Naraya: A Dance For All People
About
The Naraya: A Dance For All People is a tradition of the Great Basin/Plateau peoples that has been revitalized by Native people to perpetuate the healing and renewal of Mother Earth and all her people. The dance is about each of us taking personal responsibility to make this mission of healing and renewal a part of our daily lives. Through the vessel of the dance, we focus our hearts, minds, and prayers on the transformation of our inner beings; based on the premise that we must become in our inner lives what we choose to create in our outer world.
Today it is danced for renewal of the people and the earth, perpetuating the ideas of such native visionaries as Wavoka, Smohalla and Skolaskin of the Great Basin/Columbia Plateau. Their vision included that people of all races and religions come together to dance under the Tree of Life.
This sacred dance is done with people holding hands in a circle. In the center of the circle is sacred fire and a living evergreen tree representing the Tree of Life. This Tree is a living prayer for the good things of life to grow, never ending and everlasting from generation to generation. Dancers surround the fire and the tree doing a simple shuffling clock-wise sidestep while singing the ancient sacred songs.
In Memory of Emma Pohipe, Lemhi Shoshone,
(Dukudika Band)
one of the last old-time traditional practioners