EAGLE EYE LEGEND
Written and Performed by Peter Donaldson
206-236-8114 peter@peterdonaldson.net
www.peterdonaldson.net
Copyright © 2007, Peter Donaldson
Purpose of the Project
Our purpose is to use the art of storytelling to engage the next generation of citizens in understanding and advancing sustainable prosperity in their lives. The Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival Society, through the generous support of the Fraser Salmon and Watersheds Program, commissioned storyteller and educator, Peter Donaldson, to create an original legend as a foundation story for a planned educational resource packet for secondary level students in British Columbia and beyond.
The Eagle Eye story is a classic legend full of archetypal animal characters, grand themes, dark corners and perhaps more riddles then answers. As a classic teaching legend, Eagle Eye embodies both the spirit and science of sustainability through the ancient dance of interdependence between Salmon and Eagle and all of the animals participating in this fiercely shared abundance. Including humans.
Eagle Eye was originally performed on November 16 and 17, 2007 during the twelfth annual Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival. The performances took place in the First Nations pit house at Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre near Mission, British Columbia. Eagle Eye was filmed before a live audience with follow up video interviews of a series of experts, including First Nations elders, addressing the real life implications of the story. The purpose of the legend is to make people curious through metaphors, drama and riddles. The purpose of the expert commentary is to ground the story’s metaphorical inquiries in the every day science and economics of sustainable behavior.
The resulting DVD set, including the Eagle Eye legend and Expert Commentary, is a new educational resource with a focus on inquiry-based learning.
Eagle Eye Learning Themes
- Biodiversity…“What is the wisdom of nature’s four-billion year old economic model and how is modern human society aligned with it?”
- Systems thinking…“What is the value of understanding how parts make a whole? What are the consequences when we place value on the parts but neglect how they function together?”
- Sustainability…“If this is the golden rule extended to all living things and over multiple generations, how are we doing?”
Eagle Eye Story Synopsis
Eagle Eye, a proud eagle working the salmon spawning grounds to feed his family, returns to his aerie with alarming news. The human people have vanished. He has flown seemingly everywhere observing the strangeness of empty cities, freeways, farms and fields. He prides himself on keen vision, but is disturbed by this strange occurrence. Some piece of a puzzle is missing. He can’t see it. Eagle Eye has an affinity for the humans. He thinks that they had better come back. They better come back soon. He is discussing this with his wife when their fledgling daughter, with typical adolescent idealism, leaps from the nest exclaiming, “I’ll figure it out!”
Eagle Eye Daughter flies down river and in and out of seasons and through many years, encountering numerous and diverse animals, each with their own puzzle piece for how systems work and how the humans seem forever to be just outside of their own logic.
Eagle Eye Daughter returns after many years to her father, Eagle Eye, who is very old now, blind in both eyes and dying. She has seen much in her travels, but the puzzle pieces remain jumbled.
Meanwhile… we find out what happened, and where the people actually went, and in what manner they returned.
- Download the Script With Inquiries -
- Download the Script Without Inquiries -
About Peter Donaldson
Peter is a consummate storyteller, educator and community facilitator well known in the Pacific Northwest for his touring one-man shows, Salmonpeople and Leonardo da Vinci. Peter has authored a dozen plays, produced some sixty others, and self-publishes his poetry in an annual collection. He has dedicated his life to telling the big stories of the new renaissance, awakening the wisdom of ecological and economic sustainability. www.peterdonaldson.net
Systems Thinking