A HEALING JOURNEY EXPRESSED THROUGH THE ARTS
Emerging Elder-in-Residence Joseph Naytowhow .
In October 2018 , the Faculty of Education ' s emerging Elder-in- Residence , Joseph Naytowhow , a Plains / Woodland Cree ( nêhiyaw ) singer , songwriter , storyteller , actor , and educator from the Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan , was recognized by the Saskatchewan Arts Board with an award for his contributions to arts and learning . Naytowhow says this award is significant to him , attributing the recognition to " the children and the people I work with , the teachers , and educators , and I share this award with them ."
This isn ' t the first award for Naytowhow , whose work has been recognized by several awards : the 2006 Canadian Aboriginal Music Award ’ s Keeper of the Tradition Award , a 2005 Commemorative Medal for the Saskatchewan Centennial , the 2009 Gemini Award for Best Individual or Ensemble Performance in an Animated Program or Series for his role in Wapos Bay , the 2009 Best Emerging Male Actor at the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival for his role in Run : Broken Yet Brave and the Best Traditional Male Dancer at the John Arcand Fiddle Fest .
Naytowhow says he appreciates the awards he receives from Saskatchewan , valuing them as " gifts that validate that I have needed both worlds . They ’ re inseparable ." He considers the awards , as " marking posts in my life that indicated to me that I was someone who had something to share , — I think it validated what I was doing in the spiritual and cultural worlds : nêhiyaw ( Cree person ) and nêhiyawêwin ( speaking Cree ), practicing nêhiyawisîhcikêwin ( Cree culture and ceremony ). All I was doing was Indigenous ceremony and culture because that was my life force , my life source ."
At the same time it is difficult to receive the awards because , for Naytowhow , art has never been about recognition . He says , " Sometimes you don ’ t believe it when you ’ ve been given an award because it ' s come from the place that you ' ve suffered through and healed through ... Everything that I did was about healing . Returning to balance . Everything was about that ."
Naytowhow has invested a lifetime in healing from the trauma of being taken from his family and community at the age of 6 , and placed in Indian residential schools for the next 13 years .
" What I went through is one thing , right , 13 years of residential school , is one thing , but you never really understood what you were experiencing academically in education . It didn ’ t make sense . I didn ’ t come from that world . I didn ’ t come from Shakespeare ; I didn ’ t come from math , or from overseas , and yet I was totally immersed in that , and just totally struggled to get through it every step of the way ."
When Naytowhow graduated from highschool , it wasn ' t due to academic achievement : " It was like a bull dozer
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