Doreen Evans & Jack Lowe are two of Fort Qu’appelle’s more senior residents who recount some of the more colourful stories you won’t necessarily read in the history books. Recorded inside the old Central School, now home to the newly restored Qu’appelle Valley Centre for the Arts.
Driving back from my second visit to Waldheim, my traveling companions and I decided to take a little detour. We veered off course a bit to visit a place I have been wanting to see for years: The Crooked Forest.
Adding to my own anticipation, the detour took us down two unmarked dirt roads–the latter significantly narrower than the first. And then, all of a sudden, in the proverbial ‘middle of nowhere’ was a grove of unusual trees, with a small sign designating that we had reached our destination.
The Aspen in this bush are crooked, gnarled and shaped in such a way that they are worth the trip just for the visual experience alone. In some places the trees twist along the ground, and then in other places they coil through the air.
According to the sign the trees are “a botanical mystery.” And indeed they are. But I mention them here for another reason.
In the Crooked Forest!
After posting this photo on Facebook and describing my own experience–bodily sensations, batteries being drained, cell service immediately ending, etc. – I received numerous replies telling similar tales. People not only shared their experiences but they also explained their rationale for the mysterious trees.
A Google search amplified the plethora of local folklore ten-fold. The explanations for said forest ranged from alien urine, to energy vortexes, to bacteria.
Regardless of the reason why these trees grow they way they do, the effect of their peculiarity in terms of culture, is a stark reminder of the importance of place in local folklore. In this instance, this tiny grove of trees is the source of countless stories and tall tales. This grove of unusual trees is a microcosmic example of how local folklore defines a people and community.
The stories we tell about geographical phenomena, old buildings, landmarks of various sorts, places of significance in general, all help to form and define our communities. They tie people together via experience and belief and create micro-cultures that contribute to a larger, more diverse macro-culture.
One of the Culture Days projects I am facilitating is a collaboration between Rockin’ Beach, Arts in the Park Festival, Rockglen Library and Rockglen School. We are going to make origami boats during the summer and early fall. Then on the Culture Days weekend, we will put a small candle in them and set them afloat on Fife Lake during a dusk gathering at Rockglen Beach.
The kick-off for this project took place at the Arts in the Park Festival (June 14) at Rockglen School. This wonderful little festival included all genres of art: live music, award winning authors, painters, knitters, quilting, photography and more.
I nestled in between an incredible Fibre/Earth Art display that investigated the aesthetics of decomposition on fibre and a young entrepreneur who aspires to be a ‘nail artist.’ And judging from the continuous line of customers I’d say that ten year old is well on her way to actualizing her dream.
I had approximately 20 people stop and make a boat, and I’m sure I talked to at least another twenty about our endeavours.
Many from an older generation stopped to tell me they had made such boats in school, and that they could remember it clearly.
Making origami boats!
Even fun for the boys!
I have made plans to return to the community a couple more times to carry-out more workshops: once in the Regional Library and once at the School.
Come join us! And watch for the boats during Culture Days!
Louis Stringer is one of the foremost authorities on the history of Gravelbourg. He opens the doors of the town museum and takes me on a journey from prehistoric times to the present. There is no mistaking Louis passion for this area.
As a university instructor, it’s nice to switch things up and work with kids in elementary school. In Moose Jaw, I had a wonderful time getting to know a group of enthusiastic Grade 6 and 7 students at King George School.
One of my favourite sayings is “the shortest distance between two people is a story” and it proved to be true, yet again, as we got to know one another through our stories. I stood back and watched as kids discovered details about their classmates’ lives and saw one another from new perspectives. They demonstrated empathy and were able to recognize similarities in their shared experiences.
One girl, new to the school, spent some time in a foster home and did her story on singing as her hobby, which she says has helped her through tough times. She narrates, “When I’m singing, I feel something that I’ve never felt before… Even though I have really low self-esteem, my voice has always been something I love about myself.” Another girl did her story on moving to Canada from Ireland and included the detail of how funny she thought the name Moose Jaw was when she and her family first heard it. One boy did his story on building a garden in his backyard with his mother. He discovered his love for assembling wooden garden beds and growing vegetables. There were stories about BFFs, siblings and parents.
I tell the students in my workshops that good non-fiction stories almost always touch on a universal experience — one that the listener can relate to, or that incites the listener to look at their own experiences differently. These stories did just that.
(photo credits: Kim Wilchynski)
Once the pallets were set in place, the Grade 1 & 2 classes of JH Moore set about planting the seeds they had sprouted the previous month, as well as new seeds from packets.
Low laying plants or ‘greens’ (such as lettuce, swiss char, spinach, beets, etc.) were planted in the horizontal pallets. Trailing or ‘vine’ plants (such as peas and beans) were planted in the vertical pallet planters.
Yesterday and today we are painting tires!
It’s been raining the last couple days that I went to Lashburn, so we haven’t been able to work on our vegetable garden as planned. So we changed our focus, moved indoors, and began painting tires in preparation for our tire planter garden.
But, first the students needed to learn some colour theory: primary colours, colour mixing, the colour wheel, cross-complimentary, etc
The pallet garden at JH Moore School in Lashburn is coming together. Despite the weather, we carried on in our endeavour June 6, 9, & 10.
First, we laid out the pallets on the front lawn and organized them according to colour, shape, and wood type. Then, after watching a demonstration on how to turn the pallet into a planter the students broke off into groups of four or five and began to emulate the demonstration they just witnessed. The lessons learned in this simple demonstration and reenactment were many–simple things like how to lift, how to hammer, how to measure, how to cooperate, and so on.
I’m guessing the students would say the highlight of this phase of the garden was hammering. They were thrilled to learn and ‘be allowed to’ use this hand tool. So enthralled were they with this aspect of the project that the slight hail storm went virtually unnoticed.
In terms of intangible culture, I underestimated the significance of things like hammering. A few of the students had held a hammer before, had struck a nail. Most, however, had never done such things. In terms of heritage, where would we be without ‘hammering’? Many, if not all, of the heritage buildings on our prairies (old barns and farm houses) were constructed by hand. And the early fences that shape and define this province, they too were constructed with hammer in hand.
Bearing this in mind, it gave me a strange feeling of nostalgia to watch these youth eagerly learn to hammer. To try and try again without frustration, to strike that tiny spoke of metal.
My hosts, Jan Johnston and Neil Jones join me after a fantastic home cooked breakfast and share their stories of how they came to Rockglen and their passion for presenting live music and exhibiting original art. Swift Current painter/musician Ken Christopher joins us, and Brenda Feuerstein is back!
Rockglen residents Jan Johnston and painter/musician Neil Jones open their home to me and invite over a dozen of their local musician friends for evening house party jam session. Share in the stories of some warm hearted folks and some great live music too!