Honor, Pride, Culture

In a gymnasium of school-aged kids, hip hop artist, social advocate and Native American performer Christian Parish, aka Supaman, kicked off Frazer Public School's celebration of Native American Week on Sept. 23, with a performance meant to not only entertain a crowd of fidgeting children but also to engage them and inspire key themes of cultural pride, a sense of honor and to promote identity. Frazer Schools hope their students will take away those key themes in a week that will be full of entertaining and engaging presentations centered on culture, history and tradition.

Parish, renowned for his melding of hip hop music and Native American themes and traditional regalia and dancing, spoke to kids about honor, values, tradition and identity. He recounted a personal story about how he was presented with an opportunity to be in a commercial for a major product line alongside an A-list Hollywood star. The commercial was intended to promote a cologne brand and the company had reached out to him after his music video and talent had gained notoriety around the country. After agreeing to do the commercial, Parish said he later discovered the name of the product and had to decline to be a part of promoting it. The cologne line was called by the French word sauvage meaning savage.

While telling the story he told an anecdote about a conversation he had had with his son about doing the commercial, "I asked my son, he's 10 years old," recalled Parish. "I said, 'Son, if a company wanted to pay you all kinds of money, let the whole world see you but they were putting a name on you that is rooted in hate against other people that was a stereotype and that the whole world was going to know you as being a savage and you were going to dance for that money, would you do it?' He was like, 'heck no, no way man.'"

Mixed in among the more serious tone of identity, honor, avoiding drugs and alcohol and taking pride in their culture and tradition, was also a mastery of entertainment. Parish mixed a song dubbing the sounds and voices of students, one on top of the other until he had compiled enough beats, phrases and sounds that it formed into a hip hop track. At one point the student body was erupting in laughter as Parish forced their teachers out of their comfort zone and into the spotlight as they danced to a fast-paced beat, some just bobbing up and down with the rhythm, some busting out swing moves and others, more capable then others, broke out in dances that may have impressed even their students.

Principal of Frazer Schools Sonya Smoker, described the week as a way to promote Native pride and Native culture as well as promote Native language preservation and history. One of the key focuses for the week is educating students on their ancestral history, the history of the Assiniboine and Sioux people, said Smoker. According to the school's cultural specialist Roger White, only seven people remain who speak the Assiniboine Language which, he says, classifies it as an extinct language. He had made it his personal goal to change that by promoting early childhood education focusing on language and cultural immersion.

Smoker said the school hopes the students will take away a sense of who they are and where they come from. When asked what she wanted them to get out of this week she stated, "Identity. Who they are. Where they come from. Giving them self respect, self esteem. We want to build them up so when they learn who they are and where they come from, that pride takes them further in life."

The Native American Week programming will continue throughout the week and ends on Friday with a Powwow beginning at 12:30 p.m. Students will also participate in cultural story telling, movie night, a lighting of lanterns to honor Brayden Jackson and their Homecoming dance and bonfire. One of the highlights of the week will be a buffalo hunt that is happening on Wednesday, Sept. 25.