Beyond Eden -- a play of spiritual connection

As you look and listen beyond the masks and beyond the poles, listen closely to what it stirs in you...this part of our history remains complicated; confronting and beautiful all woven as one. Dennis Garnhum, Director, Beyond Eden

At one point during the play, Beyond Eden (written by Bruce Ruddell) miniature lighted canoes, suspended from tree branches float down the aisles of the theatre towards the stage at the front. A haunting Haida chant fills the chamber of the theatre, drums beat and images of water and rain forests dance across the stage.

It is magical and mystical. Haunting and compelling -- all woven as one.

It is the weaving in the play that so moved me. First, we were five people woven together through family, friendship and love. C.C. my friend BA who lives here in Vancouver, my daughter Alexis and C.J., my friends Jane and Al's daughter, Alexis' roommate -- affectionately known as my 'tall daughter'. We met for dinner. Chatted and laughed. The girls shared stories of settling into their apartment together. BA shared stories of her recent trip with a Bedouin and two mules through the desert of Jordan and C.C. and I shared our stories too.

an evening of stories woven together, just as the play wove together the history, drama and turmoil of our First Nations culture here on the west coast.

One of the actors in the play, Telly James, is a friend of Alexis'. They graduated from the theatre arts program at MRU together. Telly is a proud member of the Siksika Nation. After the play, we met Telly in the lobby and I asked him about being part of a play about the Haida. "Did it awaken any desire to dig into the Siksika culture?"

"It definitely stirred something he said. I've started to learn my language. I can now understand it and I find as I get involved in these projects I want to know more about my own culture."

I have seen the Totem Poles that are the focal point of the drama in Beyond Eden. They stand on the grounds of the Museum of Anthropology here in Vancouver. One of my favourite places to visit. Standing beneath their soaring sculptured beauty one feels the immensity of the Haida artist's feat in creating these poles and, you feel immersed in the mystical wonder of a time and place where we walked connected to nature, at one with the Universe, its beauty, wonder and power woven into the fabric of our world.

I never knew the story of how those poles came to stand on the museum's grounds until the play last night.

And, in having learned, I am now part of the dialogue, that complicated conversation that investigates and muses on the ethics and the necessity of preserving ancient cultures. Do they belong on museum lands where they will be preserved and sheltered form the elements or should they be returned to their sacred ground where once they protected the Haida people's who had left this world. And as so beautifully depicted in the play, as part of that world, their purpose is to return to the earth, to complete the cycle as time wears them down and they return to mother nature, woven into the fabric of life on earth.

Good questions.