Stories through song and dance

The Evesham Historical Society and Marlton Middle School have partnered up to host an evening of song and dance on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 6:30 p.m. The Strength of Song & Dance – An Evening of Indigenous Music will feature the Lenapehoking Reestablishment Project, an initiative started by enrolled citizens of Tribal Nations within the territory of Lenapehoking (pronounced Luh-nah-pay-ho-king). The Lenape land, or Lenapehoking, included parts of what are now New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

The Lenapehoking Reestablishment Project was co-founded by Tyrone “Dancing Wolf” Ellis Jr. and wife Lia “Watching Sparrow” Gould, the youngest daughter of Mark “Quiet Hawk” Gould, former chief of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation. Ellis and Gould are also both enrolled citizens of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation, the northernmost of three interrelated tribes of the area of the Delaware Bay. Ellis, Gould and their family travel far and wide to educate the youth on the Lenapehoking Reestablishment Project, an initiative geared towards the promoting of Lenape awareness, supporting tribal youth, and public relations. They also share how they’re thriving, how they maintain their culture and how they work to maintain relationships with sister communities, all of which they’ll be doing with the Evesham community with a bonus – singing, dancing and drumming.

The Strength of Song & Dance – An Evening of Indigenous Music will have Ellis and Gould sharing the origins of the songs and song styles that they will be performing. Typically, Ellis and Gould share two different elements of what they do with their guests. “One is the universal language of dance. If you’ve ever been to a powwow — a gathering where Native American dancing, singing and celebration take place — you’ll see different dance styles that serve as a shared language among communities,” Ellis said. The other facet is demonstrating a social style of dance, which is unique to both Nanticoke and Lenape people, Ellis explained. At the Evesham event they will demonstrate three different styles of dance and discuss why the songs they sing are important, how they maintain language through song and the discipline in which it takes to be allowed to sing some of the songs or to be a drummer at all.

“There’s discipline that has been taught from generation to generation to maintain our languages and the integrity of the songs that are sung,” Ellis said. “We’re at this new, progressive time of understanding and people being willing to unlearn what they’ve learned before, and hearing it from the source such as ourselves. We’re able to tell our stories and now it’s all about making sure that we continue to tell those stories so that maybe we’re correcting things that people thought they knew, but they really don’t.”