A brand new Sealaska Heritage Institute program beginning in March aims to develop more Indigenous performers and actors in the Lingit language.
Ed Littlefield is a teacher at Naakahidi Academy. Naakahidi Academy and sat down with the KTOO’s Chloe Pleznac to talk about the kind of students he would like to see as well as his hopes for the course.
This video interview is edited to improve clarity and length.
Chloe Pleznac: Hello, Ed! Gunalcheesh thanks for joining me today to discuss this newly launched Naakahidi Academy program that will begin in March. In the beginning I would like to ask you to describe the name? What exactly does it mean, and what does it mean to illustrate your expectations as an instructor in this course?
Ed Littlefield: Gunalcheesh! Thank you for allowing me join you … The purpose of this academy will help to prepare the next generation of performers as well as Indigenous people, to learn the diverse ways of performing arts. We’re inviting, I believe, 20 seats. 20 slots are to be filled. We’re trying to fill those spaces with performers who are already performing or performing. We’ll dance and movement, and dancing, as well as some language exercises. Excellent teachers and cultural leaders Lance Twitchell, Xeetli.eesh Lyle James and myself Vera Starbard and it’s gonna be amazing. We’re working on what, can we improve the traditional methods in telling tales? What can we do to bring those into the future, for many years to be? and different ways to do this?
Chloe Pleznac:What do potential participants can expect from the entire program?
Ed Littlefield: Well, the first meeting will be held will sound like much however, it’s actually three hours, from 9 a.m. until 12, on the 11th and 12th of March. So two different days. We’re going to begin by doing some language practice with X’unei. We’ll try discover how we can pronounce certain words that we’ve got, like in order to put some the basics of language into our system. It’s always good to have an opportunity to work on language. The second hour mostly focuses on movement and dance and we’ll listen take a look at Xeetli.eesh as well as Daxkil.atch Kolene James, are hoping to aid us with some contemporary dances, for example, the art of telling stories using our bodies. It’s not dance, as we perform in our rituals. It’s more about the act of moving with purpose. How do we share our story? Then, the final one or two hours are spent when I’m practicing some singing technique, like how to perform loud and confidently but not panicking. So, I’ve composed a couple of Lingit vocal warmups that might be interesting to work with the Lingit vowels. there’s a variety of words that are used in many choirs when you grow older, and there’s a lot of vowels like a the, e, I, and u. However, there’s not any Lingit vowels … and then it’s also tied to the language we use by using the X’unei. Therefore, singing is performing the words. It’s awesome to be able to combine all of it. We’ve got two days to enjoy the 11th and 12.
Chloe Pleznac: Is this program only for those who have previous acting or performing experience in their resumes? Who can be eligible to apply?
Ed Littlefield: Well, it’s not necessarily. If you’re a person with an interest in going involved in arts and performing, there’s not any which I can think of I don’t think there’s any such thing as an entry requirement or anything like that, we’re trying to bring people into the seats. Also, I believe that people who are interested in performing arts must add their name to the hat as we’re only able to fill a space , and it’s for 20 people. So and now is the time to sign up. application process for registration is now open.
However, I believe everyone who wants to improve their language skills, learn movement and singing. That’s what we’re seeking You know, and aside from that warm-ups, we’ll also cover how to sing, perhaps we’ll sing some brand new songs I created to share with participants. We’ll also study, and this is the other aspect, perhaps the art of singing harmony. That’s awesome. You don’t need to learn it’s certain to be a melody lines. However, for those who want to risk it, we’ll be introducing the concept of harmony and how it can be utilized in Lingit music since known to be the case. There was a discussion about Yakutat harmonies about a couple of months earlier during Sealaska Heritage and, you know, they certainly were in harmony it was a long time long ago. So we’re going to make use of that information and, uh, look at how we can utilize this in the near future.
Chloe Pleznac: So currently this program is available by Lingit. Lingit language. Would you like to extend into different Alaska Native languages?
Ed Littlefield: Yeah, I’m talking about … I believe that this program can be a success if we find the right instructors, we’ll be able to for, well I don’t know Sm’algyax nor Xaat Kil. If we can get instructors we could accomplish the same thing for each language, and it is mostly Lingit as of this point , but as you can imagine there’s no limit to what we can do.
Chloe Pleznac: Awesome. I want to thank you very much for being willing to speak with me today.
Ed Littlefield: Gunalcheesh!
