Star Nayea's wellness tour

Grammy winner brings Wellness Tour to Oklahoma

By Karen ShadeAs winter pushes out to make way for warmer temperatures, spring cleaning rituals abound like wild onion dinners. The timing is perfect for a tour coming to Oklahoma aimed at helping children and youth live better inside and out.

The 7th Annual Spring Into Wellness Tour will be in Oklahoma March 18-30. Founder and presenter Star Nayea said the goal is to reach as many Native communities as possible with a message of healthful, positive living.And:Spring Into Wellness began in Santa Fe, N.M., when she lived there and taught music. Now a Seattle resident, Nayea is a speaker and mentor. She may be best known as a recording artist with several solo albums to her name. She also was part of the album Sacred Ground: A Tribute to Mother Earth, which won the Grammy Award for Best Native American Music Album in 2006. Sacred Ground, a compilation album, also includes singers Robert Mirabal and Joanne Shenandoah. In 2008, Nayea was named the Native American Music Award’s Songwriter of the Year. She is of Canada’s First Nations people known as the Anishinabe tribe (commonly referred to as Ojibwe or Chippewa).

Ten years ago, Nayea began speaking with children in the schools in New Mexico and Arizona about living free of alcohol and drugs and that having good health is essential to a good life. A few years later, she officially dubbed her efforts Spring Into Wellness. The message is one share by Chance Lee Rush, who will be also tour this month.Comment:  For more on Native music and health, see Concert for a Cure and Healing Natives Through Hip Hop.