Text size

E-mail this column

Sahtu Arts

Antoine Mountain
Guest columnist
Monday, June 23, 2008

Previous columns 

Friends, by way of update on what this effort in the Great Bear Lake Region is all about, and as mentioned before in my column in this paper, I have been working with the GNWT here to promote these new arts initiatives for this area.

With all these somewhat lofty plans in mind, so far we have done at least one information workshop in each of the Sahtu communities, starting with Radilih Koe/Fort Good Hope, then on to Deline, Kahbamiue Tue/Colville Lake, Tulita and Norman Wells.

And, to confirm our suspicions, what we have found is that there is a great deal of talent among our people here, and especially within the ranks of our youth.

So, one of the ideas we have been working on is a 'Sahtu in the Arts Show' for the Arrowmakers Gallery in Yellowknife. This is to happen this coming Thursday the 26th and on Friday the 27th. This regular art show will feature the works and personalities of 12 of our region's artists, including some of the younger ones.

In connection with this will be an evening of music and story-telling, featuring the MC stylings of Paul Andrew, Dene drummer and storyteller Leon Andrew, fiddler Thomas Manuel and singer-songwriter Stephen Kakfwi, Thursday evening, 6 to 8 p.m., at the Yellowknife museum.

Of course all are welcome to attend these events, and we do hope to introduce the works of some new artists as well as others who are already well known, like traditional fine artist Janet Grandjambe of Radilih Koe' and Stella Mackenzo of Deline.

One of the main things we have also found is that it will take some effort to get our own artists who are going to get used to the idea of representing themselves, their families and their peoples in an artistic way.

As I may have pointed out before, we the Dene come from a pretty minimalistic culture such that so far, we have been mainly concerned with simple survival. But that does not mean that we are not artistic.

Far from being so, our traditional arts in the form of the beaded and sewn items are now in great demand by visitors from the South.

But the caribou and moosehide tanning techniques that a lot of it is based on are a dying art form, thus making it necessary to revive them with programs like Sahtu in the Arts.

It may well prove that we have just caught all of this in time before it is completely lost. In addition, we want to see the young people just out of school try their hands at painting, sewing and carving and maybe even start up their own art careers.

Either way, the Sahtu in the Arts activities are our baby steps in this direction, and we do hope that the public will see some good in getting involved with these events. Mahsi cho.

- Antoine Mountain is a Dene artist and writer originally from Radilih Koe'/Fort Good Hope. He can be reached at www.amountainarts.com