Fatty Legs

Tears flowed at the most recent concert by Halifax’s groundbreaking Camerata Xara Young Woman’s Choir. The audience was moved by the stirring music, the jaw-dropping grace, power and beauty of aboriginal dancer Sarain Carson-Fox and, most of all, by the story of a young Inuit girl with an unbreakable spirit who outwits her tormentors at a residential school. The story comes from a children’s book called Fatty Legs, and is the true account of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton’s experiences of life 70 years ago in Catholic residential school. The story became a book co-authored by Margaret’s daughter-in-law Christy-Jordan Fenton. An abridged version of this book was narrated by the two authors and interwoven with crystalline musical pieces by the choir as Carson-Fox enacted the tale through dance. Bravo to all the artists involved in bringing the story to light and life. Stories that touch only the mind may be forgotten, but those, like this, that touch the heart will live forever.

This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2011.