For Schools, Assemblies, Libraries & Community Programs
Lenape Language, Story & Song:
The Woodpecker’s Gift
This interactive program introduces audiences to the Lenape language through story, sound, and relationship with the living world. Participants learn basic Lenape phrases and hear the spoken words of a Lenape prayer, grounding them in the rhythm and resonance of a living Indigenous language.
The experience is woven together with live Native American flute music, played throughout the program to mark transitions, deepen listening, and evoke the forested homelands where these stories were first shared. Music becomes a bridge—inviting presence, imagination, and emotional connection.
Through the traditional story The Woodpecker’s Gift, audiences become characters rather than spectators. They learn and translate Lenape words used in the story and explore how language carries ecological wisdom. Participants are invited to share what they know about trees—how trees feed and shelter other species, provide food for humans, and communicate through underground root systems.
This program blends Indigenous storytelling, language revitalization, music, and ecological education, fostering respect for Native knowledge and a deeper sense of relationship with the natural world.
Appropriate for upper elementary through adult audiences. Adaptable for assemblies, classrooms, and residencies.
