Why I Hate Clowns by Sue Morrison

A presentation about clowns and the Pochinko technique that combines native american and european traditions.

Transcript

5. How? • Present yourself • Take me into your world • Transform me • Bring me back with a new awareness
16. North American Clown • Clowns define the concepts at the root of tribal cosmologies, guidelines for moral and ethical behaviour, and theories of balance and imbalance
18. Native American Clown
19. Ritual • The Church has actively suppressed native rituals; replaced them with its own • Example: Potlach law
22. Native American Clown • When a vision comes from thunder beings of the West, it comes with a terror like a thunder storm; but when the storm of the vision has passed, the world is greener and happier; for where ever the truth of vision comes up on the world, it is like a rain. The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm.
26. Native American Clown • A clown in our language is called a heyoka. He is upsidedown, backward-forward, yes-and-no man, a contrary-wise. Everybody can be made into a clown, from one day to another, whether he likes it or not. It is very simple to become a heyoka. All you have to do is dream about the lightning, the thunder-birds. You do this, and when you wake up in the morning you are a heyoka. There is nothing you can do about it.
32. Pochinko clown • Fused European clown and North American Indian clown • Based on six masks • Innocence and experience
40. If we ever faced all directions of ourselves at once, we could only laugh at the beauty of our own ridiculousness.