Sharing the heartbeat of the drum
The Capital City Pow Wow Drum and Dance Corps
Today the Capital City Pow Wow Drum and Dance Corps led us, a multi-aged group of children, parents, grandparents, and teachers, into another world. United by the heartbeat of five small drums, a group of six Native American musicians overcame a hot, sultry morning with smoky air. Neighbors, hearing the beat, came out of their houses to join.
Joaquin Rojas is a master musician and narrator. Each song became a story of life in the roundhouse in winter, of hunters who made their drums by hand from antelope and buffalo hides, soaking and tanning them with delicate patterns, and of meals cooked for whole communities as they celebrate life and death with song.
When we could no longer sit, Joaquin led us in a circle dance around the outdoor amphitheater, as the other musicians kept the beat. In another instance, Joaquin got all the adults imitating barnyard animals, to the surprise and delight of their children, accompanying a Native American version of Old MacDonald Had a Farm.
The Capital City Pow Wow Drum and Dance Corps centers around four siblings, Joaquin, two brothers, and a sister. Three of these siblings are teachers at Peregrine preschools: Corrina Snow, and Joaquin and Benito Rojas. Two musicians from other tribes join this Chumash corps, which is sometimes joined by dancers as well. If you get a chance to see them, don’t miss it. They are all superb singers and drummers, but what made their performance work is that Joaquin translated it to us, the audience, through stories, so that we could access songs in various Native languages, and relax into the heartbeat of the drum.
In Growing Whole Children in the Garden, we raise the voices and perspectives of teachers from Peregrine School, as well as friends and colleagues from my career in cross-cultural science and art education. In chapter 9, “Native Plants and Cultural Holidays,” we learn about these topics from the Rojas siblings. In other chapters, we learn about Diwali, the South Asian festival of lights from teacher Kanmani Ramasami and about raising silkworms and Chinese Lunar New Year from Yi Che.
Sharing living cultural heritage connects us all to what we hold deeply in common. In the past three weeks, Peregrine has been blessed with three drum concerts from different cultures, led by the UC Davis Taiko Drummers; by Mamadu Traore, an African drum circle leader; and now by this Capital City Native American group. These concerts remind us of the importance of drumming, as a heartbeat which can cross cultures and continents, and of the arts as a bridge between us all.