DOVIE THOMASON

Dovie Thomason first heard the voices of the Animal People in the stories of her Lakota and Kiowa Apache relatives. With understanding and sly humor, she has joined those voices to share wise, boisterous teaching tales. When she adds stories from her own life and from her people's experience, the result is a contemporary vision of the rich cultures of the First Nations of North America told with elegance, wit and passion.
The Spirit Survives, her word-weaving of culture, history, autobiography and traditional values, marks an evolution in her already esteemed career. In this moving personal chronicle of the “American Experiment” of the residential Indian schools of the 19th and 20th centuries, she gently bridges a chasm of shame and sadness while shedding light on an unseen period of American history and bringing hope for future reconciliation and mutual respect. Respect for her listeners is coupled with her innate teacher’s gift of taking them to their “point of discomfort” and beyond to ideas for reconciliation—in it’s true meaning of restoring balance or harmony. Dovie is a powerhouse and delivers a message that resonates with every audience.
She’s a busy single mother and Unchi and proud to be an “Auntie” and mentor to another generation of storytellers and activists.
AWARDS AND HONORS · Honored in 2007 with the Oracle Award–Circle of Excellence --from the National Storytelling Network
· Chair of the Viola WhiteWater Foundation for Native Culture and Education, a non-profit serving indigenous people of North America for over thirty years
· Honored in 2004 with a JustStories Fellowship to support her creation of a story about the Indian Residential Schools
· Arts International grants for her work in Celtic countries with the Travelling Communities
· Smithsonian Scholar designee in storytelling by Smithsonian Associates
· Wordcraft Circle of Native Writer’s Traditional Storyteller of the Year 2002
· Three-time winner of the ALA Notable Recording Award
· Two Gold Awards from Parents’ Choice
· Storytelling World and Audiofile Awards
PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS · Grand Opening of the National Museum of the American Indian
· The Kennedy Center
· The Smithsonian’s Discovery Theater
· Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts
· The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poetry Festival
· Featured in anthologies from Oyate Press , Berkeley, CA, including the 2005 release, A Broken Flute
· Featured on the PBS special, “ The Call of Story ”
· Featured narrative voice in documentaries about the Native people of Southern New England in “Honor The Earth”, “As We Tell Our Stories” and Emmy award-winning “ Mystic Voices ”
· Few know that she is the voice of Malcolm the Mouse, heard at the W5 Museum in Belfast, Northern Ireland!
"powerful Native American storytelling..."