MANITOWANING—This year’s edition of the Debajehmujig Storytellers 6-Foot Festival expanded to include fashion shows featuring five outstanding Indigenous designers, an evening of jazz through an Indigenous lens, traditional tattooing and many activities for all ages.
“We have been very pleased with how the festival has been unfolding,” said organizer Ashley Manitowabi. Mr. Manitowabi is the host of the YouTube channel Galloping Horse and many of the evening proceedings were telecast onto the internet.
As usual, the core of the festival was provided by Indigenous artists creating visions within the confines of a six-foot cube. The boundaries of the walls of the cubes help to condense the artist’s visions into a space that liberates as much as those cubes were spread across the Debajehmujig Creation Centre, both inside and out.
“This has been a great festival,” said artist Lauren Satok of Manitowaning, whose six-foot cube was one of those outside and on the land. “We have had a lot of fun meeting and talking with people.”
The festival began with a pipe ceremony, followed by well-attended evening of round dance honouring the residential school survivors, a theme that continued throughout the days of the festival. “Thank you for your resilience and your contribution to our communities,” said Debaj general manager Lynda Trudeau in inviting residential school survivors to join them at the round dance.
Jazz musician Chuck Copenace provided the Saturday evening entertainment that included food and drink as well as an opportunity to see an outstanding live jazz performance. Mr. Copenace noted that the horn was not a part of his upbringing, but that was hard to believe when confronted by his playing of same. The quintet’s smooth dulcet tones can be heard and seen online on the Debaj Facebook page.
“I never grew up around the drum so I couldn’t take part in that,” said Mr. Copenace, but a friend pointed out to him that he is a melody carrier and that the music swirling around in his head gets an outlet when he plays. “I provide the structure,” he said, “but I don’t control what the other guys play, so every night is different.”
Different is the name of the game when it comes to creativity and Debaj has once again delivered that creativity, albeit in six-foot square chunks.
