Day 1 -

started the day off with a fun pixilation exercise as an icebreaker and to get the creative juices flowing. this seems like a really great way to start a workshop .. positive, fun, no real pressure, and even gets the shy ones going…

we had lunch and then watched a few of the our world films including the ones that were created in hazelton last year.then we had a regroup of how participants felt about the films - and if they had any that resonated with them - marvin’s was a favourite for a couple of students

Then we left the afternoon for the youth to start on their pieces.

Jezabel got about half way through her piece about the difficulties of growing up without much support. from the age of 5 she was already exposed to drugs and alcohol. she was in and out of rehab all throughout her teens, and ended up in juvie a couple of times. but now, at 18 she is 6 months pregnant and has not touched any drugs or alcohol since. she would like to turn her life around now, and live her youth with her baby - and give her baby the life she never had.

Jezabel’s brother Jaye had also decided to do a very personal piece about his stolen youth and around abuse. He is now trying to turn his life around. with a young son (age of 2) living 5 hours away, he is really trying to change. it was so inspiring today that he came in after a night of saying ‘no’ to social pressure to party - instead he said, he just watched his friends party, and took care of his grandmother, making sure she got home safe from the bar. He said he really wanted to be at the workshop, so he didn’t drink. Though he wrote out almost 2 pages of a story, he did not have a clear sense of how he wanted to portray abuse on video…

Then he started talking about his grandpa, Eli, who had lived off the land and who tells him about the old days. He is now thinking of doing a piece with his grandfather who could help tell his piece in Gitksan and talk about traditions that Jaye values in many ways. Jaye went to a wilderness survival camp a few times where he practiced what his grandfather taught him..

Alex, is an amazingly self-sufficient guy - totally open to hearing ideas, sharing ideas, and encouraging creativity from others. He had a few different ideas - started with wanting to do a portrait of a couple of local artists and then soon moved on to traditional stories that he thought he could do. This morning he came in with a few sheets of paper from his mother’s research about healing and plant medicine. Lisa and I encouraged him to go in this direction with the thought of going with some stop motion with the medicine. (he also makes beautiful medicine pouches). He then came up with the idea that he wanted to incorporate spirituality and healing into his piece, and a smudge ceremony. It turns out that Jaye knows the prayer that one must say during a smudge ceremony. Alex would like to video tape this ceremony, have Jaye narrate this part (perhaps his father could also narrate parts in gitksan. He already has it formatted out as a storyboard.

Nishan, who unfortunately had a terrible throat infection came in anyway today, and wants to do a piece about her father, bill blackwater who was a boxer, an actor, an activist AND is a hereditary chief. he came in today with a scrapbook with many articles around things that have happened in the community and that he also was involved in. she is thinking of interviewing him in his “shed” where he works away at things, while also hearing his stories and showing pictures from his scrapbook. it would be great to find out if there are other sources of pictures around at the library or at the museum.

Stacey is a lovely young single mother of two - one 7 years old the other only 2. She wanted to do a piece about the difficulties of being a single mom, but it was very inspiring to us that she is now really aspiring towards becoming an ECE teacher or a nurse, so that she can help elders and others. Though she had previous writing, she has re-written her piece and I think its going to have a really beautiful poetic moment to it when she makes a prayer to the moon (Gitxsan tradition) for her sons.

Marvin is a returnee from last year - he is again hoping to tell a story that his parents have passed on to him. its interesting because his piece is really about a ‘myth’ or belief.. that no one knows the origins of. that one should not speak to owls or else they will have to stay up all day and night long to talk with them.. and if they don’t they will die. An interesting twist on this story is that this actually happened to marvin’s grandfather. . (only his grandfather out-talked the owl and lived). we are hoping that marvin can maybe find out a few more points so that he can tell his grandpa’s point of view a little more. to this day marvin will not engage in conversation with an owl.

Gordon is doing a piece around also turning his life around. because of his girlfriend, he has been able to distract himself from continuing on the unhealthy path of only drinking and doing drugs. he talks about the rampant cycle, that exists because youth see their parents and older siblings doing things at a young age. then they want to try it. He is now running and doing things like the workshop to stop these bad habits.

I am incredibly pleased with the youth that have committed to doing the workshop. They’re all incredibly hard working and courageous people. I am honoured to be working with them.