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a Wisakecahk story

Sound recording, story; a First Nation American, Cree trickster tale, how and why or aetiological story, told by Gayle Ross, as part of the programme Inuit Throat Singers and Gayle Ross in the Main Tent at the Beyond the Border Festival, St Donats Art Centre, Llantwit Major, South Glamorgan, Wales, 6th July 1996.

Reference to the film 'Dances with Wolves' and its relation to the Native American Lakota people, leading to commentary on adoption in relation to Gayle's adopted brother and the stories he tells. Followed by a section of creation story and explanation who Wisakecahk is, and how Wisakecahk created man, followed by story.

Wisakecahk (Cree trickster character) meets a grizzly bear with his nose in the blueberry bushes and his rear end in the air. Wisakecahk makes fun of the grizzly bear's bare rear end, but hides from him. Grizzly bear catches Wisakecahk out, and a chase takes place. Wisakecahk shakes grandmother's creation rattle and sings, causing grizzly bear to fall asleep under a tree. Wisakecahk forgets about grizzly bear for the entire autumn and winter. Then he overhears someone commenting on grizzly bear's absense. He returns to the tree to find grizzly bear. Wisakecahk finds the bear very thin, but alive and still sleeping. He shakes the rattle and sings again to wake grizzly bear, who is pleased to have avoided winter, and from that year on Wisakecahk has put the bears to sleep every winter.

audience:- adult
    recording quality
condition:- good
completeness:- complete
duration:- 0 hours, 15 minutes, 55 seconds

Performing in programme Inuit Throat Singers and Gayle Ross were Gayle Ross, Nellie Echalook and Mary Iqualluk. Belgium ethnomusicologist Etienne Bours was also present on stage.

Beyond the Border Festival was founded in 1993 by Ben Haggarty, Artistic Director of the Crick Crack Club, and David Ambrose, the then Director of St Donats Arts Centre, Wales. The Festival was founded as The Beyond the Border International Festival of Storytelling and Epic Singing, but became known simply as Beyond the Border. The festival ran from 1993 to 2006 co-directed by the two founders: with Ben Haggarty programming storytellers and David Ambrose programming musicians. Since 2007 the festival has been directed by David Ambrose. The festival is a weekend event running on the first weekend of July annually; attracting around 2,500 people from across Britain and from overseas. The festival is sited at St Donats Arts Centre and in the grounds of St Donats Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan on the South Coast of Wales. Beyond the Border was initiated as part of the UK Year of Literature in 1995. The successful bid submitted by Academi Wales, prominently featured a storytelling festival. The original Director of the UK Year of Literature was Maura Dooley, who had been at the South Bank Centre in London when Ben Haggarty ran the Third International Storytelling Festival there in 1989. Maura Dooley supported the proposal brought to her by Ben Haggarty and David Ambrose to hold an International festival and series of summer schools at St Donats Castle and to begin Beyond the Border in 1993 in order to build an audience and a core of Wales-based artists for the Year of Literature in 1995. However before the plan could be implemented Maura Dooley resigned from her post (the position was later taken by Sean Dorran). Despite this, St Donats Arts Centre was committed to the festival and Beyond the Border was launched in July 1993. The 1993, 1994 and 1995 festivals were accompanied by summer schools, which produced a number of storytellers including Megan Lloyd, Francis Maxey, Richard Berry and Michael Harvey.

storytelling:- storyteller: Gayle Ross
female / American, North / First Nation American / Cherokee

origin:-
First Nation American
Cree


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Image of the performance showing Gayle Ross, Nellie Echalook and Mary Iqualluk

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Festival programme

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associated:- translator: Etienne Bours


associated:- throat singer; singer: Nellie Echalook


associated:- throat singer; singer: Mary Iqualluk


programming:- Festival Co-Director: Ben Haggarty
Festival Co-Director: David Ambrose


administration:- administrator: St Donats Arts Centre


storytelling:- St Donats, Llantwit Major, South Glamorgan, Wales: St Donats Art Centre: Main Tent
06 Jul 1996
festival: Beyond the Border Festival
Inuit Throat Singers and Gayle Ross


gift from:- St Donats Arts Centre


©  The London Centre for International Storytelling: 2007
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