Interviews with Danny Beaton

2007

Drumcultures Interview with Danny Beaton
By Oswald Phills
www.drumcultures.com

Interview time! This is the hyper creative Danny Beaton. Photographer. Filmmaker. Drummer. Writer. Cultural Speaker. Environmentalist. I'm sure the list can go on. To call Danny driven would be an understatement. He is someone with an incredible sense of mission, purpose, and drive. I visited Danny at his studio in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood on the first day of spring. What struck me the most about his space were the large photographs of First Nations Elders. In their faces and bodies I saw the signs of hard lives but also of strength, stillness, and humor. These almost iconic figures looked down on us as we recorded our exchange. As you'll see, Danny is also quite a preacher - add that to his list abilities! Check out the Drumculture Interview.

DRUMCULTURES VOL. 2 NO. INTERVIEW

Drumcultures: Danny, one of the first places I became aware of you was through some photographs you had displayed for quite a few years over at the library on Spadina. Remember those? They were of Elders. How did those come about?

Danny Beaton: I started traveling with old elders about 20 years ago. Learning about my culture for 20 years now. While I was learning about my culture I was already a photographer and I was fascinated with my elders. I was fascinated with their beauty. I was fascinated by their wisdom. Right away I started writing about them and right away I started photographing them. I remember when I first started to bring my cameras to ceremonies and gatherings a lot of people didn't like it twenty years ago. I kept sneaking around with my cameras. At the beginning people would ask me to put the camera away. But after a few years when people had seen the photographs they'd ask me to take a picture of them! They'd say, hey Danny, could you take a picture of me and my wife? Can you take a picture of me and my kids? The chiefs would say, Hey Danny can you take a picture of me and Oren? Hey could you take a picture of me and Joe? After five years I became their photographer and after ten years I was recognized as their personal photographer. In our gatherings and ceremonies they called me their official photographer. There's been a couple of people with cameras around but usually in our ceremonies and gatherings we don't even allow cameras. You gotta be sensitive to the Elders, you gotta be sensitive to the ceremonies. There's a time for everything. Sometimes Elders don't want pictures taken. I've been real sensitive to their needs and to their concerns. Most of the things that I've written and most of the things that I've published pertain to the protection of the environment and of Mother Earth. They've been unanimous in accepting my photography as a tool to educate society that we are still here and who we are, that the culture exists, its very strong, and that its a spiritual culture.

Drumcultures: Do you sometimes feel that First Nations culture is a bit invisible in the mainstream culture?

DB: First of all the mainstream culture today, today's society, its very superficial and don't forget, Canada is multicultural. When you look at all the world problems, all the problems that are facing society today, society in Canada. Native culture here has become super wounded, in fact all people are wounded, many people are super wounded. This society now is in a super crisis. This society, this country has become a backwards culture, not as bad as the U.S. but seems to be headed in the same direction that the U.S. has been headed in. When you talk about our culture, its always been here. Its always been here! Yeah its been invisible but in context with the dominant culture...we're survivors! We're survivors in the history of the earth. We're survivors in the history of our culture. We're survivors in the history of colonization. When people want to know something or see something or learn something, you have to work at it. So the more you wanna see the harder you gotta work. What you want to see in our culture its up to the people, its up to the student, and its up to the student what they want to see and what they wanna learn, and how deep they wanna dig to see and learn. And how much see they have to work.

Drumcultures: Now you are Mohawk, Turtle Clan. Could you explain that to people who may not understand that.

DB: My Mom's from Six Nations. My Mom's Mohawk. My Mom's parents were Edna Beaver and Freeman Clause from Six Nations. My Mom left the reservation in 1952 and I was born in Ottawa in 1954. The Mohawk Nation is part of the Iroquois Confederacy - and Iroquois is from a French word for Haudenosanee, which is our traditional word for The People of the Long House. We are the Six Nations, which is what the English called us, the French called us the Iroquois, and we call ourselves Haudenosanee, The People of the Long House. We're originally from Mohawk Valley in New York and we presently have reservations throughout Ontario, New York, and Quebec as well. The other 5 nations are: Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Senecca, and Tuscarorus.

Drumcultures: I read a piece of yours in the First Nations Drum newspaper. You had a very interesting phrase you used. You said: "Our Elders are the true cardinals and lamas of America." That really struck me. I'm very interested in why you'd express it that way. Could you talk about that a little bit...

DB: (Sly laughter...)

Drumcultures: ... a little bit...

DB: Well, lamas are the spiritual leaders of Tibet and Cardinals are the leaders of Italy...

Drumcultures: ... Catholic ...

DB: Yeah. And our chiefs and clan mothers are the leaders of this territory, they are the spiritual leaders of Turtle Island, they are the holders of the sacred ceremonies. The Elders of Turtle Island are the holders of the sacred ceremonies and truths, therefore they would be considered the spiritual leaders of the continent. Because they maintain the harmony with the universe, they maintain the ceremonies for creation, for the animals - the winged ones, the insects, the fish life - they maintain the ceremonies in honouring the sky world, they maintain the ceremonies in honouring the spirit world, they maintain the ceremonies in honouring everything that moves on Mother Earth, and the Earth itself, which we call Etenoha, our Mother.

Drumcultures: Good. Several times you've mentioned healing as an important state that ceremony and your work concerns itself with. Can you describe why we need that healing and what ceremonies and the beliefs you have contributes to that?

DB: You see, the old Elders are trying to keep the culture alive, they're trying to keep our North American culture alive. The culture itself before colonization and right up to this time is a culture of ceremonies, its a culture of giving thanks, Native American culture is a culture of respect. Our ceremonies are for healing and our ceremonies are for giving thanks. One of the first things that our Elders teach us is that we must be respectful and thankful, give thanks for all the gifts that we have. The second thing that we must do is be happy, to live a good life. In our way of life our day starts when the sun comes up from the east. When our eldest brother comes up, our brother the sun, our first ceremony is the sunrise ceremony, a thanks giving ceremony to honor our brother the sun. It is the sun that gives us light, it is the sun that makes things grow, it is our brother the sun who keeps us warm. So that's how our day starts in our way of life. But our ceremonies don't stop at the sun! We give thanks to everything that is on Mother Earth. All the plant life, all the trees, the leaders of the fruit, the leaders of the forest, the leaders of the sky, the sacred eagle, the sacred deer, the sacred strawberry, the leader of our chiefs, Tadadaho. We give thanks to the rivers, the lakes, the streams, the great oceans, our Mother Earth's blood. Everything has a spirit, our old Elders teach us. We give thanks to the winds of the four directions, North, East, South, West, the sacred four winds, the sacred air that gives us life, the voices in the sky the Thunder People, our grandmother the Moon, the plant life and the Earth itself, like I said. Our old Elders have kept our culture alive for thousands of years and in our way of life we honour each other with this sacred respect, with this sacred thanks giving. For 500 years (since colonialism) they've kept the culture alive and thousands of years before that. What our Elders teach us is what their elders taught them, and what their elders taught them is what their elders taught them. This is how things get passed on in our way of life.

Drumcultures: So now, that seems to be a very whole vision of life. Where does the healing come in? Does the healing begin when we start turning towards that? Do we need healing because we're not hooked up with that anymore?

DB: In the old days we didn't have the sicknesses we have today. In the old days the air was clean. In the old days the water was clean. In the old days the earth was clean. In the old days our minds were clean. Now our minds have been polluted, the air has been polluted, the water has been polluted, the earth has been polluted, even the sky, the sun has been polluted! Everything has been disrespected because we're not following that way of life, a lot of people are not following that way of life. A lot of people have been assaulted by foreign rules. A hundred years ago our ceremonies were outlawed. A undred years ago our language was outlawed. A hundred years ago our culture was outlawed. So we're using our ceremonies to heal! We have ceremonies for healing! We have ceremonies for healing our bodies, we have ceremonies for healing our minds, we have ceremonies for healing our spirits, we have ceremonies for giving thanks. The Sweat Lodge is one of our strongest ceremonies. Just by communicating with the spirit world, communicating with the sky world, communicating with our animals, is a form of spirituality. So if we're not maintaining our communication and our thanksgiving with our brothers and sisters and our animals and our flowers then we're not a part of that. How can we be a part of the earth when we don't talk to the earth? How can we be a part of the animals when we're not talking to them, when we're not thanking them? How can we be a part of the water... how can the water clean us, how can the water help us when we're not in touch with the water? How can the air help us when we're not in touch with the air? In our way of life its the animals that can give us guidance. In our way of life it's the eagle who can give us protection. How can we ask for protection when we don't say thank you. How can we seek protection and guidance from the eagle when we're not in touch with the eagle? How can we seek protection from the deer when we don't talk to the deer? We have to maintain these relationships through our whole life! How can we seek cleaning from the water when we don't know how to say thank you? How can we seek protection from the water when we get in the shower and we don't know how to say thank you? How can you live your whole life without saying thank you! Thank you Mother Earth for the nourishment you give us! Thank you for the beauty that you give us! For your sacred spirit, for your sacred beauty, for your sacred protection, thank you, Niaîwenî ha! That's the whole problem with society, they forgot that the earth is their Mother! That's what the dominant culture has forgotten! How can they live their whole life and not say Mother, thank you Mother! This present society is take, take, take, take, take, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme! We're living in a culture that has no respect, we're living in a culture that's almost autistic! The people don't even know where their power is, the people don't know what their relationship is to the natural world that's around them. That's what our old Elders are teaching us. Our old Elders are teaching us how to walk on the earth. Our old Elders are teaching us how to take care of ourselves. Our ancestors taught us this, our ancestors passed this on to us, how to walk on the earth, how to take care of each other, how to honor creation, how to behave, how to give thanks for all the things that are around us. The sacred colours, the sacred sounds, the beautiful sounds that make us happy, the sacred songs of the winged beings, our old Elders they told us, say thank you for the sounds of the birds, say thank you, say thank you for the sacred voices of the animals...they're all sacred voices.

Drumculture: Now, the drum. What is your relationship to the drum? What role does the drum play in this world you've just described to us?

DB: Well, the drum for native peoples, just like it is for your people, is the heartbeat of our mother the Earth. When you know your culture and you know your ancestors and you know the songs, you know that the songs go with the prayers. Prayers and songs go together. The drum is for healing, for honouring, for thanksgiving. The drum goes with the songs. So that drum is an important object, its a sacred object. For many cultures, for many ceremonies that drum is a healing drum. That sacred drum goes with our sacred songs. Today the drum has evolved into Rock and Roll (laughter ) that sacred heartbeat has turned into entertainment, its like the ultimate entertaining. It's the ultimate healing, the ultimate expression. The tribal drum of all cultures has turned into the drum of the radio, the drum of the airways. That sacred drum is the drum of dancing. That sacred drum is still on the reservations. You go to Africa you still have the sacred drums. People in their sacred ceremonies. People in their sacred traditional dress. The old Elders. The young people. The drum is a tool for happiness and expression. It's still used in the sacred ceremonies, it's still used in the Sweat Lodge. It's used everywhere for socializing.

Drumcultures: At a certain point in your life you developed a strong connection with an Elder named Robertjohn (Knapp). Could you tell me about that...if you don't mind me asking...

DB: ( big laugh! ) Robertjohn is one of my closest Elders. He's a spiritual leader from California. I thank you for bringing up his work. Robertjohn is a healer. Robertjohn is a drummer. Robertjohn is a ceremonial leader. We have many ceremonial leaders across North America, we have many ceremonial leaders around the world, Robertjohn is one of them! (laughter!) Robertjohn is one of the most compassionate people I know, one of the most patient people I know, and he doesn't discriminate against anybody. He is a teacher, he is a true Native American teacher, he is a true Native American spiritual leader and he's one of my closest Elders. I love him dearly. I've had the great opportunity to meet some of Robertjohn's teachers and work with them and learn from them. I value the chance I had to spend with Robertjohn and learn from him and all of our elders...

Drumcultures: I saw a couple of photographs of him...and just looking at the photographs...I'm like...this is a different kind of cat. (laughter) He's got a different vibe. He's almost like a world by himself...

DB: Yeah?

Drumcultures: Yeah, he feels like a world. Could you talk about that?

DB: I first met Robertjohn in ceremonies. I met him about ten years ago. In addition to photographing the Elders and writing about them, I started to film them! I started to film the Elders about 15 years ago. Four of my films have been on national television. My last film features Robertjohn. It's called The Second Thanksgiving. There's probably half a dozen reviews of that film on a Google search. I believe that there are some reviews on my website - www.dannybeaton.ca. Anyone who wants to access that film can get it through me. I've been distributing my own films. (416-921-0014)

Drumcultures: You seem to be a one man media project speaking about something that there seems to be a hunger for out there among many people. How do your films work with this?

DB: I started filming the Elders around 1990 and getting their message and concerns to the masses. I thought one of the best ways of reaching the people in society would be through television - bringing the Elders into the living rooms of society. Sharing their compassion, sharing their beauty, and sharing their insights and perspectives on healing and protecting our Sacred Mother Earth and PEACE! Because society is in a crisis now from, um, I guess, I call it, a lot of people call it Western Ideology, but its no longer just Western! ( Laughter) Its spiritual bankruptcy and...there is so much wisdom in North America from the old Elders, there's so much strength in their teachings that everything I've learned I've wanted to share. All the things I started learning 20 years ago I just automatically wanted to share it. It just became my life's work and recording it and bringing it to society and bringing it to the masses. That sacred beauty, that sacred wisdom, that sacred healing, you know, bringing that to the masses.

Drumcultures: Danny, thank you very much for this interview.

DB: Thank you very much Oz.

Drumculture: I hope we can talk more later on.

DB: Thank you brother.

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