Allan Hayton
The elders I grew up with in Artic Village would tell stories about Deenaadai' Gwanaa. the "distant time". This was a time when we were all one. The trees, the rocks, the animals, and the people were relatives and spoke the same language. I understood this "distant time" as the imagination, the source where all stories originate. In this distant time many fantastical things are possible. But more than escapism, our stories often meant survival. We told stories in the winter, the summer was too busy working and getting stored up for the long cold months. When an elder finished telling a story, they would say "now I have bitten off a piece of the winter". This meant we where one story closer to the spring thaw and the return of a plentiful summer. The theatre is a space for ideas, a place for many journeys, transformations, and "ReGenerations" of the spirit.
-- Allan Hayton
T-Ginc as Bear and Delinda Pushetonequa as Bear Woman
in "The Woman Who Married A Bear"
Basil Bad Road and T-Ginc
Allan Hayton telling the story of "The Woman Who Married A Bear"
Nick Wilder in "The Woman Who Married A Bear"