Weaving cultural stories

Young children trooped warily into the Huntington Beach Library theatre Jan. 29, where the first thing they saw was a large American Indian dwelling, or kiitcha.

Onstage, storyteller Jacque Nunez led the children through her Acjachemen village.

The Acjachemen Nation flourished in California hundreds of years before the Europeans came to the “new” land, Nunez taught.

Nunez — a former school teacher — is a masterful storyteller, weaving song and dance into her discussions of her people’s tools, clothing and spirituality. She described the value — and danger — of acorns, the tribe’s staple food, and explained that it can take hundreds of hours to create a single basket.

Nunez also told fables that have been passed down for hundreds of years.

Members of her own family and tribe also made appearances, performing the famous Butterfly Dance, showing the audience a babe-in-arms, or cooking wi’wish — acorn soup.

The stage lighting created an outdoor-like ambience; no detail was left untouched in recreating the village, from the straw-like flooring to the seashells hand-sewn to the tribe’s native garments.

At the end of the discussion, Nunez encouraged each child to go to a family member and ask questions about what makes their own family and culture unique.

The children were then taken into an adjacent library room for an arts and crafts session with the tribe, where Nunez taught them how to make their own Indian headdresses, helped them construct a game of chance using decorated popsicle sticks, and taught them how to spin a hazelnut like an acorn.

Nunez is a USC graduate with a background in public speaking, and has spoken or performed everywhere from Disneyland to the Los Angeles Convention Center.

For more information on her stage performances, classroom visits and other activities, visit journeystothepast.com.

CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (714) 966-4631 or at candice.baker@latimes.com.