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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y R E V I E W
Fall 2023
Living My
NativePast Past Native
in the Present
by Synora Hunt Cummings Photographs by Cindy McEnery Photography; courtesy of The Lost Colony
The night has beckoned me here to this amphitheater as a spectator of the longest running outdoor drama, Paul Green’s The Lost Colony. Rain clouds hover against the sky, offering cool crisp air on a summer’s evening. The atmosphere is clear and inviting. The tar-top path meanders into rows of stadium seating. The set glows, as if beaming with pride at the birth of this acculturation. The crowd is not so large, and I find much solace in that. It is a mixed crowd: those who view the storyline as past tense and those who feel it in the present. Because there are fewer people here tonight, a presence of peace swaddles me and the meaning of this play is able to rest gently against my soul. Taking a seat, I am excited to be among my people as each character breathes life into this history. The characters of this drama are my people, the people of the Lumbee, are the people of the pine, people of the dark waters, rich with tannins, that lap against the knees of cypress trees. My people are the survivors of tribes whose cultures and rituals intertwined with the English colonizers who are being portrayed here. My people are part of the history put into motion long before “CRO” was carved into a tree. And on this night, my people live to tell the story of how we came to thrive along the present-day Lumber River.
Having grown up in Johnston County, North Carolina, not so far removed from my own community of Natives, though just far enough to feel ostracized both in The face of my the place where I lived and from people matters. the home that I longed for, I feel the palpable connection between the characters on the stage and the observers. It took many years before the painted red face no longer suited this play’s script. It has previously been a disappointment to look upon the cast and not see a face reflecting my own. The face of my people matters. Change has come. Native actors now portray the Native characters. Now, I see my own face and hear my own voice as the story pulses through my veins. I am Lumbee, a descendent of
. . . on this night, my people live to tell the story of how we came to thrive along the present-day Lumber River.
ABOVE Kat Littleturtle, a member of Snipe Clan,
representing her Kahtehnuaka Tuscarora people as the 2023 season narrator Born in Lumberton, NC, SYNORA HUNT CUMMINGS is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She lives in Johnston County with her husband and three children where she works as a school counselor and volunteers in her Native community. This is her first publication.