Artists shake off winter

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Established and emerging Aboriginal artists strutted their stuff at the 2004 Talking Stick Festival in Vancouver from Feb. 29 to March 7.

Covering storytelling to feminist theatre, film-making to political stand-up comedy, mixed-media art to live music, Talking Stick showcased the cream of the crop of Aboriginal talent and filled Vancouver with pre-spring artistic vigour.

Artists Peter Morin and Sonny Assu are young, hip and cosmopolitan-just like their futuristic regalia that was on display at Vancouver's Grunt Gallery.

Both in their mid-20s and proud urbanites, Morin and Assu draw from a fusion of intercultural experience to create a perfect blend of West Coast First Nations tradition and urban Vancouver chic.

Basing their designs on the button blanket, the young artists weave contemporary ideals and "half-breed pride" thread by thread into their versions of traditional regalia, while appropriating popular Western icons to adorn their second skin.

In a collection of three modified suits, Morin, from the Talhtan Nation near Telegraph Creek, took something that "represents everything that is wrong with Western society" and turned it into a "personal safe space, just like the button blanket."

Morin added, "You can't escape colonialism, but I'm trying to change the story for myself."

By sewing abalone shell buttons onto the suits, he proudly wears his Aboriginal heritage on his sleeves.

To create his "Rez Earth" suit, Morin skilfully smudged soil from his hometown into the fabric, creating an imprint of the crow; thus he takes a part of his favourite place with him wherever he goes.

"It's not my choice to wear the Western suit," Morin said. "It's an actuality."

"As a mixed-race person, wearing this suit is like 'putting on' my cultural identity. It's an interesting hybrid, like myself."

His other collection, titled the Skin Blankets, conveys much deeper and more sorrowful sentiments.

Lithographs of his self-portrait and the crow are imposed on crumbled and dyed mulberry paper, which resembles human skin.

"My body is a colonial landscape," explained Morin. "There's happiness, sadness, grief and pain on my skin, and I carry it with me as I move through life.

"The crow represents my culture, it's me, it's also my grief."

Assu, from the Wei Wai Kum Nation near Campbell River, also incorporates traditional images in his interpretation of the futuristic regalia. His version of the raven, however, is cloaked in the iconic red-and-blue costume of superhero Spiderman.

Assu, who makes no apologies for his "normal white boy" looks, said he grew up in the 1980s as a huge comics fan.

"I used to spend 100 bucks every two months on comics," said Assu. "Both my parents worked, so I grew up with the TV, and pop media was a big part of my childhood."

Assu identifies with superheroes who live a double life and sometimes are torn between two worlds.

"I see myself as having dual identity," said Assu. "I'm an average looking white guy on the outside, but on the inside I have very deep roots to my community and who I am as a Native person."

His work, however, has struck a cord with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike. "The hybrid artwork and my hybrid identity allow me to appeal to both sides."

Also at the festival, Richard Van Camp and Gregory Scofield took the art of storytelling to its height by entertaining, inspiring and educating an adoring audience at W.I.S.E. Hall.

Van Camp, who's been named most promising young author by the Canadian Authors Association, set the stage with a riveting performance that rivalled the best of stand-up comics, infusing the audience with the joy of growing up in Fort Smith, NWT.

"When I was a little boy, us kids were never pushed away from the table when we had guests over," said Van Camp. "It was there at the supper table, with tea and bannock, that we learned about the affairs of the heart."

From adolescent crushes to nemployment to taking a bath with a young daughter, no topic was off limits for Van Camp. His interpretation of a traditional Dogrib erotic story brought gasps and belly-laughs from the audience.

"Whenever I speak on stage, I really believe there are people in the audience who need to hear what I have to say," said Van Camp. "The stories that pass through me when I'm on stage are for them. It's a universal energy that passes through me and all I am is the conduit for whatever stories that want to be told."

Van Camp, who holds a master's in creative writing from UBC and now teaches creative writing for Aboriginal students there, said he wants students to remember that the world needs their stories. "I always tell them that their stories are valid and needed, and it's time."

Metis poet Gregory Scofield left not a dry eye in the house when he finished reading selected works from his forthcoming book Singing Home The Bones.

His poems are intended to be recited, said Scofield. "There's a lot of rhythm and music in my work, so when read out loud, it really brings the poems to life."

Scofield shared a poem that honours his Jewish heritage from a father he's never met. "As much as I write and share about being Metis, there's also this journey with finding information about my father's family. It's equally important to find the creativity there, the same way I did through my maternal ancestry."