Turtle Tales
Sunday, Jan 18
Westmark Whitehorse 3pm
Tickets $6

The intimacy of a traditional storytelling circle with singing stories from Cree, Algonquin, and Saulteaux cultural traditions. Many First Nations legends are based on animal characters, with the turtle symbolizing the planet Earth. Turtle Tales re-creates these tales from the perspective of the animals featured in Native teachings, punctuating them with music and humour. Three storytellers and three musicians combine oral traditions with modern instrumentation to bring Turtle Tales to life.

Aboriginal actors Sophie Merasty and Archer Pechawis will join Canadian Aboriginal Music Award winner and Juno Award nominee Sandy Scofield in this musical and theatrical telling of stories and legends from around the continent.

Sandy Scofield is the creative force behind Turtle Tales. A Metis (of Saulteaux and Cree descent) artist/composer based in Vancouver, her creative imagination received a kick-start at a 1995 Banff Centre for the Arts program in traditional music.

Since then, Sandy has performed at the Vancouver and Winnipeg Folk Music Festivals, Mariposa, Edmonton’s Dreamspeakers International Aboriginal Festival, Seattle’s Bumbershoot and the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards at Toronto’s Skydome, to name a few. Other highlights in her career include opening for legends Buffy Ste. Marie, Tom Jackson and Buckwheat Zydeco.

In 1994 she released her first, CD, Dirty River, followed by Riel’s Road in 2000, and Ketwam in 2002. Ketwam won the 2003 Western Canadian Music Award in Aboriginal music, and Best Folk Album and Best Production in the 2003 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. Riel’s Road was nominated in 2002 for a Juno Award for Aboriginal Music of Canada, and won the 2002 Canadian Aboriginal Music Award for ‘Song of the Year’, Sandy’s second win in this category.