Language and art focus of festival

Transcript Staff

The Norman Public Library will focus on the art of storytelling at its fifth annual Native American Festival, 1-6 p.m. Sunday at the library, 225 N. Webster Ave.

Activities will focus on preservation and celebration of Native languages and storytelling through traditional and non-traditional formats.

"Each year we have a different theme," said event organizer Julie Moring. "Our first four years have focused on honoring local Native American educators, Native American veterans, prominent Native Americans from Oklahoma and, last year, Oklahoma's Native American Athletes both past and present.

"2009 finds us looking at the literary art of storytelling. This year's theme, 'Living Stories,' looks at storytelling as being something live and fluid and expressive. Storytelling can take place through words, art, music, dance and so much more."

Storytellers Kricket Rhoades Connywerdy and Patrick Redbird will share stories from various Native cultures. The Oklahoma Fancy Dancers will demonstrate how dancing, as a narrative art, can tell stories in a more abstract way.

"Most Native arts and crafts are narrative in some way," Moring said. "The Tribes Gallery of Norman has prepared an exhibit for the library that illustrates how moods, emotions and sometimes specific activities or actual events are expressed through the arts of painting, pottery, sculpture, weaving and other media."

Caddo artist Jereldine Redcorn of Norman will be a featured guest at the event. Redcorn was named the 2009 Honored One at the OKC Red Earth festival held in June. One of Redcorn's pottery pieces was chosen by President Barack Obama to be on display in the Oval Office of the White House.

Redcorn, who uses the same pottery techniques as those used by her Caddo ancestors, said the Obamas' artwork selections represented "a bridge, and a reaching out to other cultures."

"I'm a traditional Caddo potter, reviving it from how it was made 500 to 600 years ago," Redcorn said. "I want to make them just like my ancestors did and try to replicate the tools they used, and what was in their minds when they tried it."

Despite the difficulties of the process, Redcorn wanted to revive the style because, she says, no one else was doing it, and because she wants to share the "wonderfully abstract" nature of Caddo design with others.

Just as Redcorn works to preserve ancient Native pottery techniques, a group of Norman students has been working to preserve ancient Native languages.

A documentary video about the dying languages of American Indian tribes, "When It's Gone It's Gone," has received state honors for the students, and is being used in classrooms as a teaching tool. The video will be shown during the festival and student producers will be on hand to describe the process and to answer questions about their work.

To illustrate the beauty and expressive quality of Native languages, local students will sing songs in several languages during the library festival.

"The more formal presentations, the dancing, the singing, the opening ceremony, will take place in the Lowry Room, but we will have activities going on all over the library," Moring said.

Members of the congregation of Norman First American United Methodist Church will have Indian tacos for sale in the library's AB meeting rooms. In the children's area, librarians will guide young people through theme-related crafts. Adults can shop the Native Marketplace in the main library and browse the library's collection of related materials. Outside the library, weather permitting, a traditional tipi will be erected.

"We have so much going on that day that we are keeping the library open for an extra hour," Moring said.

The Norman Public Library Native American Festival is sponsored by the Pioneer Library System, Friends of the Norman Library, Norman Arts Council, Oklahoma Arts Council, Oklahoma History Center, Norman Public Schools Indian Education, and Norman First American United Methodist Church.

For more information about this event, call Moring at 701-2600, visit the library, or log on to www.justsoyouknow.us. The Norman Public Library is part of the Pioneer Library System.

Photo Provided

Patrick Redbird was Master of Ceremonies for the 2008 Norman Public Library Native American Festival. The 2009 event will be 1-6 p.m. Sunday at the library, 225 N. Webster Ave.