When he was a kid growing up on Tsuut’ina Nation DerRic Starlight found inspiration from Mr. Dressup. “I was taught a lot of arts and crafts by Mr. Dressup himself,” Starlight said, “and so, growing up, I always wanted to work in television or go to Sesame Street and see all the characters. “I still watch Sesame Street to this day because I love puppetry and what they do but they’ve never had a native Indigenous puppet on Sesame Street, Starlight said. Sunday afternoon, Starlight was hosting Puppet Making 101, a day-long workshop for adults, teens and kids seven and older who participated in a puppet-making workshop with Starlight, who has worked as a puppeteer on Fraggle Rock. “Puppets 101 is finding a character you always wanted to be, or even it could be an animal – and it all starts with construction paper,” Starlight said. He developed a puppet roadshow that started out adapting the famous Muppets into something Starlight calls “Nuppets.” “I would make Kermit the Frog into Creemit the Frog (and) Miss Piggy into Porkahontas and they’d be Native (characters),” he said. “And later on, I developed my own Indigenous characters that I called the Nuppets, because they’re half-native and half puppets. “But it’s also a (teaching) tool for how to teach my culture and Indigenous languages,” he added. One of those looking for some guidance in how to use puppetry as a teaching tool was Jennifer Stables, who teaches in schools and at Arts Commons where she’s the education coordinator. “I’ve performed with DerRick in the past as a roving puppeteer and I’m aware of his incredible talent,” Stables said. “I’m hoping to take away his insight into developing incredible characters, his insight into voices and performing and also just how do I bring that very beginning of puppet making into my work with students?” Ossie Long is an eighth-grade teacher at Rideau Park School who also incorporates performance into his teaching technique. “I’ve got a prototype muppet that I’ve been working on so just looking for some inspiration to see what goes on behind the scenes from someone who’s well entrenched in the system.” With files from CTV’s Tyler Barrow
