education BACKGROUND

I hold a Bachelor of Education degree (1982) coupled with a lifetime of experience.

From 1986-2000, I taught Performing Arts and French as a second language at Decker Lake Elementary School and Francois Lake Elementary School, both in the Lakes District of Northern BC.

In 1991 I founded a dance studio, Burns Lake Ballet-Jazz. I was the director and primary instructor across all disciplines for 15 years. During my time there, my students competed successfully in festivals across the province, at a regional and provincial level.

In 2000 I moved into secondary education at Lakes District Secondary School (Burns Lake, BC) where I ran the performing arts department, specializing in drama, dance, and musical theatre.

As a playwright, director and choreographer I created and oversaw dance & theatre productions for student and community performances, from initial concept-building through writing, rehearsal, set/sound/lighting design and final performances. Throughout my 17 years at LDSS, I saw approximately 100 productions to completion. Many of these were plays and musicals chosen in collaboration with students, the remainder were written and/or choreographed by myself.

TRADITIONAL INDIGENOUS teachings

I married into the Carrier Nation and spent 25 years under Plains Cree and Carrier elders' tutelage, training in traditional healing and ceremony. Alongside my ex-partner, I ran a sweat lodge and fasting camp located in Burns Lake, BC.

My traditional teachings came from this lineage:

1. Dr. Joseph Couture (RIP), first aboriginal person to achieve a PhD in psychology in Canada

2. The Honourable Dr. Maggie Hodgson, former Chief Executive Officer at Nechi Institute on Alcohol and Drug Education

3. Mike & Sharon Steinhauer, Saddle Lake Reserve, Alberta

4. Vincent Steinhauer, former president of Blue Quills University

5. Elder Patrick Young, Health Canada

6. John Cuthand

7. Carola Cunningham, CEO of Niginan Housing Ventures, operating Ambrose Place in Edmonton AB.

Alternative Arts Festival

Burns Lake, BC Canada: 2001 - present

I founded and directed the Alternative Arts Festival for School District 91 (Nechako Lakes) in 2001. This festival included students competing in visual, performing arts, and mixed media categories. The production team evolved over time, from a start of three teachers (myself, school counselor Kim Dezamits, and media arts instructor Walt Vanderkamp) to a team that included all of the school's educational assistants and teachers, in varying capacities.

The impetus behind this festival's founding was to give students an opportunity to express themselves and experiment creatively outside the formal structure of the current arts festival circuit. 

We gave participants a platform within which they had the space, time, and support to find their own creative voices and communicate to an audience of their peers and their teachers.

This framework did not set limits on how participants chose to express their ideas, and over the years saw students experimenting with singing, standup comedy, dance, music, theatre and other forms; with an emphasis on interdisciplinary collaborations. On the visual side of the festival, we encouraged them to broaden their ideas of what could be considered artwork. This resulted in students exploring many different modalities, from traditional to contemporary artwork and beyond. In the mixed media category, students produced and presented their own video compositions, with self-directed subjects and aesthetic choices.

This festival will continue on an annual basis with the school district's continued support.

PLAYS AND MUSICALS

From 2000 until my retirement from School District 91 in 2018, I have directed, produced, and sometimes written over 100 student plays at Lakes District Secondary School in Burns Lake, BC Canada.

These varied from one-act to full-length plays and musicals, produced in conjunction with the Visual Arts program's students and teachers, who designed and created original sets and props for each production.  Some productions also worked with the Media Arts program in regards to lighting, sound, and projected visuals. The school's Woodworking program also contributed in design and fabrication of sets.

Stage Management was available to interested students as a part of the overall Performing Arts program. These students often returned post-graduation to volunteer their time, gain work experience, and act as peer mentors within current student productions.

Community members from the Lakes District also contributed to student productions through stage management and stage decor. 

Performances were hosted at LDSS for the student body and the community at large, as well as other primary, elementary, and secondary schools in the district.

 BAGGAGE TO BUNDLES

INDIGENOUS FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS

Burns Lake, BC Canada: 2012, 1014, 2016

I founded and directed the Indigenous Festival of the Arts in 2012, out of concern for a lack of indigenous student participation in the Alternative Arts Festival as well as in-school Theatre programs. This was a biannual festival that was non-competitive in nature. Through this process, we sought to address the experience of Northern indigenous youths, who often feel that they have no voice and no sense of belonging in the school and overall community. These feelings often lead young people into self-destructive behaviour patterns including substance abuse, suicidal ideation, violent outbursts, isolation from personal and social connections, among other issues. This ongoing problem led to a sense of separation and anxiety based in misunderstandings, lack of trust, and lack of knowledge – pervasive among all students, teachers, support staff and school administration.

I worked to conceptualize this project with our school's cultural liaisons, as well as the Fine Arts team (Dezamits, Vanderkamp, and our new addition, visual arts instructor Steve Wilejto). Together, we determined that the First Nations students at LDSS did not have access to role models of successful indigenous performers and artists, due in part to our location in rural Northern BC.

On a biannual basis we invited high-profile indigenous creatives (regional, provincial and national) to visit the community and perform, combined with motivational talks with a First Nations youth audience in mind. These shows (one student matinee and one community evening) were curated with a selection of student and professional works, presented side by side.

Between the day and evening performances, we provided a buffet meal of traditional Carrier Nation cuisine for all participants and audience members. This meal was designed, cooked and served by local First Nations culinary arts students and/or professional caterers.

In addition to the performances, a one-week exhibition of regional student and community-created visual art was presented in a school art gallery set up specifically for the festival.

A WALK ON MOSS

A Walk on Moss was written by myself and Robert Charlie, to bring to the stage issues such as colonization, the intergenerational effects of residential schools, loss of language and culture within the Carrier Nation, on whose traditional territories our school and community resides.

The play was produced & directed by myself, and stage managed by Helen Hobbs. Technical direction and visuals provided by Walt VanDerKamp, who ran the Media Arts program at LDSS (now retired).  

This production was a platform to encourage intergenerational connection and creative collaboration between community elders and both native and non-native students. Many hours were spent in the Cultural Room at LDSS fabricating traditional blankets and gifts for audience members in a potlatch style.

Learnings were shared in both directions during this process, through which elders taught students traditional songs in their Carrier dialect, while themselves learning the basics of participation as actors in a theatrical production.

This play was taken on the road, touring the Northern BC communities of Prince George, Smithers, Fort St. James as well as Burns Lake.