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Jamie Kehewin was interviewed by OOKNAKANE Friendship
Centre (OFC) our Youth Worker and Former Youth Coordinator Ira McArthur in January 25 of 2005 in motel room #210 at the Golden Sands Motel,
Lakeshore Drive, Penticton B.C.
 I've heard two stories about it, it depends what tribe you're from. If you're from Southern tribes it's more about the movement
of the grass, like on a windy day, how it flows with the wind. If you watch that and if the grass is long enough it almost
looks like water, the fluency of the movement. The Southern tribes, see what I was told was: be that fluent, be that wind
as the grass moves.
For my people, Northern Cree, basically more of a stomping of the grass.... to bless
the main area,...for gatherings, powwows, or Sun Dances. What I've done is put both meanings together and try to create my
own style: stomping of the grass and the movement of the grass.
Jamie, a Grass Dancer and singer with Spirit Horse, Leonard Bearshirt is Cree, from Kehawin Northern Alberta. He was born in an ambulance on the reserve and is convinced
that's why he travels so much today. Jamie has been living in Penticton for the past three years and is a student at the En'owkin Cultural Centre, where he has been studying the arts since he arrived in Penticton. As Jamie explains, he began
with a foundation Fine Arts course and went on from there:
That teaches you your creativity, your writing, basic arts, right. It's really good
for a beginner artist, it teaches you all that. Then I did NPAD so I'm doing NPAD this year, National Aboriginal Professional
Art Program. There's year 1 and year 2; right now...I just did a film. We had a screening in Kelowna at the Art Gallery. I
can't pronounce it but it's "The People Go On" and that's a major film, I was glad to be a part of that venue.
Right now I'm working on my crafts. I have bustles, mainly performing with Spirit Horse. Leonard Bearshirt and I made a drum, two months it took us, big drum, eight-sided octagon. Year 2 we have
cyber marketing, make your own websites, you learn the language of the web, right. We have Traditional Arts, basically working
on your own style, where y ou come from and your points of origin. NAPD 3 is a performance arts and your basically workin'
on your own performance, right. NAPD 4 is media, right now we're working on combining our efforts.
Jamie says that he has been:
doing the arts basically all my life but never really discovered the creativity part until
about six years ago: really into performing, dancing, regalia making, just got into singing with Spirit Horse, do a lot of
film making as well.
Jamie has been making regalia for about two years
now and is only beginning to master it, so far focusing primarily on making the accessories:
not the aprons, pants, or shirts or anything like that but
I do the head ba nds, cuffs, arm bands, harnesses, belts, side drops, bells. You can make traditional instead of bells; you
can use deer hooves, bustles, just starting to mess things around.
Jamie became involved in making regalia because
his cousin was really into it:
I've seen it all my life growing up. I remember my earliest
memory was with my grandma,. she was in her teepee, I was about three or four years old. She'd be beading away and the teepee
would light up from the sun and hearing our music. Just always being around that and wanting to be a part of it. My cousin
had come back from school and he'd been traveling for years, he came back to see the reserve and had his Master's Degree in
Fine Arts, Performing Arts, he really got me into it. I had bought this outfit off my cousin and that was about six years
ago.
Jamie is a Grass Dancer and danced in his first powwow
about six years ago at the Toronto Sky Dome Powow. He learned through sheer trial and error, through careful observation,
and by allowing his own creativity to surface:
It's already in you, you just got to start doing it. Start
creating your own movement, create your own style. You learn the styles but its up to you on how you put them together, find
your transitions, focus on it.
Jamie goes on to talk about his understanding of the
origin of the Grass Dance:
....I've heard two stories about it, it depends what tribe
you're from. If you're from Southern tribes it's more about the movement o f the grass, like on a windy day, how it flows
with the wind. If you watch that and if the grass is long enough it almost looks like water, the fluency of the movement.
The Southern tribes, see what I was told was: "be that fluent, be that wind as the grass moves." For my people, Northern Cree,
basically more of a stomping of the grass. Clearing out an area, let's say for a Sun Dance, gathering, powwow, basically to
bless the main stage, main area, you do something like that, eh. Usually a whole bunch get out there, grass dancers, for gatherings,
powwows, or Sun Dances. What I've done is put both meanings together and try to create my own style: stomping of the grass
and the movement of the grass.
Involved in film making for the past six years, it was
at that time that everything came together for Jamie:
It all came together six years ago, everything all
came together. I went to Gulf Island Film and Television School. We did this documentary in...Alberta. Right after that we
did the whole intensive training, the whole week thing. The next thing you know my computer crashed, all my information, it
all crashed and we had to return at that time. So I got left there for another four days and was there alone but it was a
good thing our computer had crashed eh, because the whole story had changed. It turned out to be better than it was. So I
got back and then we presented it to the director; he seen it and the first thing you know he whipped out his cheque book,
gave us $30,000.00 for our own studio. We were just high school students at the time.
Jamie's first involvement with the OOKNAKANE Friendship
Centre was with Leonard B earshirtwhen they came to play for the grand opening in April of 2004, as part of Eastern Tribes, now known as Spirit Horse.
Well last year we were a part of the Opening, we were Eastern
Tribes I believe, and I myself got to know Leonard's older brother Glen. Then he took me in basically, treated me as brothers
eh, like family. He adopted my wife Amber, that's his sister, and we just went from there and practiced almost every day for
a good solid year, year-and-a-half now, we'll be going on two years, and basically everything falls into place and Spirit
Horse came along.
To Jamie, the Friendship Centre is an important site
for cultural interaction for the urban Aboriginal population:
....You go across Canada and you see all Friendship Centers,
every town has them, that's what they do is preserve culture. It's a place for urban Natives to go and learn and be a part
of that. If they don't have that, you know, at least learn someone else's culture to get a taste of it, right? Just so they
understand. That's where I see Friendship Centres, they're also good resource for information, education and grants, you know.
To close the interview, the Youth Worker asked Jamie
what the principle on which the OOKNAKANE Friendship is based- "Culture is Knowledge; Knowledge is Wisdom"-meant to him. Jamie
explains:
Basically, for me, what I know is [that] for future generations,
it's for the little ones, eh. Whatever you know to pass onto th em, whatever you're taught by the older people, or ancestors,
keep passing it on to your younger ones. The more you know, and our culture is a collective consciousness, the more powerful
we're going to get as people. Since the residential schools, it did a number on our people, all our teachings, our language,
our songs/dance especially, it all got lost within those who suffered during those times. For us not to see that, and to do
what we do, love it and enjoy it, for nobody to interfere with it, it's better for our younger ones, our children. |
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