1941 | The Rise to Fame of the Inkameep Day School and its Child and Youth Artists

1941

• The children travel to Victoria to present dramatized versions of ancient legends at the opening ceremonies of Thunderbird Park of the Provincial Museum at the invitation of Major L. Bullock-Webster, Director of School and Community Drama, Dept. of Education. The three plays they performed were: "the Partridge Mother", "The Ants and the Crickets" and "The Chipmunk and the Owl Woman."
  
  Related Images:
  - Catalogue Image: 0093, Play at Thunderbird Park, Victoria
  - Catalogue Image: 0094, Play at Thunderbird Park, Victoria
  
  Related Video:
  Archival footage of play at Thunderbird Park
  View Video Clip
  
  
• Indian Affairs gives permission for the students to leave the reserve and travel to Victoria.
  

  Photo Image: Permission Telegraph 1941 View Englargement

  Photo Image: Permission letter May 2, 1941 View Englargement

  Photo Image: List of Children letter 1941 View Englargement

• Inkameep students make a recording of 15 traditional songs at the CBR studios in Vancouver, B.C. en route to Victoria. Student Irene Baptiste introduces each song.
  Listen to Audio Recordings of Songs
  
  
• Students receive letter of praise from pioneering female author Nellie McClung for their performances to open Thunderbird Park in Victoria, B.C.
• Students receive a letter from HRH Princess Juliana of the Netherlands in appreciation for their letter and gift of their booklet "Tale of the Nativity"
• Celebrated musician, composer, conductor Sir Ernest MacMillan writes Anthony Walsh and praises the Inkameep children's songs and suggests some would be excellent for composition.
• Radio play of "Tale of the Nativity" is broadcast over the University of Alberta's station CKUA.
• Canadian artist Lawren Harris offers financial assistance to Francis Baptiste to pay for meals and accommodation for Baptiste to attend conference of Canadian Artists sponsored by Queen's University in Ontario.
• Summerland Board of Trade sponsors a night of plays by the Can-oos-sez Skay-loo Players.
• Francis Baptiste creates a series of sketches for the Tree Fruits Board to be used as Christmas card images.
• Exhibitions of Inkameep art are seen at the School of Fine Arts in Banff as well as in Calgary, Alberta; Winnipeg and Brandon, Manitoba; and Vancouver, B.C at the Vancouver Folk Festival.
• Walsh meets Saunders Walker, a Black drama professor from the Tuskeegee Institute, while studying at the Banff School of Fine Arts in the summer. Saunders takes inspiration from the dramatic plays Walsh creates with the Inkameep students back to his Alabama school with success. Walker calls the plays "Canada's gift to the Negroes of the South". An actress/teacher from San Francisco attending the same summer session takes Walsh's methods of dramatic instruction back to the Children's Theatre of San Francisco.
• Walt Disney Productions writes again to the children of Inkameep and thanks them for their letter and copy of "The Tale of the Nativity"
• The painting, "Running Horses," donated by Francis Baptiste, raised $800 for the Lord Mayor's Fund, a war effort charity auction in London, UK.
• The Okanagan Society for the Revival of Indian Arts and Crafts is formed with Mr. Albert Millar of Oliver, B.C. as president.

 

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