Talking Stick

Mike Bell mikebell at internorth.com
Thu Mar 16 19:33:52 PST 2000


Friends

In December I was animating an Open space in Iqaluit on Baffin Island in the High Arctic--mostly with Inuit folks. Needed a talking stick but they are not a tradition among the Inuit.  They don't have any sticks because they don't have any wood, because they don't have any trees--living up there hundreds of miles above the tree line.  I looked for something to use.  There was a mother attending with her infant lying on a blanket on the floor.  She offered us the use of a pink plastic baby rattle--on the condition that we didn't put it in our mouths. We didn't.  We just passed it around and everyone rattled it before speaking.  Looked sort of shamanistic but worked like a damn.

Mike



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