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Moderator: Joanna Maratta
Panel:
Dugg Simpson, Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Lindy Sisson, Vancouver International Children’s Festival
Pyllis Stenson, Harrison Festival

Joanna Maratta:
I’m Joanna Maratta, executive director with the BC Touring Council and this workshop is on Festivals -- Success in Programming Cultural Diversity.

It’s my great pleasure to introduce this workshop and panel session this morning, because for many years I was involved with a festival. My god, it sounds like, “Yes! I too was a festival junkie.”

I founded and produced the Vancouver Fringe Festival for many years and had the pleasure of working with two of the panellists.

Lindy is new to Vancouver but, my heart is certainly with the phenomena called ‘festival’ and it’s a great pleasure to have Dugg and Phyllis and Lindy with us here today. Especially because this marks the 25th Anniversary for the Vancouver International Childrens' Festival and the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Nest year, Phyllis will be celebrating her 25th Anniversary for the Harrison Festival. And it really, I think, attests to the life and the constant reinvention of festivals and my experience having moved from Vancouver to the regions, I live in the Kootenays, and watching the growth of festivals and events in rural communities, I think that it’s a natural way for communities to want to celebrate many things, be it a hundred year old May Day event, or weather its really a way to, I guess we talked in the last workshop, to begin to work with diverse communities within our communities such as First Nations and other cultural groups. There’s many ways people want to come together in Festivals.

This workshop and panel discussion is really to share in the success stories of festivals and how, for many years, these three festivals have provided audiences with a very rich diversity and variety of talent, of communities. Much of it has come from abroad but much of it has been developed within their festivals and prioritized over time and I know has formed a very important discussion and way that they think about how they programme their events to make sure that cultural diversity and representation from many different communities is part of their events.

I will now hand it over and like to introduce Dugg Simpson from the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Phyllis Stinson from the Harrison Festival and Lindy Sisson from the Vancouver International Children’s Festival.

Phyllis Stinson:
Well, I drew the short straw so I go first.

This is a topic I’m quite passionate about, that’s not to say I’ve always got it right but the passion is there none the less.

I really believe that presenters have an obligation to present programmes that reflect the cultural make-up of their community, and to also encompass the diversity of Canadian society and how we are all linked on a global scale.
I must say the music that’s really exciting for me today is when different cultures come together and come up with a blend of some of their traditions. That’s what I’m finding exciting today.

I grew up in Vancouver where a diverse population was more or less taken for granted. When I last checked, I think the public school system in Vancouver, there’s less than 35% of the population that’s Anglo-European.

When I moved to the Fraser Valley in the mid-70s, I was really first struck by the lack of diversity there. I learned that there’s more churches, per capita, in the Fraser Valley then anywhere else in North America, and the dominant population is certainly Anglo-European.

I got involved with the Festival in the mid-80s and I thought it would be a great thing to bring some artists and performers from different cultural backgrounds so people could get a taste of other world cultures. Over two years, working with the Vancouver Chinese and Japanese communities we presented artists and performers from those backgrounds.

Our festival runs for ten days and I want to say that these performances and artists were dispersed amongst the general programming with other artists and performers. It really bugs me sometimes to see a festival that puts on a little world stage back in a corner out in the bush or…

Dugg Simpson:
The ghetto programming style.

Phyllis Stenson:
Yes, yes. Well, you know, they’ve met some kind of programming obligation by doing that, but a bug of mine.

By 1987, the festival had grown quite significantly and we did two years of African programming. We were able to get a huge whack of funding from CIDA and working with Gary Crystal who was at the Vancouver Folk Festival at the time, we were able to bring performers who had never been outside their villages in Africa before and a lot of times these performers would come to Harrison first before they went to Vancouver.

Combined with having little first hand information ourselves about the African culture and the culture shock experienced by some of the African Artists visiting the Western World for the first time, it provided for some pretty confusing, exciting and challenging times. And funny experiences, too, of course.

Now, for ten days, the village of Harrison Hot Springs was full of black people. This was quite a rare sight because I had realized in the Fraser Valley at that time, there was about four black people living in Chilliwack at the time.

A few days before the event, I’d just wake up in a cold sweat at the thought of completely changing the cultural identity of a whole town.

One of my favourite stories during this time was, I had contacted our MP who was a Conservative MP at the time, of course in the Fraser Valley, to track down a much needed cheque in Ottawa that was sitting on somebody’s desk.

Now, he was really willing and ready to help us, but after I hung up he called me back a few seconds later and said, ‘Could you please just tell me again why you’re bringing all these African people to Harrison?’

My meek reply was, ‘Because there aren’t any?’

Since that time we’ve done many sessions with performers and artists on racism, women’s issues and human rights. With that funding from CIDA, we held a symposium each year, and along with qualified international speakers, involved performers in discussing topics such as human rights in African Developing countries and the disappeared in Central America.

We incorporated music, art and theatre as part of the programme. For example the Vouses Siswe Players from South Africa’s production ‘You Strike the Woman, You Strike the Rock.’

While many performers, artists and festival goers fondly remember these times, after fifteen years we still often get comments form the local people who will say, ‘Oh, we don’t go to the Festival. It’s nothing but drums.’

I view this as a totally racist remark. For heaven sakes, what culture doesn’t use a drum?

Our festival has a mandate to present many diverse cultures, both during the festival and its year-round programming. Even, though I know there’s some funders in the room, and thank goodness things have changed considerably, there was a time when I’d have some serious arguments with Canadian funders who insisted that these culturally diverse artists were not professional performers ad did no qualify for funding. ‘Music and dance is part of their culture, it’s something they do all day long anyway,’ that was often the argument given. Things have thankfully improved a lot and I could go on about this for a while, but these are stories for another day.

The Fraser Valley is also home to one of the largest aboriginal populations in Canada. There are over 6000 aboriginal first nations people comprising some 26 bands. There’s also 5000 Metis people living between Mission and Chilliwack.

People in the Valley boast that they have lived amicably, side-by-side for over a hundred years but it’s very obvious that the aboriginal people are regarded as second-class citizens by many.

We’ve worked extensively with first nations communities in presenting performers, artists and theatre, both at the festival and during other times of the year.

It’s taken several years to build a trust and we now enjoy strong audience participation from local aboriginal people.

I know a lot of these things were touched on in the last session, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat them. It is extremely important in building that trust to work in consultation with these communities if you want them to come. It means doing the research on what you are presenting and learning about the communication protocol. As was mentioned in the last session, face-to-face communication is really important. And working to put a programme in place together is necessary to ensure the success of the project.

Just as an example, a couple of years ago, my cohort Dugg and I wanted to do quite an extensive Metis programme at the Festival. The first step we did was we both did a lot of research on the history and the culture, music and dance of the Metis people and we came up with a list of possible artists and performers.

Through the research, I found a good contact in Mission, a woman who did Metis educational programmes in the schools and, more importantly, who herself was quite highly regarded by the Metis community. She was really helpful in assisting us in putting together a list of possible performers and artists. But, before we could proceed, we had to meet with the Elders and get their blessing for the project.

So, Dugg and I met, I think it was in Surrey somewhere…

Dugg Simpson:
It was indeed. Somewhere.

Phyllis Stenson:
And took a Sunday to meet with the Elders, explain to them what kinds of things we wanted to do and what we planned to do for the artists and performers that were coming.

So we had their blessing before we went ahead.

This meeting was absolutely invaluable in securing our credibility so that, not only the Metis people would come, but the artists and performers felt comfortable about coming, too.

It didn’t take long to get the word out.

They are up and running on the Internet and it was just wonderful to get the word out so quickly and have that support.

I also had the pleasure of attending a Metis gathering that was held in New Westminster and met a lot of the people there too, so there was quick an excitement that built around the programming before it happened and they were very supportive.

Of course, this protocol is extremely important with First Nations people as well. You need credibility from the community if you want them to come.

And it’s not just about putting performers on the stage, you should respect the community by having a Chief or Elder welcome people with an opening prayer to their traditional territory at the performance. Even at our Metis celebration Opening Night, the Chehalis people came to welcome the Metis to their traditional territory.

This turned out to be quite a moving ceremony because the Metis people have not wholly been embraced by the general population as being aboriginal people.

Outreach work is also important.

We often arrange for aboriginal performers to visit First Nations areas and aboriginal communities to share a welcome meal, meet the Elders, visit some ofthe historical sites and perhaps, reciprocate with a performance.

A couple of examples that we’ve done:

We presented the First Nations play, Out of the Silence that was a Headlines Theatre Production and it was about domestic violence and sexual abuse. Now we presented the play in Harrison, we also presented it at the Chiacton Hall on the Chiacton Reserve in Chilliwack. We made sure we had First Nations councillors present in case there were any disclosures.

Another example: Students were bussed from public and First Nation run schools from as far away as Lilloette to shows like Margo Kane’s ‘Moon Lodge.’

We made arrangements for Margo to give a workshop for some young dancers at Chehalis and she’s often visited that community on her own.

Last March, we took on a huge project, I’m sure if I knew how big it was going to be I wouldn’t have got involved. We produced a play ourselves called Medicine that was locally written and was about life in Residential schools. And again we had councillors from the Provincial Residential Project available each night for support. It was a locally written play and there was a cast of 8, seven in the cast were First Nations people and two of them played Nuns, so of the three Nuns, two were First Nations so it was very interesting mix. One of the young women came to the audition because her father had been in Residential School and wanted to learn more about it. We were able to hire an aboriginal intern director for that project. The stage managers, there was a woman who came who didn’t want to be on stage but wanted to be behind the scenes. She had been to residential school and thought it would be good for her own personal healing. The opening night reception was catered by a First Nations business. All the chiefs and the Elders in the area were invited as our guests. We commissioned a First Nations artists by the name of Sheldon Williams from the Heltzic nation in Bella Coola to design the programme and poster. He remembers as a young child going down to the docks with his Grandmother when the boats came to take the children to the school in Mission. So there was a connection there and Sheldon’s design did go to the Elders and got the blessing of his community before we were able to use it. The design was of a hummingbird, which, to his people was a sign of healing. I was absolutely thrilled at the opening reception when Sheldon presented me with this gift that he made which is the hummingbird so this is a gift I’ll treasure for quite a while.

It was also mentioned in the previous session, we do give discount rates to aboriginal people when they purchase tickets because we want them to come. Many local bands now buy blocks of tickets to give to their Elders and members.

All these initiatives have worked very well in gaining the respect and confidence form aboriginal communities. This may seem like a lot of extra work but I find the rewards are well worth the effort. That special magic that happens on stage and the connections with the audience all remind me of why I do what I do.

It was also mentioned that audience education is important: visits with the artists after the show, background information on where performers are from, what instruments they use, what their cultural traditions are, it’s all got to be part of the plan.

Having said all that, not everyone has appreciated our efforts.

When we presented a significant First Nations component at our 1999 event, I had a woman tell me that her friends from Chilliwack didn’t want to come to the festival this year. ‘Well, you’re doing all that Native stuff and things have been so unsettled lately.’ I had to assume she was talking about treaty negotiation breakdowns and there had been some roadblocks and other peaceful demonstrations. I told her it was the reason her friends should come, get to know your neighbours in a non-threatening environment. Another woman after another group performed in our outdoor plaza, which was basically a free performance, didn’t like a song from one of the groups because it dealt with sexual abuse and thought it didn’t have any place at a festival. My reply again was perhaps you should get to know these people and why the songs are important to their healing. And I did have quite a discussion with her about censorship, too, but that’s for another day as well.

How do I handle this type of negativity, particularly in a small community?

And we really are sitting ducks there. Our office is on the main street in Harrison, it’s open five days a week, twelve months a year and certainly feel welcome to come in and tell us what we’re not doing right and have lots of suggestions and we bring them in and give them a cup of coffee.

I mean, to mean, it’s the community that has taken ownership of the event if they feel comfortable enough to walk through the door and tell us everything we’re doing wrong. I just thank them for their comments; everybody’s entitled to an opinion, and more often than not, may try to have a sensible discussion. Sometimes it doesn’t work, so I just remind myself of all the positive comments we receive and the relationships that are being built.

This is another favourite of mine. During the last two decades I’ve often been criticized by many including other presenters. Their main complaint is that I am a white middle-class woman presenting a culture that is not my own. Appropriation and colonialism are two words that come to mind. I don’t see myself as imposing one culture on another. Festivals are meant to be celebrations and they are highly accessible, they provide a positive a friendly atmosphere to learn about people of different backgrounds.

The Festival itself is only providing the infrastructure, not only so that audiences may expand their experiences, but so that other cultures can see themselves on stage, and I think that’s really important. Many aboriginal groups in the Fraser Valley agree with this philosophy. Our relationship is built so that if they run across a performer or artist that they would really like to see or have their students see, they’ll call us up and say is there any way you can help make this happen. I mean, we have the means, we have the infrastructure.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I’ve always tried to be honest, receptive and willing to learn. I guess my advice would be to do the research, learn the protocol, don’t do anything without consultation and always be respectful.

Thank you.

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