Witness the Storyweaving

Vancouver Moving Theatre & DTES Heart of the City Festival
in partnership with the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre
invites you to witness

Storyweaving

Weaving First Nation Memories from the Past into the Future

A multi-disciplinary journey staged in the round.
Honouring First Nations ancestral and urban presence in Greater Vancouver.

Twining together stories, poems and personal memories
With oral histories woven from cultural teachings,
West Coast dances and the ancient bone game of Slahal.

Slahal is as old as time.
It can take everything from you
Or give you what you need….
But do we always know what we need?
The Old One steps upon his medicine wheel. Let the Slahal game begin.

 

A cast of aboriginal artists, elders, dancers and Downtown Eastside community members help an old man – The Old One – open up to his life’s journey, his regrets and hopes, through the teachings of the medicine wheel. His journey home gives voice to experiences of the urban aboriginal community, to voices not heard, to lives left behind.

Over the course of the Old One’s journey, ancestral memories emerge of the history of the Coast Salish area shared by many peoples.  Songs, dances and stories are shared about traditional roles, protocols and ways of seeing and doing.  We hear echoes of the salmon fishing industry’s decline, of families broken up by the residential school system and family members who have disappeared. And we hear stories of resilience:  Aboriginal men and women who arrived in Vancouver looking for work; the founding of the Coqualeetza Fellowship and Aboriginal Friendship Centre; and what it means to be Aboriginal today, meeting the challenges of walking in the world of the ancestors and the world of today.

Storyweaving is about giving voice to those that have lived within and around the Canadian legislation of the Indian Act.  And so many of us moved to the city of Vancouver and found a home here.  Our social justice and educational efforts from the 1950s through to today continue to reflect our passion for life, love, and harmony. Storyweaving is about our hopes for a good future, guided by the principles of our cultural past. – Renae Morriseau, Director

Featuring Bob Baker, Sam Bob, Wes Nahanee, Loni Williams, Mike & Mique’l Dangeli, Marge C. White, Jenifer Brousseau, Quelemia Sparrow, Sue Blue, Brenda Prince, Stephen Lytton, Priscillia Tait and Muriel “X” Williams.

Storyweaving is co-written by Renae Morriseau with Rosemary Georgeson and Savannah Walling, with contributions by Downtown Eastside urban Aboriginal artists and from the 2003 Downtown Eastside Community Play (James Fagan Tait and Adrienne Wong).

May 11-13 & 18-20, 2012
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm (Doors open 7pm)
Sunday Matinees at 2 pm (Doors open  1:30pm)
By donation $0-$20. Limited seating.

Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre
Chief Simon Baker Room, 1607 East Hastings Street

Event Information: 604-628-5672
www.vafcs.org

 

• Click below to view program guide as flipping book

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• Right click link below to download program guide in PDF format

Storyweaving Program

• Read reviews of Storyweaving by John Endo Greenaway and Grace Eiko Thompson in The Bulletin

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Storyweaving has been made possible with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Government of BC through Gaming, City of Vancouver Cultural Services, TELUS, BC Government Service and Employees Union (BCGEU), and media sponsor The Georgia Straight.