The summer I was 15 years old I responded to a flyer looking for Aboriginal youth to attend a summer Indigenous performance and storytelling camp in BC's Central Interior and became immersed in Secwepemc stories, songs, culture and lifestyles. This was one of my favourite summer's as a youth!
Every day at camp we rehearsed a play based on Secwepemc stories & as soon as we became a performance ready theatre group we performed three times a week at a local lakefront lodge.
A man touring Canada from Austria saw an ad (or story) about the lodge owned by Aboriginals, with First Nations cuisine and Indigenous theatre and storytelling and decided to check it out. When he saw our play he invited our group to Austria and needless to say we went and were there for six weeks!
That summer taught me more than just the Secwepemc language, songs, stories and lifestyle! It showed me anything was possible and that the world is so much more than the little pieces I grew up on! It also taught me the importance and benefits of a successful yet simple marketing strategy!
When we walked around Vienna I saw posters and advertisements on telephone poles, in trolleys for our theatre group! At every show, we handed out pamphlets or posters and after we mingled with the audience and posed for pictures with audiences. In fact, i even kept some of these materials for my own collection because they were written in German (and I still have them today)!
We were treated like special guests and welcomed by some pretty important people at some of these venues. It was one of my most memorable moments in my life and in my career. When I look back at that time in my life i see all the valuable things that I have learned and still apply to my life and in my work and I would like to share some of those lessons with you!
1. Opportunities of a lifetime don't always appear to be the opportunity of a lifetime!
I didn't know that the poster I saw at the Penticton Indian Band office was going to change my life! At the time, it was just a poster for a cultural storytelling camp that I showed my mom and begged her to let me go to!
I went to camp and joined this group because I was raised with Syilx teachings and training in Syilx stories, language, songs and performance. I had minimal experience in the Secwepemc teachings so when i saw the poster i knew immediately i wanted to go. What I saw was a chance to learn more about what i loved... stories, songs, and storytelling with the added bonus that it was in my mother's territory.
I didn't know that it was going to be the opportunity of a lifetime! I didn't know it would help me launch a career in Indigenous Storytelling and performance nor that it would take me to Europe for six weeks! But in the end, it was and I am grateful I took that chance and went!
2. Each person who enters my space may be an opportunity I don't yet know about!
Like Dave! The man who came across an ad in the newspaper for an Aboriginal owned lodge on the lake that provided Indigenous Storytelling three times a week and since he wanted to experience an Indigenous community he just had to go. Dave attended our show and then he approached our team leader, Zabbe, and partnered with her so we could perform in Austria. Before that moment, Dave was just a member of the audience and i didn't know he was about to present an opportunity I didn't know about yet!
Knowing this could happen anywhere and anytime defined how I would do things from that point! I began building a network and treating life situations as potential opportunity's.
3. With the right direction, the right people and the right attitude you can go places!
If a 15 year old Aboriginal youth living in poverty on a small rural BC reserve in a single parent home can end up in Europe for six weeks performing for royalty as an invited guest because she was in the right place, at the right time, with the right attitude and given positive direction and support... what else could happen? I learned I can go much farther than I ever hoped for... We just need to go for it!
I also learned having my mom support my decision to go to camp and over seas allowed me to take the chance, having my team leader encouraging me to go all in in every performance created a confidence i needed on stage and made me a better performer and having my community's support as i fundraised the money i needed to raise for me to go... made it all possible! We all have to do things on our own... but even when we are doing things on our own we also have help and having those people help makes all the difference in the world!
4. It's all about Marketing!
At that time, i didn't know what was pushing all of this forward was marketing! I responded to a flyer that was faxed out to all the Indian bands in the surrounding area looking for Aboriginal youth interested in theatre, storytelling and performance! Even though, none of my friends wanted to give up their summer at home (Penticton is situated between two tourist destination beaches and summer festivals galore), I went anyways. Our team leader wrote press releases, arranged for interviews with our group, created and distributed little flyers and programs for guests of the lodge and put ads in the local papers. Which is how Dave learned about it and when he got there, the front desk agent shared some of these materials with Dave upon check in! It was all a series of fortunate and marketed events that brought me to this group and Dave into my life that created an opportunity and changed my life.
5. Life is what we make or don't make of it!
I realized at a young age that if we want something, we should do it! If we talk to the right people and make the proper connections we could do the things we wanted to do. So when i got home after this wonderful experience, I approached my most important mentor in my life, a woman named Marlena. Marlena taught me how fortunate I was to have the teachings I had and access to the family who still raised us around the language and stories. Marlena took me in and taught me to write proposals, make connections, network and to just go for it! I worked with her for many years on numerous projects and built a solid foundation for my professional career and every time I think of how far I've come, those two women come to mind, Marlena and Zabbe! I
I've been fortunate to have been mentored by some amazing women! Each of them taught me "Life is what we make or don't make of it and if we want to make it... we have to take chances!"
I have learned it's better to make chances than to wait for them!
I learned it's better to decide what we do and how its done than to have someone else decide that for me.
Each of my mentors had shown me in some way that life is what we make or don't make of it. And at this time I'd like to acknowledge and thank my gramma's Lilly and Annie, my mother Audrey, the team leader Zabbe, my first mentor Marlena, and all my other mentors Joan, Jeannette, Delphine, Geraldine, Tracey, Pauline, Elizabeth, Marie, Cora, Jackie, and Geri!
If you would like to know more please feel free to connect! If you would like to book Victoria to come to your event, venue, business or organization please contact her via email to make your request.
Email: info[at]thestartingpointbc[dot]com
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