Indigenous storytellers are sharing their culture as part of the 2018 Poundmaker Storyteller’s Festival.
The festival will have four events taking place throughout July on both Poundmaker Cree Nation and Fort Battleford, with an art show opening kicking off the event at the Chief Poundmaker Museum on July 4.
Director of Miyawata Culture Inc. Floyd Favel says he has invited a variety of different types of storytellers to the Poundmaker reserve in order to understand the different perspectives within the indigenous culture.
“To give us a cross-cultural indigenous understanding of different worldviews so I invited some Mohawk traditional speakers.”
The Mohawk people will share their knowledge of their heritage, along with a Crow hand sign talker. Favel says he wants indigenous performance to be recognized as an artistic category along with the other artistic disciplines in the world.
“To consider indigenous performance as an artistic category it must have its own message, techniques and a body of knowledge.”
Favel is also including local indigenous experts who will talk about oral history, which will be combined with a performance by artist Mariel Belanger from B.C. that will be taking place on July 22.
An Indigenous Youth Concert will be closing out the festival on July 25. Admission to the festival is by donations, which Favel says will be going to the Chief Poundmaker Museum.