There’s a Secwepemc Traditional Storytelling Extravaganza this Friday (March 23) at the St. Timothy’s Anglican Church. The event will feature Secwepemc traditional storytellers Irene and Gerry Charley and shadow puppeteer Al-Lisa McKay.
Seklep the Coyote is a supreme natural being who can transform and change, says Mary Thomas who’s helping to organize the storytelling extravaganza. He is also a trickster and one of the main characters in Secwepemc or Shuswap storytelling, she adds. They’ll open the performance with how it began, likely followed by Mother Earth, says Thomas.
McKay’s performance will be a production called Hunger Moon.
“It’s just so amazing what she can do with puppets and the shadow. The shadow play itself is very dramatic and she does all her own sounds and music in the background. She will also do a small short dance production with shadow puppet play.”
There will be an intermission and they’re hoping to close with a fancy dance, says Thomas.
“It’s usually a man with many colourful feathers like a bustle that goes over his lower back and a bustle on his shoulders. The feathers are just amazing and flowing. It’s usually a faster dance and then a female fancy dancer does what is similar to the butterfly dance.”
The event is open to anyone and free but they’ll take donations.
“We find that donations are actually better than selling tickets because people are quite generous usually.”
Thomas says she’s very excited about the whole event and that they’ll also be creating a short video of it. Thomas thanks, the First Peoples’ Cultural Council who provided the funding for the event and the Stemete7uw’I Friendship Centre for all their help with the storytelling sessions (there have been a number of storytelling sessions since July including in Clinton, Canoe Creek and Canim Lake).
Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.