LORNE ECKERSLEY
Advance Staff
The audience at Millennium Park wasn’t large on Sunday evening, but a multi-media musical event called Cougar Annie Tales got a warm reception and a long round of applause for creator and solo performer Katrina Kadosky.
“Cougar Annie” was one of the true characters of Vancouver Island—Ada Annie Jordan lived for 65 of her nearly 97 years at Boat Basin, a boat-ride north of Tofino. In 1915, she and her husband, William Rae-Arthur and their three children moved to the location, where they eventually cleared five acres of rainforest. Those efforts led them to be deeded 117 more acres under BC’s Homesteading Act.
Kadosky, a musician who played with Creston’s Velle Huscroft Weitman in the band Honeygirl, worked at what is now known as Cougar Annie’s Garden several years ago, and it was there that she began to write songs about Ada Annie’s history.
With photos of Ada Annie and her family, and scenes from their life in Boat Basin, projected onto a backdrop, Kadosky told the story of “Cougar Annie” (she is reputed to have shot 70 cougars and 80 bears that threatened herself and the farm animals she raised on the remote homestead) in narration and song, playing a variety of instruments and bringing a great story of BC history to life.
“While most of my research happened during the three years I spent on her land,” Kadosky writes on her web site. “I have since conducted interviews with anyone I could find that had a connection with her on Vancouver Island, as well as into Manitoba, and Alberta. This work led to collecting stories, photos, news clippings, and letters. After 5 years of writing and researching there is a show called Cougar Annie Tales. It is a solo theatre piece adapted with support from the Other Guys, Kate Rubin, and Intrepid Theatre.”
In telling the story of Cougar Annie in such an entertaining manner, Kadosky proves that history can be entertaining and edifying. It was a marvelous piece of work.
The gardens and buildings are maintained by a foundation and can be visited by the public. For more information go to http://www.boatbasin.org/garden