Talking Stick Cabaret: Blends traditional & the contemporary

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"How do you carry your traditions and how do they influence your work?" is the question posed to Aboriginal artists in the upcoming Talking Stick Cabaret. The two-evening event, to be held on June 22 and 23 at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver, attempts to combine the Native tradition of the talking stick and the Western convention of the cabaret to address the fusion between the old and the new.

"The notion of a talking stick is to honor and respect the creative aspirations of each individual person," said Margo Kane, artistic director of Full Circle, a First Nations performing arts society producing the event. "When you have the talking stick, you have the floor, and everyone listens and respects what you have to say," she said.

"But we also recognize that we have Western influences," added co-curator Daina Warren, "so we're trying to bring the contemporary and the traditional together and see what comes of it."

The performances will include music, dance, poetry, singing and lots of storytelling. Confirmed performers include contemporary dancer Michelle Olsen, Sechelt Elder and storyteller Barbara Higgins, Arawak storyteller and musician David Campbell, and theatre by Keriann Cardinal, Tanina Williams and Tasha Faye Evans.

The cabaret format allows these artists to experiment with new ideas and draw from a variety of art forms.

"Some might have called it a talent show," said Kane, "like the ones we have in the community hall on the rez."

"We want it to be an event that people are excited about and happy to be a part of," said Warren.

"We want to bring different performance communities together, so they start to talk to one another and bounce ideas off of one another."

Kane and Warren have auditioned a number of Aboriginal artists who submitted their original work addressing the central theme of the event. Many of the submissions draw on the artist's family traditions.

"There's a lot of honoring of their grandmother's stories and songs. It's very prevalent in the performance," said Kane. "This tells me that First Nations artists are really rooted in remembering their traditions, and they are attempting to get a real handle on their roots through role models."