Red Hawk

Have I mentioned before that I LOVE my city library? They have the most wonderful events, speakers and programs throughout the year. Last night was WONDERFUL!

The library hosted Native American storyteller Red Hawk and it was FABULOUS!

As you can see, Red Hawk was dressed in traditional Cherokee clothing. During the 1 hour presentation, he taught us several words in his native tongue. I doubt the spelling is right, but here they are: the word for hello (pronounced O C O) I understand (pronounced a-ho) and a lovely war cry that was really similar to "hoo-wah" that you hear the marines yell on occasion.

Red Hawk taught us some of the traditional drumming rhythms and helped debunk a lot of the myths about the erroneous and stereotypical drumming in movies. The 30 or so children and 50+ adults had a wonderful being his drummers (using our hands on our knees) as he walked us through several rhythms and their meanings.

Several volunteers were chosen to learn traditional Cherokee dances as well. The boy in the red shirt is from my Native American co-op class, and the name we gave him is Wise Owl.

The stories were entertaining, engaging and had good morals. One point he made, was are the things you're giving your time and attention to matter when you're 98? Good question in a lot of areas!

At the end, he played part of a lovely song on his flute. We learned that women in his culture are not allowed to play, or even touch a flute, because it's a instrument used for love songs for the men to use to woo their women.

If you ever have the opportunity to attend a presentation by Red Hawk, I strongly recommend it!