a home

more from amanda pereira. please see part one back on april 25th.

 

 

2) What compelled you to gather support for Native Earth?

 

When the professor of my Indigenous Resistance in Global Context class (Guy Letts) recommended that we not only think about the things we were learning, but actually go out and do something about what was happening in our world, I couldn't have been in more agreement with him. Throughout the school year I had this unsettling need to do something; I hated the kinds of things I was learning had happened, and are still happening, to Indigenous peoples around the world. At first, I wanted to do everything...restore stolen land, return stolen children, abolish stereotypes and unfair biases, rewrite laws to benefit everyone...but I knew I had to find a focus. I thought the best place to start would be to start with what I know: performing arts. Performing arts has changed my life, and given me a kind of spark to persevere when things are difficult. What an incredibly wonderful and magical gift theatre has given me, everyone should have the opportunity to receive the same gift. Upon my researching, this is when I found Native Earth Performing Arts. To this day I cannot say exactly what it was that compelled me to this company, that kept my gaze on the website. In looking around Native Earth's Official Website, there seemed such life, such movement, and such inner peace. In reading more about the company, I truly admired their 7 values and the goals they presented. Upon meeting with Native Earth's Yvette Nolan and Ulla Laidlaw, there was such a presence of kindness and strength; even being in the beautiful inspiring office I felt that I was in the midst of something exceptional. They were resisting Indigenous oppression by giving Indigenous peoples a home to tell of their culture and their stories, collectively and individually - I loved that. In speaking more with them, I knew I wanted to support Native Earth in any way that I could, and I knew I had to give it all I had.

 

meegwetch, amanda.

-writing by amanda pereira

No bedtime for democracy!

Share the knowledge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpye1sa2y-I

By Craig Lauzon

instant family

last month, York Uni student amanda pereira brought a heap of folks in to see the NEPA/red diva projects Tombs of the Vanishing Indian. most of those people were new to NEPA work. amanda also took it upon herself to fundraise a substantial amount of cash donations to NEPA.

 who IS this magical woman, you ask? 

over the next few days, i offer you some insight into how such wonders can happen, here on earth. 
i posed a few questions, and amanda took them on.

1) Why is Native Earth work for everyone?

Although Native Earth Performing Arts presents stories of an Indigenous basis, I do not believe only Indigenous peoples can enjoy these stories, nor do I believe they are put on only for Indigenous peoples. In raising money for Native Earth, I brought a group of 30 classmates of all different backgrounds to Tombs of the Vanishing Indian. Despite our multicultural histories, I heard the same thing from everyone: how powerful the show was, how beautiful the presentation and style, how important the message, how magnificent the performers were...whether they were Indigenous or not, none of us could deny the brilliance of the piece. Furthermore, I believe Indigenous stories are ones every person living in Canada, living on Native land, should be familiar with. Borrowing from the words of Ward Churchill, if you are living on someone else's land, you ought to learn about those people and perhaps why it is no longer their land. I believe in doing nothing, one is actively participating in the oppression taking place against Indigenous peoples, and so these stories told by Native Earth include everyone! It is my duty, I believe as a non-Indigenous person, to familiarize myself with these stories, and direct others where they can learn of these stories as well. The stories of Indigenous culture told by Native Earth I believe are stories of North America before it was deemed North America and about what has happened since this land has been deemed North America. In that sense, the stories include and encompass everyone. The pieces of art presented by Native Earth are ones that can be enjoyed and learned from by all peoples.

amanda's words conjure up the text spoken by the character "Ruth" played by michelle st. john.

"As a practice, you should always know whose land you're walking on."

                                                        Michelle St. John and Nicole Joy-Fraser.        photo by Nir Bareket

-contributed by Amanda Pereira and Tara Beagan

Thompson's Highway to Hell...for Native Theatre!!

 Watch this video first.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SghnqacuVs

I felt a single glistening tear spill from my duct and slowly make its way down my high cheekboned face as I came to the sad realization that when you are right, you are right, and these guys are right. I mean how couldn’t they be right, right? They are R.H Thomson and Paul Thompson, you don’t get more respected in theatre in Canada than these guys are; let alone Native theatre. Right? While I was sitting at the opening of Métis playwright Marie Clements’ aptly named Tombs of the Vanishing Indian co-produced by Native Earth Performing Arts and red diva projects, I thought the same thing. No one and nothing relevant is happening in Native theatre, not in years.

This litter strewn hillside that is Native theatre, will, no matter the efforts of Native Earth, red diva projects, Saskatchewan Native Theatre Centre, Full Circle: First Nations Performance, Cheyikwe Performance, Red Sky Performance, Kaha:wi Dance and Alberta Aboriginal Arts never amount to anything. Not even Kenneth T. Williams who in the past eighteen months has had shows like Thunderstick, Bannock Republic, Three Little Birds, Gordon Winter and Café Daughter produced from the Yukon (Gwaandak Theatre) to Ottawa (NAC) can save it. I also thought about how futile meager works like Dreary and Izzy, Quilchena, free as injuns or any of the other 16 plays written by Dora award winning playwright and new Artistic Director of NEPA Tara Beagan have been. I have no idea why companies continue to produce Annie Mae’s Movement by former NEPA Artistic Director Yvette Nolan. Don’t even get me started on Kevin Loring, Alanis King, Drew Hayden Taylor, Darrell Dennis, Daniel David Moses and The Turtle Gals. Why is all this effort put into these festivals like Weesageechak Begins to Dance or the Talking Stick Festival when nothing worthwhile is being produced?

Without an Avatar or Dances with Wolves-like white male to champion our cause how will we ever be important again? Where are you Jake Scully? Why have you abandoned us John Dunbar? Please help us…what was the guys name in Little Big Man again?  Cue the tomahawk music: duuuuuu, du, du, dudu, du, dum.

- Contributed by  Craig Lauzon 

OPEN

Monique Mojica, Gail Maurice, Cheri Maracle, Denise Bolduc, Wanda Nanibush, Laura Milliken...

Last night was a who's who of powerful indigenous women at the opening night of the Native Earth Performing Arts and red diva projects world premiere of Tombs of the Vanishing Indian by Marie Clements.

the show is on until March 27 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Many shows are now sold out, and word of mouth will kick that into high gear, so book now!

Marrow-deep

This week I was lucky enough to escape from the office and watch a run through of Tombs of The Vanishing Indian which opens on March 10^th at Buddies in Bad Times. I wasn’t sure what to expect having not read the script since its workshop at Weesageechak XXI, back in 2009.

I was blown away with what I saw; under the direction of Yvette Nolan the performers on stage weaved together the tale of three sisters torn apart so beautifully that I forgot that I was sitting in a rehearsal hall surrounded by old props and costumes. Instead I was taken into their personal dioramas and shown the lives of those before us.

The topic is not an easy one. It places the audience in 1973 America, in a time when the government was still intervening “for the good of the Indian” in how we raised our young, educated ourselves and how we chose to live. During these times of involvement the government sanctioned sterilizations of Aboriginal women, relocated whole communities, and continued the removal of children from their families to “kill the Indian in the child”. All of these scenarios seem outside of the realm of possibility to many of us now, but to the 3 million plus Aboriginal people living in North America it is very real.

I am always surprised at how little Canadians know about their history. In grade 10 social studies I was made to memorize all the prime ministers of Canada but not once did they mention residential schools, or the people who were on this land long before the founding of the nation. I was an Aboriginal student who didn’t really know my own history. All I knew was the history that was part of my families’ story.

My grandparents were sent to residential school; 6 out of 10 of their children were sent to residential schools because this would help integrate them into society and make them upstanding citizens. Instead what this did was create a great disconnect from those before us. We lost our language, our rituals and our sense of belonging to this land.

Now my generation is here and we are finding our way back to some sense of belonging but these stories, like Tombs of The Vanishing Indian, are deep within our marrow. In order for healing to happen both within the community and in this country we need to share the stories and acknowledge them and grow as a group because no matter how hard we try to push past this we can’t, we can only grow with it.

The history is in us.

-Contributed by Isidra Cruz

Young Voices 2011

Preshow! The seats in the audience are filled with new playwrights, experienced mentors and friends, fans of new theatre or dance, loads of support. A contagious enthusiasm fills the space. Two weeks earlier, the actors began reading drafts of each Young Voices play. Each script is the work of some brave fledgling: “New Plays by Emerging Aboriginal Playwrights” a headline might read.

A brief thought; is there something about an Aboriginal designation? Is it necessary? Yes we are proud. But who fills the audience tonight? Are they intimately tied to Native Earth or have they wandered in from the public? Does every Canadian go to shows like this? every Turtle Islander? Attending some great meeting of our aged and ageless family… No time to think, a discussion better left to the essayists, for this is a blog, and the show is about to begin! 10 minute excerpts,  also new dance works and spoken word to be shared. All the young artists worked very hard in order to give the audience their best work. Some danced hard. Some wrote long into the night. Some travelled from afar in order to participate. All are here to share now, and the show begins.

Lights up and the stage is littered with the papers of old script versions, editions of work now grown and changed. The territory is acknowledged in respect, and then actors enter the stage to begin their story. This is no tame staged reading. Two of the actors lay head to head, close to the audience, quietly, intensely showing their link to each other. Others wobble like caricature versions of drunken parliamentarians in Early Canada. Another sits quietly in the black depths, at the rear of the stage, ready to contribute his action, at the point in the story where he is needed. Everything is clear and apparent, simple yet deep, and the playwright is watching from the audience with bated breath. The story is shared and the audience applauds, then they ready for the next piece.

Weesageechak is the trickster, the creator of the world, Coyote perhaps, and he is to thank for bringing us this evening. With the hard work of the festival office, the generosity of funders, and the creativity of all, we are gifted with an evening of newness. Weesageechak is likely delighted. We see stunning play excerpts, seven in all. The plays are well on their way, wherever the writers wish them to go. Two vibrant, provocative dances entice the audience to ask for more. An Inuk poet slams his truth for all to enjoy, and take from his words what they will.

After the show, as is Native Earth tradition, there is snack, and people stay to visit. There are questions and congratulations for the playwrights, dancers, and performers. New viewpoints brew in the minds of the audience, hopefully new understanding about the diversity of our people for those who did not know. The transfer of knowledge and changing of generations occurs before our very eyes. It is a strong night for the Weesageechak Begins to Dance Festival. Strong enough, so that when everyone there goes home and sleeps, come morning they shall all find something new.

A chick is hatched from an egg. An arrowhead, long buried, is exposed by the night wind or the paws of coyote, coyly crossing the dark field, kicking up dirt and dust with no regard. Any of these could bring change: the plays, the dances, the truths; but somehow, in the imaginary field of snow and wintered grass and dirt, at dawn, something is there that was not there before.

-contributed by Intern Acting Apprentice, Rob Hunter