Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio

Pat and Dick (my sister and her husband) and Louise and I went to the Phoenix Symphony for a half hour music performance (Grand Canyon Suite) followed by the performance of Enemy Slayer. This unique piece combines music by Mark Gray and poetry by Laura Tohe and photographs by Deborah O'Grady. Before this performance, these three creative artists were on stage to preview what we were going to see and hear. Laura Tohe, a Navajo daughter of a WWII Code Talker, and an English associate professor at Arizona State University, introduced herself traditionally by naming her family's clans. Her writings for this oratorio are published in both Navajo and English in a program insert. The story is of a Navajo soldier returning home after serving in Iraq and deals with his mental and emotional struggles to re-identify himself as a human being.
The evening's premier performance that we attended was recorded for broadcast and commercial release. Although we wish there had been more participation in the performance by Navajos and more of the Dine language spoken, we all enjoyed it, and I think it will expose more people to some of the basic Dine beliefs that I have come to respect and love.