It’s been nearly a decade since Samantha Smalleyes and her husband Harrum came up with the vision for A Stoney Christmas and pitched it to artsPlace. The holiday story told through the Indigenous lens has become a staple of our performing roster.
“We sat down one day and started telling the story of how we wanted the show to look like, and my nephew was writing it down as we talked,” Samantha recalls. From there, the Smalleyes connected with artsPlace through Exshaw School and began designing the production that we know and love today.
“My kids are always so happy to come to Canmore,” Sam says. “They’re always waiting for the show at artsPlace because they feel comfortable and welcomed here. We are shown respect, and we show respect back.”
Sam says the whole family looks forward to performing every year. They continued producing the show even through the pandemic—when they couldn’t perform in person, they recorded the entire play on phones, which they posted to their YouTube channel so people could still enjoy the story, albeit via a different format.
While the core of the show has stayed true to the original version, the family continues to make small changes and additions to the story. They have also expanded the crew—which included all of Sam’s eight children—with their nieces, nephews, and cousins joining in over the years.
It’s very much a full family endeavour.
“My kids have been dancers since birth. I always had them in moss bags as babies as I danced in the pow-wow circle, so they grew up with it,” Sam says.
Reflecting on how the production changed over the course of time, Sam says the biggest difference is seeing her children grow up.
“When they were younger, I was always too busy getting everyone ready, but now they know what to do; and I can just sit and watch them,” she says. “I still help with preparations, but they can do everything on their own these days.”
Sam’s two youngest sons, Harden and Hardy, were just 7 and 10 when they first performed at artsPlace. Now Hardy is turning 19, and Harden has grown from the shortest performer in the crew to the tallest.
“It still feels amazing; I really enjoy it. It brings out the child in me,” says Hardy about performing in A Stoney Christmas. “It’s always going to be a great show, and I hope we do more of them.”
