By Kelly Many Guns
Native Earth Performing Arts presents NIMIIWE, an Indigenous dance double bill featuring Brian Solomon’s ‘The NDN Way’ and Margaret Grenier and Karen Jamieson’s ‘Light Breaking Broken’. The production is going to premiere at AKI Studio in Toronto from March 30th to April 1st, 2017.
First Nations Drum spoke with both Solomon and Grenier about their productions, discovering that their dance performances feature similar back-stories about keeping traditional cultures alive through contemporary movement.
Brian Solomon
Solomon – Anishinaabe/Irish background – first envisioned what would become ‘The NDN Way’ when he first heard Cindy Bisaillon’s award-winning 1974 CBC documentary ‘The Indian Way’.
“I was friends with Cindy Bisaillon’s daughter, and she mentioned this interview that was done back in 1974,” said Solomon. “So I listened to the cassette tape, and I was blown away with what I was hearing. I told myself, ‘man, this needs to be rescued from the past’.”
‘The Indian Way’ was comprised of an interview with a young Métis-Cree man from Northern Saskatchewan, Ron Evans, who was a teacher/philosopher living in Toronto.
“He spoke so incredibly about the Cree culture, philosophies, and traditional ways, and his explanation of the life cycle in 60-minutes is something astonishing to me. I’ve never heard anyone speak this way,” said Solomon. “From that interview you get a good sense that the language was different then, there’s none of this ‘politically correct’ jargon that we have today. We were called ‘Indian’ back then.”
Mariana Medellin-Meinke
Solomon says one thing that caught his attention during the interview was when Evan’s said that “… the white culture is running away from death, while the Indian are running towards death and are constantly preparing for death.”
It is Evans way of thinking and speaking that inspired Solomon to bring those thoughts and visions to ‘The NDN Way’.
Solomon says he studied as a visual artist. He usually begins with one big moving picture when starting a piece, and often incorporates storytelling.
“I grew up in the northern bush, and not with a lot of traditional teachings. But since I moved to the city at age 17, I’ve found that a lot of young people still carry the spirit of their traditional roots – within their everyday lives, inside concrete walls, in the city they live in.”
Solomon will take his audience through a brilliant synthesization of Cree belief structures, using it as an ‘atmospheric departure point’ from which a full visual and visceral world is created. Solomon re-imagines, remixes, and interprets these philosophies about medicine, pipe ceremonies, sweat lodges, and death in a highly theatrical, visual art-warp, using the original grainy tape as part of the soundscape.
Margaret Grenier
Grenier – Gitxsan and Cree background – talked about how she developed ‘Light Breaking Broken’, which is a creative collaboration with Chalmers Award winning dance artist Karen Jamieson. These women are Vancouver-based contemporary dance artists who identify and draw upon radically different cultural traditions and protocols.
The work explores the subject of light breaking through ignorance, and the paradox of ‘broken’ from different perspectives. ‘Light Breaking Broken’ is the personal journey of two artists reconnecting with language, culture, and identity, honouring the past while locating itself in the creative present.
“I have a long history with Karen, I am happy about this duel collaboration,” said Grenier. “I am a trained traditional coastal dancer and use this form within my performances.”
Grenier says the story of ‘Light Breaking Broken’ was inspired from the potlatches 70-year ban, which was finally lifted in 1951.
Karen Jamieson
First Nations in BC were not allowed to practice any form of the ceremony. The federal government felt that the process of assimilation was not progressing with adequate speed. In response, the Canadian government passed amendments to the Indian Act in 1884. First Nations chiefs used potlatches to pass down names, songs, dances, and rights from one generation to the next. Both males and females participated in potlatch ceremonies.
The potlatch was also a time when wealth was distributed throughout the community. The potlatch displayed the wealth of the chief to his communities and guest communities. In these times, though, wealth was not based on the European concept of how much one had accumulated. Instead, it was an Aboriginal concept based on how much a hosting chief or family could give to guests during the potlatch, and how much hospitality was shown to guests.
“When the potlatches ban was finally lifted, a lot of the elders had lost some of the traditional cultures. They could not really teach, or hand down those teachings and beliefs,” explains Grenier. “In many ways, this was a broken period of our history.”
Grenier says she would like audiences to envision that her and Jamieson are having a conversation through their dance performance, and envision the story of the return of the potlatch.
“This production expresses my identity, and who I am,” said Grenier.
The 40-minute performance of ‘Light Breaking Broken’ uses video and production with the concept of light.
Audiences attending the NIMIIWE will be in for a great visual and dance performance experience.
