Everyone can be a singer

Page 13

There is no such thing as a bad singer, according to a member of the

Six Nations Women's Singers.

Seneca singer Sadie Buck of Oshweken, Ont., emphasized this point to

about 25 young people attending a one-day singing workshop on Friday,

May 3,.

The seminar was hosted by the Pitaa Native Dinner Show, a project of

the Red Thunder Native Dance Theatre, based on the Tsuu T'ina Nation

west of Calgary.

"If you are willing to do the job, then you are a singer," Buck told

the group as she pounded on a small water-filled hand drum.

"It's not just a concept of whether you have a pretty voice or can keep

the beat. The whole thing is you sit down and do the job the very best

you can do it."

Commitment--it needs to be 100 per cent whether people sing for their

own pleasure or as performers, she emphasized.

"The first thing is to make the decision you want to do it", she told

Windspeaker.

"Once you say, 'I want do it,' it doesn't matter if you are singing in

the shower or singing in Carnegie Hall."

Beginning May 22, the 28-member Pitaa Native Dinner Show will take to

the stage at the Howard Johnson Hotel on Calgary's south side.

Like Buck, Aroha Crowchild, Pitaa's manager and producer, emphasized it

is a performer's commitment and attitude even more than talent that is

needed.

"As long as you give 100 per cent and give from the heart, things fall

where they are supposed to," she said.

Buck stopped in Calgary for the Pitaa workshop on her way from New York

to Banff, Alta., where she planned to hold a workshop at the Banff

Centre for the Performing Arts.

Last march, the seven-member Six Nations Women's singers released We

Will All Sing, a CD collection of Seneca, Onondaga and Cayuga songs.

The group is also featured on another CD, Heartbeat-- Voices of First

Nations Women, produced by the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife

program.

Buck's talent has also put her in demand as workshop presenter to

performing groups, women's groups and culturally-oriented groups for the

past 10 years.

"For my people, when you sing...the main thing is you have to make

people want to dance," Buck told the youth. "That is what you are doing

as a singer."

As black boots and sneakers tapped to the beat of the drum, Buck

circled the two rows of singers who repeatedly sang the same sad,

beautiful Iroquois song.

"You are scared of the drum, the rattle and your feet," Buck concluded

after 30 minutes of practice. "You can't be scared of the drum and

feet."

By the end of the morning, however, after more singing, some warm-up

exercises, laughter and a rabbit dance, the young singers were bolder,

louder and more free.