Month: May 2018

May 18TH-20TH

This weekend was pretty contained to Sugar Island, we didn’t go many places but people came to us and the solidarity helped us bond together as an ensemble.

During these three days we participated in a Weekend Writing Workshop which was lead primarily by our brilliant team member Jillian Waker who gave us all prompts and time to write. I think generally everyone was impressed and surprised by what was produced during this process. We all felt like we learned so much about each other through our writing and the distinct ways we chose to reply to the prompts. Some pieces were classic poetic narratives, some were random bits of songs and phrases, some poetry, strictly dialogue, you name it! It was really amazing to watch that creativity boil in my group. It was also a great way to release and reflect on life and self.

Later Saturday evening, Cecil came by and made a fire for us. After we gifted tobacco to the fire and saved ourselves, Cecil told us more about the history of the Anishinaabe and we shared the history of ourselves. It was incredibly beautiful. 

On Sunday we continued with the writing prompts this time we were joined by Spencer, Michael, and Tomantha. Afterwards, Tomantha demonstrated for us her Fancy Shawl Dance which she sometimes performs at pow wow. In her dance, she tries to replicate the delicacy and flight of a butterfly. It was so awesome to watch, she’s really good at it. 

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Today began and ended on the water. First the group visited the Soo Locks, a popular tourist attraction for visitors to the UP who can see as huge cargo ships go through them. The locks are one of the most dramatic industrial alterations to the region, especially for the Anishinaabe. The St. Mary River once was the site of great rapids, a meeting place for people to exchange goods. Settlers seeking to move coal, ore, and stone across the Great Lakes formed locks, diverting much of the river along another channel, forever altering the natural flow of water around which people had gathered.

After visiting the Soo Locks, the group drove over to Bay Mills Community College where we met briefly with Joe Medicine, then headed towards Whitefish Point. We stopped at a lighthouse along the way and walked out onto the beach, listening to the water, then continued. At Whitefish Point, we went through the Shipwreck Museum, which houses artifacts of shipwrecks from along the Great Lakes. Whitefish Point used to be a major Coast Guard station that performed hundreds of rescues a year. With advanced tracking and radar technology today the need for search-and-rescue has declined dramatically. The days of massive shipwrecks are mostly in the past with some like the Edmund Fitzgerald living on in folklore as testaments to the ferocity of nature and tenacity of sailors and coast guards to brave the storm.

The museum did not touch on fishing or the traditional Anishinaabe practices around water. The only reference to indigenous people in the museum was a life-like sculpture of an Anishinaabe man and a European explorer navigating the Great Lakes. The text accompanying the exhibit told the story of a man named Brule who was supposedly cannibalize by a band of Ottawa, and whom is hailed as an explorer who paved the way for trade and European settlement in the region. It is telling that the only mention of native people in the museum portrays them as cannibals.

Despite the omission of a native perspective on the water, the Shipwreck Museum did help to give us a better sense of the intensity of living on Lake Superior and fury one might encounter out in the elements. As we go forward with our play, we will keep this in mind in order to translate storm into movement.

 

After a cozy lunch in Paradise, Michigan we headed back towards Sugar Island, stopping at the Mission Hill Cemetery. The cemetery looks out on ponds and inlets off of Lake Superior, a beautiful view of water and forrest. We walked through the cemetery and noticed the names of Sault and Bay Mills families, with the symbols of clans of bear, fish, and eagle. The cemetery, like the one in downtown Sault Ste Marie we saw near the Soo Locks, marks the connection of the Anishinaabe to the land, the place of their ancestors, to which they are returned.

Walking at Mission Hill Cemetary

View from Mission Hill Cemetary

Jonathan Diehl looks out on a beach near Whitefish Point

Lighthouse along Lake Superior

Soo Locks

Zach Kolodziej looks at the exhibit at Soo Locks Museum

 

 

 

Today we started our day with Malcolm’s morning movement rehearsal. We were joined today by Tomantha, Michaela, and Michael from Lake Superior State University. We experimented this mornings with manipulations, effort, and flocking. Its great to feel the bond start to strengthen through the work.

After class, we spent the rest of the day helping out with the Frybread Fundraiser at the Niigaanagiizhik Ceremonial Building. We ate delicious Frybread Tacos, then rolled up our sleeves and helped out in the kitchen.

We sat down with Joe Parish, fisherman and Bay Mills member, who spoke to us about his accounts with racism both during the fishing wars and still today. Joe Parish is also the husband of Rebecca Parish who wrote 50 Cents A Pound, which includes Joe’s stories. Joe also talked about the craftsmanship it takes to be a fisherman. Joe also talked about how humans can learn so much about the world by observing nature. We can learn what foods are good for us, which are bad for us, what helps us when we’re sick or even how to catch fish all by observing nature. His fishing nets, which he sometimes makes himself by hand, were inspired by spiderwebs and how they are the nets above water. He also emphasized how fishing is his life. It travels on down through his lineage and no matter how far away he goes, he will alway has to return to the water. Malcolm also got a chance to sit down and talk with Bud Biron, Keeper of the Drum. They talked about the close relationship between Natives and nature. How Natives need to be in touch with the land because it is a part of who they are and that Non-Natives need to be more aware of that concept. He also offered to introduce Malcolm to Buckle Teeple, a Bay Mills elder, who could tell him about his experience as a Bay Mills fisherman.

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May 15th

 

We started our day today with a brunch buffet at the Kewadin Casino. After we ate we explored the Native art that hung from the walls in the halls of the casino. Explored the casino’s theatre facilities and talked about doing a spoken word event for the locals in town.

After breakfast we had the first of our movement rehearsals with Malcolm. This rehearsal layed a basic foundation for the type of work that will perhaps be seen in our production of 50 Cents A Pound. Such as, finding ways to become water, fire, air, and earth. The class consisted of our team from University of Michigan, plus several students from Lake Superior State University and their professor Spencer. Although we all came from different places by the end of the class we were all gliding as the same bird.

After class we met with Colleen from the Soo Theatre and she gave us a tour of their facilities. Colleen has been working on rehabilitating the theatre for the past fifteen years since she’s returned to Sault Ste. Marie. It’s one of the oldest theatres in the U.P. and they put on a full season of musicals community and children’s alike

Then we met with a different Colleen from the Cultural Center Library. After talking logistics and finalizing a schedule we met Cecil Pavlat, a tribal leader and former fish cop, who shared with us his experience with the fishing wars. He talked about the unfair fishing laws, the difficulties he faced when he had to implement the law that he didn’t necessarily agree with, and how he was caught dead in the middle of the fishing wars just by doing that. Which eventually led to his resign. He also gave us advice on how to go forward with our process. He emphasized how the story being told in the play belonged to Bay Mills because it centers around Big Abe, a Bay Mills member. Although the case affected everyone its Bay Mill’s story so we should start there when looking for people to talk to and to play the roles of the Bay Mills characters.

After dinner, we concluded our day by visiting the Native Burial Grounds near Soo Locks. Cecil was telling us earlier how the Sault Ste. Marie and Army Corp. were trying to “beautify the waterfront” by putting recreational benches and landmarks over the burial grounds. Fortunately Cecil was able to spearhead an initiative to get the grounds fenced in because there was french map that had the burial grounds written in as Native Territory so it was legally their right to have this land undisturbed. Unfortunately, only a section is actually fenced. The rest has been colonized more and more over the years, from the erection of Fort Brady to the Soo Locks. Only this tiny portion of the burial grounds remain.

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Today brought together many people for the immersion week of our project.  Anita Gonzalez (theatre director and professor), John Diehl (photographer), Jonathan Diehl (writer), Zach Kolodziej (U of M alum), and Malcolm Tulip (director and theatre professor) made up the Ann Arbor contingent of our group, and were joined by Jillian Walker, a New York playwright the day before. At LSSU they met with theatre students Tamantha, Michaela, and Michael, and Theatre Professor Spencer Christensen and English Prof. Mary McMyne to discuss collaboration. Rebecca Parrish came with a draft of 50 Cents a Pound, a play chronicling the Fish Wars, and the fight for native fishing rights in the Soo. Rebecca explained how she had compiled the play from stories told to her by the fishermen of Bay Mills who had struggled to maintain their livelihood against racist intimidation and broken treaties. After reading the play, we came away with a deeper understanding of the challenges of fishing, the harsh reality of both the unbridled weather and the rampant intimidation they received from sports fishermen. Decades after Big Abe LeBlanc of Bay Mills knowingly risked arrest in 1971 to defend his treaty rights, the legal battle for the recognition of Ojibwe fishing rights still continues, as tribes must have their rights renew every five years.

Leaving LSSU, we traveled to the Dancing Crane for a quick coffee break before heading to Bay Mills Community College, hoping to meet more tribal members who would want to speak about the fight for fishing rights. We met with Kathy LeBlanc, Cultural Services Director, who spoke to the connection between struggles for fishing rights and the plights facing the water across the Earth. Next we sat with Wade Teeple, former fisherman and tribal chairman, in his office at Bay Mills. He spoke about the harassment the native fisherman received not only from “sporties” but from police and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) who would interrupt their work for petty violations, sometimes arresting and fining them or causing them to lose a day’s work.

The day ended with a great dinner at Indo-China Garden reflecting on a day packed with new information and new directions to follow. We’ll see what comes together in the next few weeks – right now the paths are wide open!

 

Rebecca Parrish (center left) talks to students and professors at LSSU before reading through 50 Cents a Pound.

LSSU students Tamantha (top) and Michael (bottom) share their reactions to reading the play.

Anita (left), Michael (middle), Michaela (right) and others walk through campus at Bay Mills Community College.

Schools Out!