‘Wizard of Rez’ a hit at pow-wow

By Margaret Hele

GARDEN RIVER FN – Each year, six summer students employed through the Canada Summer Jobs Program, Service Canada, are hired by The Garden River Community Trust to assist in the promotion and preparation of the annual vote for the projects that have been proposed by the First Nation.

This year’s group of students designed promotional material such as posters, pamphlets and announcements which they distributed to the community by mail and door-to-door.

By arranging visits with citizens, the students were able to promote the Trust and answer questions regarding the annual vote on a more personal basis.

These students came forth with suggestions for a play that they titled “The Wizard of Rez” – a version of “The Wizard of Oz”. Using these ideas student Ian Thompson penned the play which was tweaked as they practised.

The performances, which are part of their work, took place at the Garden River pow-wow for three days, entertaining 25 people per performance.

The production was videotaped and DVDs for the Trust will be used for educational purposes.

“The number of viewers was a large improvement over last years and hopefully we were able to spread the message of the Trust to those who saw the play,” said Thompson, “as well as to anyone who saw the banners, flyers and many other items that were distributed throughout the community.”

In order to make the Trust more visible to the community the students also came up with the idea of designing colourful T-shirts which would promote the Trust community approval vote and the play “The Wizard of Rez”.

The successful vote will determine if the community approves of $80,000 to be spent on the seven projects which departments of Garden River have proposed.