Yes, I think that it’s really, really important in schools especially. When it’s a mix school when you have Native and non-Native kids, a lot of times there is a lot of discrimination.
A lot of times, the Native kids are made to feel like they need to sit in the corner. A lot of times they’re not the focus of positive attention.
When we come into a school as storytellers, as dancers, musicians, as theatre people, we come in as a Native company. We come in as Kehewin Native Performance. When we do that, the Native children, the Native teenagers feel like they have power.
They feel that there is another Native person coming in and that they know something. They know something that they’re going to share with their school and they feel a certain amount of pride in that. But also they feel a certain amount of pride in getting to know these stories and realizing how important their own history is to them, and, yes, I think that instills a lot of pride in the Native community.