Awakening the Totem Poles from their Hibernation

23 February 2013

Today I attended a delightful ceremony at Orillia's new Public Library: the awakening of two totem poles created by artist Arthur Shilling many years ago, before he became well known. At age 14 he went out into the woods to choose the tree, and at 19 he completed the carving.

When the old library was torn down and its contents placed in storage, these two totem poles were ceremonially put to sleep to wait out the building of the new structure. After ten years of this hibernation, they have been brought to the children's section of the library to be re-awakened and set in place.

School children from the nearby Mnjikaning Nation came to sit around the totem poles partly exposed from their bubble wrap. The kids had an important role in the ceremony, for they were invited to shake the totems very gently, also shaking the rattles in their hands. We had just chanted an awakening song. The gentleman leading the ceremony explained to us that he could not light even a small fire to purify the air with smoke from sacred herbs and tobacco, because that would set off the sprinkler system, no friend to books or computers, even if people didn't mind getting wet.

He handed the proceedings over to the women, "who speak to the water". Water and strawberries were blessed and passed around, with a strawberry added to the offering of food The children were asked to sprinkle a few drops of the water on the totem poles. I felt honoured to be sitting between the lady who is the "Keeper of Language" and the lady who is an elder of the aboriginal nation nearby and welcomed all to the ceremony. It was very moving to hear prayers in Ojibway and English.

I was back with friends and relatives of my dear friend Phoebe Snake of years gone by, and able to say the few words in Ojibway that she taught me to people who understand them. They in turn told me stories about this lovely lady and artist. I still have several of her beautiful creations in birchbark, sweetgrass and porcupine quills. 

I think the young reporter from the Packet and Times who attended this event has captured the spirit of it, and what fun a solemn occasion can be.

http://www.orilliapacket.com/2013/02/12/spirits-awakened-in-totem-poles

BTW, the photographer captures not quite half the kids taking part in the ceremonies. The lady with the drum addresses them as "Friends", when she wants to get their attention. A Quakerly sign of respect that I had never heard a teacher use before - including me.

February, Deep Fryed, 2013

When all the New Years' bells have rung,

and spring remains coiled up, unsprung,

February has the brass

to trickle in with Candlemas,

a feast forgotten, so they say.

But wait, it’s now called Groundhog Day,

on a date that’s getting busy,

so much so it makes me dizzy.

Pagans, Celtic folk and Wiccans

get as holy as the dickens,

reminding us of antique lore,

by ancient calendars well reckoned,

and calling February second

Imbolc*, sacred to Saint Bridget.

But let’s not get into a fidget,

worrying about the Druids,

when we should be drinking lots of fluids

staving off incipient colds

and shrugging off our loved ones’ scolds

to cough in our elbows and wrap up warm

saving ourselves and others from harm.

It’s all about the way the days

are getting longer, as the rays

of sunshine slowly but surely grow,

and sunsets have a special glow.

February used to be

the target month of the year for me

inspiring a new sarcastic poem

from the shelter of my home.

Although the shortest month of all

by count of days, it was no friend

because it never seemed to end,

proceeding at a maddening crawl.

See, I’m not even up to the third,

though so far I’ve squandered many a word.**

As day is gaining over night,

what is that sound, and dazzling light?

Drums and flutes announce with cheer

the Chinese welcoming their new year.

What fun, what colour and what food!

Parades and fireworks change the mood.

The Water Snake has just coiled in.

Now, after all that noisy din,

we melt and mellow at Valentine’s,

when lovers pen impassioned lines -

in praise of chocolate, a baby, a kitten,

or somebody special with whom they are smitten.

February sees no reason

why it shouldn’t start a season,

even one as long as Lent,

with carnivals on pleasure bent,

then having launched the Mardi Gras,

proceeds to give us all the blahs.

It hesitates in mid-career,

and grinds into a lower gear,

stretching like a spent elastic

with a resilience that’s fantastic.

As the momentum comes unwound,

some, weary of the dizzy round,

ask, “Must we always celebrate?

Give us a break - to hibernate!”

Helen Heubi

13 February 2013

*Apologies to any Pagans hearing this if I have not correctly pronounced Imbolc

** 222 so far, with renewed apologies for the missing rhyme

*** No apologies whatsoever for the recycled lines in this verse

Cellar Singers Got Talent

The Cellar Singers showcased a dazzling array of talents with an informal pre-Valentine evening on the ninth day of February 2013 at St. James’s Anglican Church, Orillia. Fresh snow lay thick outside, cold, sparkling and quiet under a starry sky after days and nights of storms. Inside the Stubley Auditorium, Mitchell Pady’s flexible voice was evoking Gershwin’s “Summertime” to a delicious piano accompaniment by Blair Bailey.

That’s not all that was delicious. A mouth-watering display of desserts featuring strawberries and chocolate lured eye and palate at the back of the hall. The Cellar Singers are famous for delectable home-made goodies, proof of that pudding being in their recipe book, part of my collection for years. The buzz of anticipation was high as the room filled to capacity, well in advance of show time.

An octet composed of Liz Schamehorn, Anne Hall, Wilma Koiter, Rosemarie Freeman, Wayne Cox, Dave Stewart, John Jefferies and Adam Thomson, accompanied by Blair Bailey at the piano, launched an evening dedicated to romance with “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life” from Victor Herbert’s operetta, “Naughty Marietta”.

Ruth Bell-Towns hosted the talent show, sprinkling Valentine-inspired quotations and stories between acts, and keeping performers’ remarks as short and crisp as possible, with comic struggles as the occasional introduction took on a life of its own.

Debi MacKay’s harp vibrated to the compelling Latin-American rhythms of Alfredo Rolando Ortiz. The first of three compositions sounded like a serenade. The second piece breathed the sadness of a lost love, while the final selection evoked droplets falling from fountains in a plaza lined by houses with balcony windows open to let in the music and fragrances of a soft southern evening.

As in the 1954 movie “White Christmas” we had heaps of snow all around, and singers with lilting voices and comic sense to bring us a delightful double set of “Sisters”. Heather Philip, Alyx Mecalick, Vicky Malfait and Audrey Willsey, with Carolyn Grant at the piano, followed in the sprightly footsteps of Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen.

Romance followed in the form of noble aspirations and ambitions of grandeur. Armed with sword and shield, John Jefferies and Jim Barnett were stoutly supported by Blair Bailey in “The Impossible Dream” from Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion’s “Man of La Mancha”.

Wendell Fisher, Wayne Noble and Mitchell Pady warbled, wobbled and shuffled papers through a skit called “The Audition”, with an unpredictable happy ending.

Sopranos Nynka Greer and Kim McIntosh blended beautifully in the Flower Duet from “Lakme” by Leo Delibes. I keep mentioning accompanist Blair Bailey because his contribution is never the same as for the singers who sang before, but always underscores the particular talents of each artist and ensemble and creates a new and vibrant happening with them. Here, the word for singers and piano is, simply, “exquisite”.

Cole Porter’s sophisticated story of an oyster’s career in high society was rendered in excruciating detail by vocalist David James and pianist Blair Bailey, who then accompanied the barbershop quartet of Bill Fivey, Doug Hall Klaas Koiter and John Chiles in the nineteen-twenties hit, “Pretty Baby”, a favourite of my Dad’s.

The first time I saw this piece performed is vividly registered on my then ten-year-old brain when Dad dragged me to the Mt. Pleasant Theatre one evening. Up there on the big screen in black and white, Zazu Pitts at the drums was expertly stealing “Pretty Baby” from whomever was singing it, while bent on charming Charles Laughton in the classic movie, “Ruggles of Redgap”. Our boys of the 2013 Cellar Singers captured the essence and atmosphere of the great oldies in song and on screen.

Tuneful and engaging Canadian compositions followed the delectable refreshments and the Silent Auction. Singer song-writer Don Bray reminded me of a younger Valdy with his casual mastery of guitar and voice, while being very much himself. He stayed on stage to accompany fellow guitar virtuoso Mitchell Pady in a story song about meeting an old flame at a high school reunion. Two spell-binders.

Amy Dodington has a gift for unaccompanied singing of traditional Celtic legends like “She Moved Through the Fair”, that haunting Irish tale of doomed love. A pin-drop hush followed Amy’s voice and artistry before prolonged applause broke out.

We traveled back to the historic year 1066 when David James took the lectern to deliver in an authentic Stanley Holloway Yorkshire accent one of Marriott Edgar’s most popular history lessons, beginning: I'll tell of the Battle of Hastings, As happened in days long gone by, When Duke William became King of England, And 'Arold got shot in the eye. I suspect that David knows this monologue by heart, and only keeps the script handy for backup. Those monologues come with memorization software built into their engaging rhythm and rhyme. Our audience lapped this one up.

W.S. Gilbert’s elderly battle-axe from the court of the “Mikado” then took the stage. Under the made-up and full regalia of Katisha was Pauline Rideout, turning an impassive face and a deaf ear to Paul Dodington as Koko, the Lord High Executioner, who is trying to save his friends from a vat of boiling oil “after lunch” by an act of supreme sacrifice - wooing tough old maiden Katisha. His heart-wrenching ditty about a love-lorn tweety-bird who tossed himself into a river crying, “Tit-willow” proved very affecting, if not to the lady being courted onstage, then clearly to us in the audience, to judge from the tumultuous applause.

The glamorous duo Lynda and Jim Lewis glided through “I wouldn’t have nothin’ if I didn’t have you” from Randy Newman’s “Monsters Inc.” They shone and charmed.

Blair Bailey was to have played a duet if his intended partner at the keyboard had not injured her shoulder. Instead, he turned himself into Ragtime Bailey, and brought down the house with “Rialto Ripples" composed in 1917 by Geroge Gershwin and Will Donaldson.

Following this tour-de-force his contribution to “Summertime” from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” was breath-taking to us, and to tenor Mitchell Pady. The singer had his own winning way with this classic. Their soul-satisfying finale to a glittering evening left me, for one, still ready for more magic.