Roy Henry Vickers’ presentations last week were great. I have talked with a number of other students in the class who agree that this was a very good presentation, though I hear a different thing that each person liked every time that someone talks about it. I have heard some agree with Roy that first nations culture should be awakened more. There are some who agreed with what Roy said about inclusion and that all people around the world are one big family. There are others who agreed with Roy when he said that the rivers and waters need to be protected for the sake of first nations culture and lifestyle. Regardless of what people took from the presentation, there seemed to be about three common themes upon which most people agreed with Roy: you need to speak from the heart, public speaking is scary regardless of how experienced you are and that you need to work hard to build a reputation as an artist.
Over all, Roy was bold and yet approachable, strong yet vulnerable, spiritual yet practical. Roy confided to us that he has been asked to speak at at least one major university, because his speaking style is different from that found in conventional academia. Roy has been taught to speak from the heart, because “when you speak from the heart, the hearts of others will listen; if you speak from the head, the heads of others will listen. So, when time passes and the listener gets older, the heart will remember, but the head will forget.” Roy said that Chief Dan George told him that. I would recommend Roy’s presentations to anyone regardless of education or background; and especially to anyone who is an artist.
Anyways, with the count down running at school, we are working to get our projects done before the year end deadline. So far we have four projects that we are required to hand in: a paddle, a spoon, a bowl and a portrait mask. I have currently only fully completed my paddle, with the other projects all well under way.