Mission Reserve 1886

Ashes on the Water transports you back in time to the ‘Great Fire of 1886’.  Written by Quelemia Sparrow co produced by Raven Spirit Dance, you become a participant and experience this podplay in the first person experience.  You begin at the old site of the St. James Church  and make your way down to beach front at Crab tree park. The podplay leads you step by step in the footsteps of a mother and her baby, as she is desperately trying to escape the fire. This first person narrative heightens your experience because you are led by a voice, engulfed in sounds, you use your sight and body movement during the podplay. Like Indigenous storytelling, you become a part of the story and like McLuhan has stated, ” These forms give us instant access to all pasts”. (Mediacosmology p.171)

Through the narrative of a settler and Indigenous woman, the participant becomes involved in this fire. A fire that destroyed early Vancouver quickly is was consumed by the flames at rapid speed, that left three thousand homeless and other their lives were lost (The Great Vancouver Fire of 1886). You begin to get a sense of the danger of the fire when you hear the woman’s desperation and the baby crying as she is running for her life. The use of the narrative storytelling with the sound effects and experiencing the movement was unlike anything I had experienced before. Thankfully I did my podplay in the daytime as I could imagine at night my senses would be heightened.

This use of technology lets the participant become involved, by feeling emotions, moving physically and imagining the danger that is following behind them. All of these elements make the participant connected and they become interconnected with one another. Steven Loft describes interconnectedness as a key principle underpinning our cosmological understanding of life (Mediacosmology p.177). The fact  that the podplay can be accessed through newer technology forms ( the internet, podplay format, mp3) crosses boundaries that Loft calls artists such as Sparrow “cyber warriors” (Mediacosmology p.182).  This form of Indigenous storytelling not only relates to oral storytelling but it connects the participant back to the land. Indigenous peoples have strong stories and shared histories to their traditional lands and it is clearly demonstrated in this podplay. As Sparrow incorporates the ‘women paddle song’ she is honouring the history, the people who sing it and the power it has. Sparrow is also honouring those who took action and went to help those in the fire on that June day.  She is permanently making a record within the participant and now they will know the story and the history of that day. At the end of your journey you stand on the beach and you look across the water, and you can see in the distance those canoes coming, the power of the song, the sound of the ocean and the wind in your face….  the ancestors are coming to you. It is powerful! Loft says, “Projects such as […] (Ashes On the Water) constitute a contemporary manifestation of a centuries-old customary practice and cosmological integrity. I would have to agree, this was done in that way but with Indigenous cosmological integrity that the ancestors are proud of.

http://www.globalbirdphotos.com/ve/072_075_Great_Vancouver_Fire_of_1886_Jacqui_Underwood.pdf

Image- Mission Reserve

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Squamish_people#/media/File:Mission_Reserve_opposite_Vancouver,_circa_1886.jpg

Click to play and read the blog. Musi

The work of the artists on the art web speaks of many wounds and the deep sufferings by our brothers & sisters. Brothers and sisters as described as living an urban street life. All of these works are connected by the web of a spider, you can select an image to follow the web. I found that it is easy to get lost in the web, like a real web you can get tangled in it. I began to look for a story that was not so dark and painful, but I could not find one. They made me feel uncomfortable and disturbed. Images of the Balmoral and the stories of women with their john’s reminded me of our missing and murdered women in Vancouver historic downtown eastside (DTES). It painted the image of the DTES that I knew had always existed.

I grew up in east Vancouver and the DTES was a place we always avoided. It’s not like the DTES you see now with it’s gentrification and new cheaper designer drugs. It was a place you did not go to when I was a kid. My friends and I all knew what happened to people that ended up in skid row, they never came back. So as I was taking this journey with the spider, I was brought back to my childhood and the place I never went to came to me in full imagination and I was a part of the narrative. You get a sense of the pain and I guess in a way, some kind of an understanding of the drug of choice. The one that got me was “Missy Girl” by Lynn Acoose http://www.spiderlanguage.net/missygirl.html

This narrative transported me to the DTES and I could vividly see the images of Aboriginal women making their living on the streets for their next fix. Lynn’s words are descriptive and haunting, she uses words such as medicine, emotional poison, transformation, society and prayers. She is able to reflect words of Aboriginal culture to street life. Life that resembles surviving on the DTES. I feel the heartache in her words and it makes me sad. I am sad because I lost good friends to the DTES over my lifetime. Even though we all knew what happened in skid row, they still went there and they didn’t come back. Lynn’s words describe the journey that one takes….one I will never understand. I miss my friends. They were beautiful, strong & fierce ladies that had my back. I am grateful they were there for me during my first few years in Vancouver. At that time I don’t think I would have survived growing up in East Vancouver, it was pretty rough in those days. So here I am today and I know it’s because of them, this web of art connects me to it, but most of all, it connected them to me. With that I want to say to my friends, my sisters and thank you and I love you. I dedicate this beautiful song to you my friends, my sisters; Peggy, Simone, Heather, Miranda & Sherri.

YouTube Video. Shared. Nov.01.2015 8:25pm

Strong Woman Song by Raven Hart-Bellecourt and Lisa Muswagon.

Raven Hart-Bellecourt describes the songs origins on her YouTube account: Thanks for sharing, there are no words for this song. It is a healing song for women. The song was made in Kingston which is a maximum security prison to help the women regain their strength as a women and reclaim their sense of spirituality and healing. I am happy that you are listening to my songs, they are here for all of you to learn, MIIGWITCH!!!! EKOSI!!!!