First Nations Friday

On Friday afternoon we were trying to figure out what to do for our Something Saturday, and then we found out about Spirit Song:  A "fundraising gala showcasing aboriginal talent such as drummers, singers, dancers and throat singers". We were immediately intrigued.

For only $25 each, we were treated to a plethora of great performances, as well as aboriginal cuisine and crafts during intermission.

It started off with an opening prayer and the Smudge ceremony, which purifies and cleanses the space with positive energy. Then Eastern Owl took the stage for the first time. They're a group that performs First Nations drumming, and many of the songs have been passed down by elders, although one of the songs they performed was written by one of the members of the group. The song sounded fairly traditional, but there were a few English phrases incorporated. It's refreshing to see that the group is not only performing traditional songs, but also writing new songs in that style.

Then Solomon Semigak took the stage and first performed Inuit drumming, followed by throat singing in the second half of the show. The Inuit drumming differed from the drumming performed by Eastern Owl in that he was moving the drum around in a circular motion while he was playing/singing, whereas they were stationary. You can even tell from the picture:

Unfortunately his partner was sick and unable to perform so he completed both acts solo, even the throat singing. Traditionally, throat singing was performed by Inuit women while the men were out hunting, and it was seen as more of a breathing game than music. Whichever person ran out of breath or laughed first was the loser. It was interesting to see his demonstration, but it would have been great to see two people performing together.

Then Terrence Littletent took the stage with some Cree drumming and singing, along with a dancer wearing a jingle dress.

After that, a couple of women came out and demonstrated some fancy shawl dancing. The thing that we really enjoyed was the fact that the dance didn't seem to be choreographed, so it seemed very natural. 

After an intermission of tasty aboriginal treats (including seal meat, which we didn't try), Eastern Owl took the stage again, but were joined by the jingle dress and fancy shawl dancers. Most of their songs seemed to follow a call and response pattern, which is common in First Nations drumming.

Then came the grand finale, of sorts. Terrence Littletent, world champion hoop dancer, came back to the stage to show his skills. If you're curious about what hoop dancing is, according to Wikipedia "Native American Hoop Dance is a form of storytelling dance incorporating anywhere from one to 30 hoops as props, which are used to create both static and dynamic shapes, or formations, representing various animals, symbols, and storytelling elements. It is generally performed by a solo dancer with many hoops." 

But he didn't only hoop dance, he hoop danced in black light to techno music! We thought it was really interesting how it doesn't seem as if the people in the show are just preserving their culture, they're also modernizing some aspects to make them more relevant and keep their culture going.

Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures during the dance, but this is a picture of him setting up.

The show also happened on Saturday night, but we couldn't go then because we had our first Social League curling game of the season! It was far from a resounding success, but we all had fun and we're aiming to score at least one point next week.

Here are a few more pictures from the show: