Orality in Community
Celebrating Ancestral Voices
This Spring, join award winning Actor, Playwright and Storyteller Columpa Bobb at Massey Theatre's community and creativity hub! (winter/spring programming)
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"Orality in Community" is a new spring/summer workshop series where participants come together weekly to engage in this Indigenous practice with Columpa Bobb and guest experts.
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Our Salish Orality is the art of speaking, storytelling and knowledge transmission. Join our weekly gathering to learn this Indigenous art form and continue the ancestral practice.​ Improve speech, storytelling and communication skills, express your creativity and connect with the community!
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During this project we will honor and celebrate indigenous speeches from our history through exploration and conversation. Strengthen your understanding of storytelling and bring the ancestral art of indigenous knowledge transmission to life. This project culminates in a performance of ancestral speeches for an invited audience.
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Click the button to participate in this project!
Chief Seattle
"Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion on our fathers for centuries untold, and which, to us, looks eternal, may change. Today it is fair, tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never set."
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Speech to Governor and Commissioner of Indian Affairs of Washington Isaac Stevens as transcribed by Dr. Henry Smith
Lee Maracle
"We will need to nourish our imagination
To include a new equality
And summon our souls, hearts, and minds to a justice
Which includes all life"
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Poem Blind Justice
Chief Dan George
"​So shall we shatter the barriers of our isolation. So shall the next hundred years be the greatest in the proud history of our tribes and nations."
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Speech Lament for Confederation at Canada's 100th anniversary celebration
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Programming
​Programming:
Indigenous Youth programming
Acting/Improvisation
Consulting
Empowerment
Community building
Cultural competency
Orality in Action
Made to order; Custom programming
Columpa Bobb is an expert in administering programming and training for youth and adults. With nearly forty years of experience as an instructor for theatre companies and theatre schools across Canada, youths in elementary, secondary and post secondary educational institutions, and grassroots community projects. Columpa is the founding Artistic Director of Aboriginal Arts, the founding Artistic Executive Director of Urban Indigenous, and a founding member of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance. With years of experience and passion for educating and facilitating theatre, Columpa Bobb is a programming extraordinaire.
Tania Carter is highly experienced in program management through assisting Columpa Bobb at Aboriginal Arts. She is an experienced administrator, frontline outreach worker and multi-artist. Tania loves children and wishes to help build kid's confidence and strengthen her community through the arts. Her Masters degree in Theatre, professional acting experience and frontline outreach experience make her the perfect addition to the programming duo.
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