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Making a Dramatic Differencepage 3

"We've always been a studied people, so I started studying the English and their history," Big Head says with a laugh. "In talking with Narcisse Blood (a former Tribal council member and now on the Board of Education), he tells me Chief Red Crow's shirt is in the national museum in London. Also, George Coming Singer, a World War I veteran from here, is buried in England and we had planned to visit his grave and place tobacco there."

However, they cancelled their trip because of the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Britain. Instead 15 students and four chaperones went to New York city.

"In past years the [local] Warriors basketball team has gone to Japan, England, Ireland, and Mexico, and the girls' team is going to Cuba this year. I asked, 'What about those kids who just like reading and don't play sports?' I thought we should do something for them. We secured support from local people and backing from Blood Tribe Social Development.

"New York was awesome," Big Head says with the sparkle still in her voice, as she recalls the Broadway shows they saw.

This summer Big Head also met with Jennifer Kelly, an instructor with Red Crow College on the reserve, through the University of Lethbridge. Kelly says many of her students talk and write about their residential school experiences.

"She has commissioned me to get all their stories together and work with her to combine them. I will then write and direct a play on those boarding school experiences. We are looking at April, and the first time we show it will be at the Southern Alberta High School Drama Festival. It will be the first time I've ever done scriptwriting, but Carl is going to help me. He was raised by parents and grandparents who have gone through that system.

"I don't want it to be a depressing play, but I do want it to be truthful. In August of 2002, Treaty 7 will host the World Indigenous Education Conference at Kananaskis, and they want me to showcase the play there as well."

You can bet it will be well worth seeing, as Ramona Big Head sets out on a new venture to involve her students in drama and the legacy of the Blood people.
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Reprinted with the permission from Garry Allison and Legacy (Winter 2001): 27-28.
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