Red Sky Performance offers wisdom, insight, and humour to inaugural session of the Wisdom Keeper Series
By Rick Garrick
TORONTO — Red Sky Performance plans to re-run the inaugural REDTalks: Wisdom Keeper Series webinar with Senator Murray Sinclair and Lee Maracle on June 20 during its National Indigenous Peoples Week celebration.
“We’re going to offer that again because so many people were asking for it,” says Sandra Laronde, executive and artistic director at Red Sky Performance and moderator of the 90-minute Wisdom Keeper webinar. “It will be the second showing — it’s back by popular demand.”
The Wisdom Keeper webinar was held on May 20 with more than 4,800 registrants from across Canada, the United States, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and other countries on the Zoom platform.
“It went extremely well,” Laronde says. “It’s just basically looking at the [COVID-19] pandemic from an Indigenous perspective. It went so well and so many people were saying, ‘Where can I see it? I heard about it. Can I see it? Are you doing it again?’”
Laronde says the Wisdom Keeper webinar was originally set for an audience of 500 people but they had to increase it to 5,000 people due to the high demand.
“A lot of people are looking for messages of hope,” Laronde says, noting that Sinclair’s response to her question about what is wisdom is posted on the Red Sky Performance Facebook page. “His response to that is just beautiful. He explains what is wisdom to him and I think people are looking for that — they are looking for guidance and wisdom at this time, and clearly they are looking for hope and a way through all of this.”
Sinclair says in his comments posted on the Red Sky Performance Facebook page, that wisdom keepers have the obligation to respond to what people ask of them.
“And when people ask us a question, we have the obligation to be truthful in the way that we respond to it,” Sinclair says. “People who understand what is being asked of them, and how can they respond in a kind and gentle and respectful way, I think really defines what it means to be a wise person. I don’t know that it’s only about knowledge. I think in my experience and when people come to me and ask me a question, it’s often they just want to be reassured that they’re doing the right thing.”
Red Sky Performance is also holding a June 19 virtual performance of Mistatim Gallops Across Canada followed by a Social Round Up in the chat room with the artists on Zoom. An award-winning production, Mistatim is a story of reconciliation about the taming of a wild horse and the truest of friendships.
“It’s a story for children from the ages of six to 12, but parents and teachers really enjoy it,” Laronde says. “It’s a story of reconciliation that we created for children so children can start talking about and feeling what reconciliation could look like at the ages of six, seven and eight and have those conversations. A million children have seen the live performance of Mistatim, so that is pretty exceptional.”
Laronde says a June 21 REDTalk and Performance will also be held on Zoom. The events are being held at no cost for participants.
“We really wanted to make the first one and what we have coming up next as being free for everybody just so we build profile for people to get to know us in a different way,” Laronde says.
Red Sky Performance previously held Mistatim Live Online, a live reading for young audiences, teachers and parents, May 5 on Zoom.