Actress is theatrical pioneer

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Alanis King-Odjig tells the creation story in a way most people in the tent have never heard it before. As a sister pounds the drum, Alanis acts as a messenger between two worlds.

"I start at the beginning of time," she said. "There is a void universe, and stars represent endless thoughts with earth, air, fire, and water creating Mother Earth. Then life comes in trees, bushes, and animals. Man is last in the order of things." Alanis is storytelling with the Manitoulin Island Dance and Drum Troupe during its visit to Sudbury's Northern Lights Festival Boreal. The festival, in its 26th year, features established artists and developing ones.

Alanis recalls the flood, the world is in chaos and conflict. She says a great cleansing was needed and that during this time the Anishnabe people carried spiritual power to survive. She talks of the clan system.

Audiences hear of the fifth and sixth fires, and how it was foretold that Native people would forget their culture, treaties would be signed as disease and greed spread. Other forewarnings told of a false face and that black robes would bring the Bible.

"It's all true. We went through the time of the Sixth Fire, my parents and residential abuse. Now the Seventh is where the young try to reclaim their heritage. It is important to teach our children who they are. People now ask us our stories and are starting to appreciate our contribution. We are most powerful in our spiritual connections to the land and spirit world."

Alanis closes her story with prophets [grandfathers] speaking of fires lit for peace or destruction.

"So we work for peace, understanding, togetherness. Our grandmothers say the earth mother is saying – ''it is up to the women to start standing up, to say stop! We can't keep harming the earth."

Much of Odjig's work deals with the history of the Three Fires Confederacy from the 1800s which included the Ojibway, Odawa, and Pottawatomi tribes.

"Linguistically they understood each other, so they united to form a stronger front. They were connected to woodlands people which includes the Hurons, Cree, Micmac, and Algonquin," said Alanis..

"Within each fire there are seven more teachings," she informs her audience. "It is how we envision the world."

"My grandmother could speak to the earth mother in spirit form," she continues. "The earth mother said - 'I am sick, hurting. You have to help me. The women have to stand up. It is time for the women to stand up. . . stand up. . . stand up!"

Strawberries are passed around while Alanis tells the audience that the fruit holds sacred significance to Anishnabe. Not only does it represent the heart in its shape, but has a strong survival factor built in to its high water content.

Then she speaks of the Eighth Fire, and what the prophets say. When that fire is lit either peace or destruction will occur with mankind.

Throughout her sharing, Alanis's voice is quiet. Few realize she is a theatrical pioneer in Native theatre, and was the first Native woman to graduate from Montreal's National Theatre School of Canada.

That distinction testifies to her abilities. The National Theatre School holds as many as 5,000 auditions, but only takes 10 new students.

While her life is one of a mother, author and playwright, she has also been artistic director for Manitoulin's Debajehmujig Theatre Group.

The presentation this audience hears and sees was first developed during her student days at the theatre school in 1990 when the Oka crisis dominated television news.

"They had a self-start program so I created projects to showcase my culture and history as a theatrical artist. I came in on a wheelchair and when Mother Earth is telling her to stand up, I stood up in a fancy shawl which was underneath my costume of an elderly woman."

Odjig said her theatrical career has been a tremendous honor and responsibility.

"I didn't know I was a writer till I started to do it. If you have a story and a will, there's a way to do it and t just takes work."

Odjig would like to see an Aboriginal music project eventually begun.

"Natives must create their own celebrations," she said. "Like francophones we must keep going after the opportunities."