KEEPER
OF THE CHILDREN'S PIPE Della Burford is a Canadian treasure, a children's' performer with a richly imaginative, interactive style. Her body of work centres around two issues extremely relevant to our time- the empowerment of children, and a tender, hopeful vision for nurturing the environment. Published writer, playwright and accomplished storyteller, Della performs using costume, voice and action to animate her characters and fire the imagination of her audience. Dedicated to aboriginal philosophies, she studied with a shaman over a period of nine years, in Canada and the United States. She was eventually invested as a medicine woman, in a native ceremony in which she was aptly named Keeper Of The Children's Pipe. The bird helmet, bearing the insignia of two intertwined swans, has become her trademark. The same icon has been carved in pipestone for a rainbow medicine necklace, and she also wears it for storytelling and leading workshops. Featuring a lyrical pose with fluid bearing, Della's Arkangel portrait is thus crowned with the hat of the 'Bird Lady of the Rainbow', synonymous with the one she wears in her insightful work - teaching children how to create their own stories, their own books, their own hope for the future. "Grownups
never understand anything by themselves |
© 2001, The Arkangel Project. | |