Cree muppets bring laughter while teaching lessons
- Tiffany Head | January 04, 2017
Three fun loving brothers from Pukatawagan Cree Nation, Manitoba became a viral sensation when they posted a video of their Cree speaking puppet act.
“We observed our father [Gabriel Bighetty Sr.] always telling jokes and stories to people. There were a million stories that were humorous, funny or half that,” Ken said on how they were inspired to go out and spread laughter by visiting.
Ken Bighetty, Daniel Bighetty and Russell Bighetty said they constantly joked with one another so they started their stand-up comedy act in 2012 at a Christmas party in Thompson, Manitoba; the puppets were not part of the act that time.
Russell, the voice of Mathias, said they liberated the puppets this past year from a nursing station in their home reserve and they use them in their visit to make it more fun, and they are aware of how an unscripted plan can go wrong.
“We are unrehearsed, we go all out, we go by visiting, you know, you’re a human being, we put our character into the visit and we do our best not to say anything wrong,” said Russel, “We are very cognizant."
Ken explained how the puppets got their names.
“Mathias is named after our reserve Mathias Colomb Cree nation and Marcel is named after old man who use to visit our grandfather,” Ken said.
Ken said they are Facebook interactive and like to reach out to people.
“We are continuously posting, it’s like those traveling comedy acts, we post all our trips, so a lot of people get to interact with it and relate to it,” Ken said.
Ken said one of the things they have done was go through a McDonald’s drive thru and ordered neck bones. He said they have gone into an elevator and Mathias and Marcel don’t know how to use it, so everything is new.
“Like that native who goes out to the city and gets culture shock,” Russell said.
Ken said they are able to teach Cree with their puppets. He said Mathias is the Cree speaker and Marcel is the translator.
While they are having a lot of fun and bringing joy to everyone they meet, they also use their puppets to give teachable lessons to students; these talks are not posted in social media.
“When we go into the classrooms at the schools we visit, Mathias and Marcel talk about bullying,” Ken said.
They also talk about things such as not staying up too late with their Xbox games because they can’t learn if they are tired in class.
“Mathias talks to the kids and they really connect to the kids when we talk to them,” Ken said.
Russell said they also visit hospitals and people who are ill. He recalls this one visit in Thompson with a girl who has stomach cancer, she had started watching their video and it made her and her family laugh.
The nurse went in and asked what they were laughing at and the girl said, “We have our very own Cree Muppets!” Russell said.
It has been very busy for Ken and his brothers since they have gone viral. He said they have been out quite a bit and Russel and Daniel leave families behind.
“It’s challenging for both Russell and Danny, sometimes the crowds are huge, we’ve updated our show and developing a scene one, scene two, and scene three is the live show version,” Ken said, “Each reserve is unique so were doing two story formats”.
They have something new in the works, Ken said his sister had just got them a new puppet, who they think will have a character of an old lady.
Ken said they are still developing her character, “scolding children or adults, Cree talking, and no holds barred kind of talker or sitting down telling stories”
They said they will take a break for the holidays and get back on schedule after the New Year.