Traditions are already an import part of our lives here at Native Earth. Our peoples are steeped in Tradition…especially our Traditional ones. Eeiin, just kidding no for real though. Well at this 24th edition of the Weesageechak I think that a new Tradition has been started thanks to our Aotearoa cousin and at this point new brother David Geary. He started off the festival with singing a song and Tara ended it with one. I think that we might just be seeing that again. I was lucky to be in a workshop of Darrell Dennis’ new piece with David as Dramaturg and he started every session with a circle and a song.
Each and every piece that was presented at the festival had tremendous experience and absolute freshness about it. I was in love with the range of ages that we had onstage this year. People learning just by being in the room with each other and the writers being inspired by those people breathing life into their words and characters.
The theme at Native Earth this season is “All My Relations” and it really did feel like family at Weesageechak. Like a Sunday dinner only on a Tuesday..Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Haha. Since I first set foot in offices at NEPA I was made to feel welcome…like a long lost brother; familiar and unfamiliar but always embraced as a brother. Things have changed a lot since those early days for me here, but one thing that hasn’t is that sense of family. I think that the thing that I loved the most about this year’s festival was the return of those that for one reason or another had not been back in quite some time and the inclusion of those that thought maybe there was no place for them here. There is and always will be.
To All My Relations...miigwetch, miigwetch, chi-miigwetch.Bamapii! (cue the music)
Contributed by Craig Lauzon
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