A One-Woman, 
         Self-Contained, 
                 Interactive, 
                       Show about:

Christine Pilgrim portrays Canadian poet, author, storyteller and performer, Emily Pauline Johnson, in a self- contained, interactive, one-hour show suitable for both adults and children.

The daughter of a Mohawk Chief and his Middle-Class English wife, E. Pauline Johnson was dubbed “The Mohawk Princess” by audiences throughout Canada, the United States and England at the turn of the 20th Century. She adopted the name of her great grandfather, Chief Tekahionwake, when she performed the poems she wrote about the life of the Mohawk in Eastern Canada.

Johnson was born on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario in 1861. She later moved to Brantford, then Winnipeg and finally to Vancouver where she died of cancer in 1913.

A stone erected to her memory stands proudly in Vancouver’s Stanley Park.

Pauline Johnson published anthologies of her poems, articles and children’s stories. She also translated legends, passed to her by Chief Capilano, that pertain to Vancouver, Tulameen and the Squamish Nation.

Pilgrim highlights Pauline Johnson’s versions of those legends and discusses issues such as prejudice, teasing and recognizing our place in the universe. As well as reciting and performing Pauline Johnson’s original work, she takes a story, turns it into a poem and turns the poem into a song with drumming. The interactive show not only invites several masked, costumed audience volunteers to act out the stories, but the entire audience is involved in singing, drumming, vocalizing and using various rudimentary instruments.

While the basic format of the show is timed to run an hour, it can be adapted in length, content and style to suit all needs, venues and age groups.

A ten-minute promotional DVD video of a performance to Grade 2/3 students at a Vernon Inner City Elementary School is available upon request, as is a full pre-presentation package.