May 04, 2008

Meeting Rose Red Elk, aka Wieka Luta Win, Red Feather Woman was, to say the least, an unusual experience. A Native American storyteller, songwriter and author, she has devoted her last 20 years to singing and narrating traditional stories with the objective of not only keeping her culture alive by familiarising others about it, but also teaching her audiences the importance of Mother Earth.

It was very appropriate then, that the Pakistan American Cultural Centre (PACC) in Karachi held her performance on Earth Day.

The intriguing fact about Elk, though, is not that she chose this path, but that she has an eclectic academic background that has nothing to do with her present profession — although she insists that it has facilitated her in her work. She explains matter-of-factly, “The reason for my varied education was purely financial. I was a single mother with four kids, and in order to increase my income, had to acquire proper education.”

While economics may have been the motivating factor for Elk taking up various courses, she admits that she was interested in electronics and wanted to become an engineer. However, she didn’t have enough mathametics background, so switched her majors to sociology and anthropology. “However, I was led to the path of story-telling and music, for in essence, I have been a story-teller and a self-taught musician all my life, and landed up doing an awful lot of shows incorporating the two, while at university,” she adds.

Describing her journey in music as a “spiritual” one, Elk says “An elderly Japanese woman who knew my daughter had a vision about my life. She told her about how I would gain success and fame, and that I had stories to tell and write. She also said that I had to help heal the earth and teach the world about my culture.”

Elk has strong hope in the future and believes that life has to come full circle — in her culture, the circle is regarded as something sacred. She feels that technology has moved so fast-forward, that simple human values have been lost. There is no way now, but for humans to go backwards — to the old belief that we are all spirits and connected to one another in some way. “We have to get back to the basics and start respecting our planet, because she is the one who gives us everything we have — our food, clothes, literally everything. We have to honour her and all the people.”

Elk, therefore, conveys through song and story-telling the message of who we are, and feels honoured that in her own small way she is helping to enlighten her audiences and enrich their lives. Her show is interactive, and through dialogue as well as traditional tales and contemporary music, she gets her audiences to relax and appreciate the Earth and fellow human beings.

Elk has come a long way since she started out, and has two CDs to her credit; one was nominated for ISMA (Indian Summer Music Award) and the other won the Native American Music Award. Her first series of short stories is to be published soon, and meanwhile, she is involved in a number of projects.

Hopefully, Elk’s message of peace and brotherhood will have been well-received in Pakistan, too. — Shanaz Ramzi