functions. Rob Alexis said they keep money in a bank account to use it later for their creative ideas and community gatherings. "It keeps us going, sober and happy." The dance with lights and slides cost about $5,000. Most of the money went for renting the equipment. The singers also hired camera people to film parts of the event and the participating youth. They want to make a video. "Maybe a half-an-hour special - sort of Indian rock & roll round dance," said Alexis. The idea of setting up the lights and the slide show for this round dance belongs to Rob's brother Eugene. He is a DJ. Once he set up music in an arena for a hockey tournament. Then he decided to try it at the dance. Dwayne Alexis said they used to do the round dance every weekend, but it was tiring and very much work. "We should try and do the dance with disco lights annually. It's very original." Top

Saddle Lake artist designs sculpture for children Joan Taillon Sweetgrass Writer Edmonton A $35,000 sculpture entitled Buffalo Mountain will be placed in W. C. "Tubby" Bateman Park in early September. The Strathcona Park and Playground Redevelopment Society received a grant for approximately half the cost from the Alberta Foundation of the Arts to commission an interactive, climbable sculpture for the playground. The idea is to make art more accessible to children. An independent jury consisting of representatives from the city, the community, and artists unanimously chose "Buffalo Mountain" from 23 submissions from Alberta artists. The winning artist, Stewart Steinhauer, is from Saddle Lake. The jury did not know whose work they were judging until after the voting. Steinhauer's sculpture, which he provided in miniature to the jury "was by far and above the best submission," according to playground society president Mildred Thill. "As far as I know this will be the first sculpture in definitely the city of Edmonton, probably Alberta, probably Canada that conforms to current children's playground standards and is a sculpture intended specifically for children. But it is an artistic work that has a lot of appeal for adults as well." Steinhauer says he started carving after the birth of his first child in 1973. He said he was "so in awe of a woman's power to create that I - imitation is what it's called. . . . When I look at the roles that Creator has given men and women, it puzzles me that women have been given so much work and men so little." Therefore, he said, "I as a man feel obligated to do whatever I can to contribute to building society." That's the only way he can explain how he got started. "There's nobody around here who carves," said Steinhauer. "I had no exposure to so-called art or sculpture." He said the day after the birth of his child there was a little piece of tree root on the ground, he pulled out his pocket knife and started whittling by the fire. "Before that I'd say I was completely atheistic, and I would say I continued to be completely atheistic for a good many years after that on a conscious level, but there I made this little carving and it was somehow spiritually linked to my new child. Even though on a conscious level I would deny that; I remember feeling that." Later on, Steinhauer added, "quitting drinking and getting into the sweat were pivotal experiences, just like the birth of a child; and I think that I launched into a period of carving there that would be at least 10 years. . . . It was like a cathartic thing or a healing. If I would get into trouble or something traumatic would happen, I didn't know how to talk about it and get it out that way, which is really simple and probably the best way to do it. But at that time all I had was carving, so when I look back at that period, I see each piece represents some attempt on my part to let go of some hurt." Those pieces have added up. "In my commercial period, it's been over a thousand (pieces)" said Steinhauer. Outside of that, he estimates he carved 80 to 100 in the first 17 years "just trying to release something." In 1991 he had his first commercial exhibit at West End Gallery in Edmonton. Most of his work is in a smaller scale in soft stone for indoors, but in 1999 he won a competition in Banff for "outdoor placements throughout the townsite." Thill is very excited that Edmonton children will enjoy Steinhauer's work every day. "Child accessible art should not be an oxymoron," said Thill. "Children should have access to art like anyone else. Instead, they are constantly told, 'Don't touch that,' and 'Get off of that.' This will be the first playground in the City of Edmonton to have a sculpture specifically designed for children to climb over and around." Top Native entertainers rock the Worlds Paul Barnsley Sweetgrass Writer Edmonton The week-long entertainment venue operated in affiliation with the IAAF World Track and Field Championships set aside the night of Aug. 7 for Native performers. A good-sized crowd had a chance to see and hear some of Alberta's better musical talent. Rita Coolidge topped off a three-hour show that featured mostly country music. Coolidge performed after a long list of Albertans had made their appearance on the outdoor stage at Kinsmen Park. Edmonton-born Métis singer Jess Lee and the Golden Spiritwind Band were the first act, appearing after the show started with a grand entry by traditional plains powwow dancers who were accompanied by the River Cree Singers. Lee, who picked up a Juno Award album of the year nomination in 1996 for Sacred Ground, performed four original songs, including fan favorite, The Bingo Song. The Creeland Dancers, a group of young Métis jiggers from Saskatchewan, followed Lee. Then Nathan Cunningham showed off his powerful singing voice by covering a couple of Garth Brooks tunes. Cunningham was followed by the "Blackfoot singin' Cowboy" Eldon Weaselchild. Weaselchild noted the size of the crowd. "Geez, it looks like we've got an Indian version of Woodstock," he said. "Red-stock, I guess." He delighted the crowd with his idea of the perfect country song, incorporating mamma, dogs, pick up trucks, prison and other familiar themes in his own extra verse of the country standard, You Don't have to Call Me Darling, Darling, as the Homer Poitras Band ably followed his lead. Two established Native recording artists rounded out the evening: Alberta's Priscilla Morin and Saskatchewan's Lorrie Church. The event was attended by Senator Thelma Chalifoux and actor Tom Jackson as well as senior executives of the Royal Bank, the event's corporate sponsor. Top