Culture can be shared through artistic expression

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When Rosa John and her husband Melvin started storytelling and dancing for their children's classmates, they had no idea it would grow into an arts network connecting Native kids-and everyone else-with their culture.

The couple now head the Kehewin Native Performance and Resource Network, based out of the Bonnyville area reserve. The organization, formed in 1991 while the Johns were living in Ontario with their four children, has a long reach, dabbling in theatre, dance, literature, classroom outreach and more recently, videography and music, all available to Native communities in various ways.

"It reaches beyond age and it reaches beyond culture. It crosses all boundaries and that's what makes it such a good tool," said Rosa.

The network began humbly enough in Peterborough, Ont., where the family lived at the time.

"Where we were living, there was a lot of prejudice. One of the things we realized was that a lot of the racism wasn't just pure racism, it was because of not knowing anything about Native people.

We decided to go to our kids' school to start doing a little bit of storytelling and dance, just showing them what we do, who we are, giving them a little bit of history," said Rosa, a Native of mixed black and South American heritage. "After that, it just went like wildfire."

The Johns, both performers, soon found themselves doing workshops in schools across Ontario. "We didn't realize it was such a new thing, that this wasn?t something happening all over. We just assumed we were parents trying to help our kids."

Intrigued teachers asked the Johns to write an education manual they could use on a daily basis. The result was a user-friendly publication titled Inside The Circle. "It gives a little history to all of the things we do in our performances." That was followed by a 1-2-3 manual for Native communities on how to start a theatre group, and a children's book, Fancy Dancer at the Pow Wow.

The Kehewin Native Performance and Resource Network, named for Melvin's home, then began to branch into other areas. The original aim was to raise awareness of Native culture, but it evolved into something more. "What it grew into is a community self-help program through the arts," said Rosa.

It's a form of communication that works well; the arts offer a universal language and also reflect on the proud Native tradition of communication, Rosa noted. "It's the traditional method of teaching. It was all about sharing knowledge, remembering history. "Performance is exactly the same. When you came in from a hunt to share what happened, you would dramatize it-through storytelling, through dance, through the visual arts."

The Kehewin reserve is now home to a troupe of dancers who tour and provide workshops locally and internationally and perform at pow wows. The network also offers fine arts workshops in mask-making and other traditional art forms, as well as storytelling through theatre. Rez Roots, a video studio, and The Screaming Eagles, a music studio, are both located at Kehewin for the use of Native youth.

It's gratifying how the performance network helps Native people take pride in themselves and their roots, said Rosa. "It saves lives. A kid who was very suicidal put a jingle dress together and is now dancing. A young man who was using drugs now wants to be an actor. It allows a variance to be able to say, "My choices are, I can go out and get drunk or I can go into the studio and do four hours of music." It provides an alternative, and the more alternatives there are, the more you'll have kids who come out shining instead of dead."

The Johns make sure to use Native youths wherever possible in the network.

A 21-year-old man oversees the music studio "and is making a viable living." The Rez Roots video studio is run by a young woman, and the Kehewin dance troupe consists of people aged 12 to 26, many of them from the reserve.

The network showcases the strength of Aboriginal culture for all t l, said Rosa. "We have so much power within our culture. We can share it in such diverse ways, so let's do it."

To learn more about the Kehewin Native Performance and Resource Network log onto www.knprn.ab.ca.