The 14th annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival will take place during October 25 to Sunday November 5, 2017 in Vancouver. Over 100 events at over 50 locations throughout 12 days of music, stories, songs, poetry, cultural celebrations, films, theatre, dance, processions, spoken word, workshops, discussions, gallery exhibitions, mixed media, art talks, history talks and history walks.
The theme of the 2017 Festival, Honouring Women of the Downtown Eastside, pays tribute to women from all walks of life in the Downtown Eastside past and present.
A special feature this year is the premiere of MISSING a new chamber opera that gives voice to the story of Canada’s missing and murdered indigenous women. The libretto is by the distinguished First Nations playwright Marie Clements and the composer is Juno-award winner Brian Current. Produced by City Opera Vancouver and Pacific Opera Victoria in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre/DTES Heart of the City Festival, MISSING will open in the Downtown Eastside for a private invitational audience then continue for the public at the York Theatre starting on November 3.
Other Festival highlights include: Summoning (No Words), an interactive sound installation in response to global incidents of violence against women; performances of Crow’s Nest and Other Places She’s Gone, that tells the story of two friends who face life at the edge, weaving contemporary choreography and storytelling through an indigenous lens, featuring storyteller Rosemary Georges on (Coast Salish/Dene) and dance artists Olivia C. Davies (Welsh/Metis-Anishnawbe) and Emily Long; the fabulous voices of Dalannah Gail Bowen, Renae Morriseau, Helen Duguay and Sara Cadeau in Women in the Round; and the always popular evening of jazz at Carnegie Theatre with Jazz Confluence: Carnegie Jazz Band with Brad Muirhead Quartet & Four Special Female Jazz Musicians.
The mandate of the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival is to promote, present and facilitate the development of artists, art forms, cultural traditions, heritage, activism, people and great stories about Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The festival involves a wide range of professional, community, emerging and student artists, and lovers of the arts. Over 1,000 local artists and Downtown Eastside residents participated in last year’s 2016 Festival.
Other highlights include Walking Tours. The Festival is pleased to present a new walking tour with Marcia Toms to shed light on the vital work of women in the home and the Chinatown and Strathcona neighbourhoods. Marcia draws stories of women from many different cultures and marginalized backgrounds who most often worked outside of the realm of organized labour. Born and raised in Vancouver, Marcia is a retired educator, advocate for public education and has a passion for local social history. To all interested, meet at Ovaltine Cafe, 251 E. Hastings on Sunday Oct 29, at 11am.
Also, Sneak Peek into Chinatown: Join hosts Judy Lam Maxwell and Steven Wong for a glimpse of Chinatown. Judy leads Historical Chinatown Tours and Steven is third generation ‘man about town’ in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Meet at Sai Woo, 158 E. Pender, on Saturday Nov 4, at 11am, and $10, pay what you can for local residents.
The Road Forward is a powerful musical documentary by creator and filmmaker Marie Clements about the Native Brotherhood of BC and their struggles and tribulations to get their voice heard. The film has received rave reviews after sold-out screenings at Vancouver’s York Theatre.
The Road Forward
The Native Brotherhood of the BC formed in the 1930s when it was illegal for native people to meet in a gathering or group. The Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood of BC were powerful organizations working towards the same cause. They brought the First Nations together as one.
This Aboriginal Blues and Rock-n-Roll film takes viewers on the journey of the struggles and determination of the characters as they fight for their Native Rights being oppressed by the government. Filmmaker Marie Clements said in the North Shore News she thought it was important to celebrate the investment needed to create change and the ensuing victories because Aboriginal people need to celebrate these as they don’t often read about Indigenous victories and celebrations.
“We don’t often hear about it, and also I think it’s important to look at issues that we’re still dealing with in a truthful way, a contemporary way,” said Marie Clements.
Clements first thought of the idea to create the film when she came across an issue of the The Native Voice – a newspaper that began publishing in the 1940s and became the official voice of the Native Brotherhood of BC. The newspaper served as the platform for the Native Brotherhood to promote their issues and voice their concerns from a native perspective.
The film educates viewers on heroes many are unfamiliar with, and offers a compelling insight and wonderful narration about events that have affected Aboriginal people. These include the Right to hunt, discrimination, the protection of Aboriginal language and culture, residential schools, the Constitution Express, the White Paper, and missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
In the scene where Cheri Maracle leaves home to find work, she faces the brutal reality of the 1940s for an Aboriginal woman. She experiences racism, job refusal because of her skin colour and is unable to even check into a hotel until an unexpected stroke of kindness and opportunity. The Road Forward honours those who came before and created positive change while recognizing issues like the Murdered Indigenous Woman that still need to be resolved.
The cast includes actors, singers and narrations by Michelle St John, Russell Wallace, Cheri Maracle, Thomas Berger, Evan Adams, Leonard George, Doreen Manual, and more.
Clements has created a powerful film that must be seen to understand struggles, victories, and legacies Aboriginal people faced in the past and still confront today. Find more information on The Road Forward at WideAwake.nfb.ca
Upcoming Screenings:
Saturday, September 30, 5pm. The Civic Theatre 719 Vernon Street Nelson BC
Monday, October 16, 5pm. AGH BMO World Film Festival, Hamilton ON
Theatrical Release at Winnipeg Cinematheque on Saturday, October 21, 3pm; Friday, October 27, 7pm; Saturday, October 28, 7pm; and Sunday, October 29, 3pm.
Sunday, October 22, imagineNATIVE Closing Gala, Toronto ON
Tuesday, November 21, Port Hardy Civic Centre, 7440 Columbia Street, Port Hardy BC
Wednesday, November 22, Gate House Theatre, 11-1705 Campbell Way, Port McNeill, BC
Wednesday, November 22, Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, ON
Friday, November 29, Art Gallery of Alberta, 2 Sir Winston Churchill Square Edmonton, AB
Friday, January 19, 2018, 7:30pm, Eden Mills & District Community Club, 104 York Street, Eden Mills, ON
Eugene Brave Rock is the Blackfoot actor from the Blood Tribe in Southern Alberta, who is enjoying world-wide recognition for his role as “Chief,” a.k.a. “Napi,” in Wonder Woman, one of the highest grossing films of 2017. I had the chance to talk with Brave Rock and discuss how his latest role has given him international recognition, including a recent “Headdress Honour Ceremony” bestowed upon him by his own First Nation.
First, we have to include some of his film and TV acting accomplishments like The Revenant, Big Thunder TV series, Blackstone, Tin Star, Klondike and Timeless. Originally, Brave Rock began work in the industry as a movie and TV stuntman but has embraced his acting chops and grown into a fine actor.
The role as “Chief” in the DC Universe Wonder Woman came out-of-the-blue when he was on vacation and his agent contacted him to audition for a role at Warner Brothers studios. When Brave Rock asked his agent details on the part he was told the studio would give him the lines for the character when he arrived in Hollywood for his first reading.
This would be his first film audition with a major Hollywood studio and Brave Rock said he was a bit excited. Not knowing for which film he was reading made the experience even more nerve-wracking.
Eugene Brave Rock in his role as “The Chief”
“I was pretty overwhelmed. I was going to the Warner Brothers studios,” Brave Rock said. “I totally blanked when I read off the script and I thought, ‘Oh well, I screwed that one up.’”
Casting told him he “nailed it” in the audition. Brave Rock said he was surprised they would say that. “Well, I thought, ‘Oh, they were just being nice and that’s probably the last I would hear from them,’” said Brave Rock.
It turned-out Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins liked something in Brave Rock and a second audition was requested and he was offered the role.
“I was completely shocked that I got the role. I then asked what the role was for but they would not initially tell me because it was ‘top secret,’” said Brave Rock.
Eventually he was told he would be “Chief” in the upcoming movie version of Wonder Woman, but that he couldn’t tell anyone he landed the role in the big budget film, not even his wife.
Brave Rock said he enjoyed working with Gal Gadot, the actor who landed the coveted role as the Amazon Princess turned Wonder Woman.
“You know she was amazing, down-to-earth, and it’s so nice to see someone in that position to be just one of the guys and spend time with all the actors; the whole cast had such an awesome time and there was a lot of good vibes on set during filming,” said Brave Rock.
Filming took over seven months in England and other locations in Europe, with four months of straight shooting. Brave Rock says he flew over the Atlantic Ocean ten times to re-shoot scenes but there were no complaints as he enjoyed the process. Plus, he wanted to get his character performance right.
In the film, when Wonder Woman and Chief first meet one another, they talk to each other in the Blackfoot language – Brave Rock’s traditional language and the original language of over 40,000 Blackfoot people from the Blood Tribe, Siksika Nation, Peigan Nation, and from the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. It was the director’s idea to introduce Chief in his Blackfoot language and they both agreed they did not want to stereotype the character even though growing up, when someone called Brave Rock “Chief,” he said “those were fighting words.”
Blackfoot is the only non-English language not subtitled in the film as it is purposely left-out by director Jenkins for dedicated fans to uncover. It didn’t take long. Certain viewers revealed that during their introductions Chief introduced himself as “Napi,” a Blackfoot demi-god.
Napi is the culture hero of the Blackfoot tribe (sometimes referred to as a “transformer” by folklorists). He is a trickster, a troublemaker, and sometimes a foolish person, but he is also responsible for shaping the world the Blackfoot live in and frequently helps the people. Brave Rock revealed on his Twitter that Napi was an actual part of the script.
Is this a big deal? Of course it is. Not only for the character, but also for the overall DC Universe (DCU). It means several things. For starters, it means that Greek Gods are not the only “real” mythological deities in the DCU. Just like in the comics, there are several pantheons out there.
Second, it means that as a demi-god, Chief is ageless, much like Wonder Woman, and could show-up again in a future Wonder Woman film, or maybe another part of the DCU.
In a compelling scene, Wonder Woman asks Chief why he isn’t fighting on either side of the war and Chief replies he doesn’t have anything to fight for. When Wonder Woman asks about that, Chief says that Steve’s people (the white man) took it all from him.
In Hollywood, First Nation people are often portrayed as one of three stereotypes: the savage, Pocahontas, or, the medicine man. However the film industry is beginning to embrace a new kind of First Nation character: authentic, real and still here. Films like Smoke Signals, Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance and Fast Runner are embracing the authentic First Nations people. Chief in Wonder Woman is just the beginning.
When asked for the most challenging part of the role, Brave Rock said the role itself was not challenging because he enjoyed every minute of the production, but then added, “The most challenging part was being away from my family; I missed the birth of my son. The attack in Paris, that was a bit scary and tough.”
Brave Rock has always wished to one day be an actor and starring in this blockbuster is something special to him.
“It has been a dream of mine since I was a kid on the reserve to be an actor. There are so many stories of our culture that we can share,” Brave Rock said. “I’ll never forget where I came from. I’ve lived in Forest Lawn (Calgary neighbourhood), Bannock Street in Lethbridge, and of course Kainai (Blood Tribe).”
Now the question is: Will the franchise decide to bring back the character of Chief in Wonder Woman 2 or any other DCU production? This is a question Brave Rock couldn’t answer since there is so much secrecy involved with a sequel.
As for the future, Brave Rock will be in post-production as a stunt performer in an upcoming film. He is enjoying the amazing response to Wonder Woman and how it has ignited his acting career.
“I will take every opportunity that is there, there are so many stories out there,” said Brave Rock.
This is one event you don’t want to miss! The Drum is Calling Festival is a one of a kind, once in a lifetime event, providing an opportunity for everyone to celebrate Vancouver’s three Host Nations. Saturday July 22 celebrate the opening of this Festival with a free pancake breakfast for the first 500 guests arriving at Larwill Park (688 Cambie + Georgia).
The City of Vancouver, the world’s first official City of Reconciliation, has created the Drum is Calling Festival in partnership with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. This 9-day festival will feature cultural traditions, traditional and cutting-edge arts, music, dance, film, poetry, PowWow, and much more.
Highlighting the festival will be stellar performances from iconic artists such as singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie, PowWowStep creator DJ Shub, singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, country sensation Crystal Shawanda, northern Ontario rockers Midnight Shine, Juno Award winner William Prince, rising R&B star George Leach, genre-defying artist Kinnie Starr, literary giant Tomson Highway, and powerful spoken word poet Shane Koyczan and The Short Story Long.
Additional highlights will include hands-on workshops and live programming inside the Indigenous housing forms built by the Kanata Festival on Turtle Island. The inaugural Indigenous Fashion Week is the brainchild of former international model Joleen Mitton. The show will feature the consolidated and emerging artists of Indigenous fashion design and modelling. While Having Soup is a powerful installation in which over the amount of time it takes to consume a bowl of soup, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Vancouverites will engage in a “three-course” dialogue about charged issues during Canada 150+.
There will be hands-on workshops, and live programming inside the site including Theatre for Young People presented by Shaw Communications Inc., carving and weaving workshops, play readings, curated short films by the National Film Board, From Oral to Written presented in partnership with Talonbooks and the Vancouver Writers Fest and the best of authentic Indigenous artisans, vendors and food. Exhibition games and a Basketball tournament will be taking place in adjacent streets. A spectacular night of intercultural drumming will ignite the thunderous power of dancers and drummers from around the world and is led by renowned percussionist and cultural collaborator Sal Ferraras.
Festivalgoers will experience something new every day. The artistic and cultural program will be in sync with the theme of each day, starting July 22 with 3-Host Nation Day, and followed up with Our Elders Day, Matriarch Day, 7 Generations – Youth Day Presented by Shaw Communications Inc., Warriors Day, Friendship Day, Gathering Our Relations Day, Transformation Day and closing the festival on July 30 with Intertribal In Action Day.
Oh, did I mention, all events are FREE! Taking place in the heart of downtown at Larwill Park, bounded by Cambie & Beatty streets and Georgia and Dunsmuir streets in downtown Vancouver, everyone is welcome. Those activities taking place at the Queen Elizabeth theatre and Vancouver Playhouse theatre require tickets. Tickets are free and links to register online are available at canada150plus.ca/drum/
Friends and families alike can share what we all have in common – our joys, fears, hopes and dreams through film, song, literature and dance.
For information and full schedule of events visit canada150plus.ca
In 1983, after animal activists groups like Green Peace were able to convince the European Union to ban products made from whitecoat harp seal pups, everything changed for the worst for Inuit people in the Canadian arctic. If that wasn’t enough, yet another ban in 2009 by the European Union caused even more hardship for the Inuit people who rely on their seal hunt to sustain their livelihood, their culture and economy.
“Angry Inuk,” a film by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, enlightens viewers by providing background on the reality behind the anti-seal hunt demonstrations and those using whitecoat harp seal pups as their slogan. By portraying the helpless baby white seal as their poster darling, animal activists have been able to, time and again, convince world governments and the public that hunting seals is “evil and cruel” and unnecessary.
Arnaquq-Baril is narrator for the compelling documentary, which was filmed over a seven-year period beginning in the spring of 2008. The film shows the pristine landscape of the Nunavut Territory in the Canadian Arctic and looks into the Inuit people and their way of life. It explains how the seal hunt is so much a fundamental part of Inuit culture.
In one scene, Aaju Peter, a seal skin designer and a lawyer for Inuit Seal Hunting Rights, is admiring a picture of two children with their faces smeared with seal blood while enjoying eating seal. Peter explains, “To other people, this probably looks scary. But to us, this is cute.”
After the 1983 seal hunt ban was imposed, most Inuit people had no choice but to move away from their traditional grounds and into town because the price of seal skin completely crashed. Most Inuit had to find odd jobs creating carvings and perform whatever other jobs they could find. But the Inuit still had to hunt seal for food.
Arnaquq-Baril said the 1983 ban was their “Great Depression” as it was a life altering event for the Inuit. Within a year of the ban the suicide rate spiked even higher and has risen to rank among the highest globally ever since.
“Suicide was once a rare thing in the Inuit community. As a result of traumas from residential school abuse, forestry relocation, and other destructive government policies, Inuit people began taking their lives at alarming rates,” narrates Arnaquq-Baril in “Angry Inuk.” “In 1983 it was yet another layer of stress on our communities causing widespread hunger and hardships.”
In 2009, the filmmaker followed a group of Inuit representative who traveled to the European Union Parliament to voice their opinion on banning the seal hunt. The viewer will see their efforts were futile and did not change world leaders’ minds on the vote.
“Angry Inuk” is a film worth watching and may even change your thoughts on the Seal Hunt Ban lobbied for by Green Peace – an organization responsible for successfully implanting the erroneous image of the “evil and killing of the baby white seal” in the minds of those not educated to the facts of Inuit life.
Playing to major festivals and packed houses all over the world you don’t want to miss
Experimental vocalist and artist Tanya Tagaq who will be headlining The Drum is Calling Festival on July 24 at Larwill Park. This award-winning Inuk throat singer released her latest album Retribution in 2016 and in 2014 won the Polaris Prize for best Canadian album for Animism.
BUFFY SAINT MARIE
The City of Vancouver’s Canada 150+ signature event The Drum is Calling is a nine-day, immersive festival of Indigenous and diverse arts and culture. Highlighting the festival will be stellar performances from iconic artists such as singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie who will be the opening headliner, PowWowStep creator DJ Shub, singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, country sensation Crystal Shawanda, northern Ontario rockers Midnight Shine, Juno Award winner William Prince, rising R&B star George Leach, genre-defying artist Kinnie Starr, literary giant Tomson Highway, and powerful spoken word poet Shane Koyczan and The Short Story Long.
For those drum lovers, a must-see will be a spectacular night of Drums over Salish Sea in July 27. This intercultural drumming will ignite the thunderous power of dancers and drummers from around the world and is led by renowned percussionist and cultural collaborator Sal Ferraras.
Artistic Program
Saturday July 22: Bitterly Divine, Murray Porter, Buffy Sainte-Marie
Sunday July 23: William Prince, Crystal Shawanda, Tom Jackson
Monday July 24: Amanda Rheaume, Susan Aglukark,Tanya Tagaq
Tuesday July 25: Shamik Bilgi, Boom Booms with Ta’Kaiya Blaney, Midnight Shine
Wednesday July 26: Dj Kookum
Thursday July 27: The Jerry Cans, Drums over the Salish Sea
Friday July 28: Donny Parenteau, Sierra Noble, Chantal Kreviazuk
Saturday July 29: George Leach, Kinnie Starr, DJ Shub
Sunday July 30: Leonard Sumner, Leela Gilday, Shane Koyczan and The Short Story Long
Attendees can expect much more than just music; additional highlights will include hands-on workshops and live programming inside the Indigenous housing forms built by the Kanata Festival on Turtle Island. While Having Soup is a powerful installation in which over the amount of time it takes to consume a bowl of soup, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Vancouverites will engage in a “three-course” dialogue about charged issues during Canada 150+.
SHANE KOYCZAN
As part of the festival, the inaugural Indigenous Fashion Week will feature the super-stars and emerging artists of Indigenous fashion design and modelling. The show is the brainchild of former international model Joleen Mitton.
Other forms of art will include carving exhibitions, curated short films by the National Film Board, Theatre for Young people presented by Shaw Communications Inc., and From Oral to Written presented in partnership with the Vancouver Writers Fest.
CHANTAL KREVIAZUK
Artistic Director Margo Kane and the curators have themed each day, so festival-goers will experience something new at every return visit. From honouring our Host Nations to Elders and Matriarch to Youth, Warriors, and Friends, the themes bring together cultural presentations such as theatre, play readings, carving and weaving workshops, literary and speaker series, and film screenings. The best of authentic Indigenous artisans, vendors and food will be on site to nourish your mind, body, and soul.
The Festival’s main venue Larwill Park will feature a festival zone with stages, food and craft vendors, exhibits and more. Activities and performances will also take place at adjacent streets and plazas, including other venues such as Queen Elizabeth Theatre and Playhouse Theatre.
Events are free however some indoor venues may require advance registration. For more information on these events and programming for Celebration 150+ please visit the website at canada150plus.ca
Powwow … chicken dancing at Blackfoot Crossing. Photo: Peter Svehla
During Easter weekend, brothers and sisters of Alberta Blackfoot reservation Siksika Nation came together during a celebratory pow-wow. The celebration was held in Siksika’s northern flats at their great pow-wow arbour. In the past, the nation held pow-wow’s at many different locations, including the Blackfoot Crossing along the Bow River where the Treaty 7 was signed back in 1877.
“That’s where we had our pow-wow before for a lot of years,” says journeyman drummer Skip Wolfleg. “It kind of moved around. In the beginning, we’d have pow-wows in old halls, a person’s house, even a barn, and this was because we weren’t allowed to actually sing our songs or pow-wow.”
Back then, there was no toleration for exhibition of traditional culture. “So y’know, we kind of went behind closed doors, kinda’ went underground. Up until about the seventies, or late sixties, then we were allowed to come out. This is when we started having different areas,” said Wolfleg.
This going-behind-closed-doors way the Blackfoot people carried themselves conserved many of their traditions. Without these kinds of efforts the ways of the Blackfoot people may have been completely wiped out by residential schooling systems and westernized law and regulation.
“Back in the early 1900s because of the Blackfoot Confederacy, we are lucky enough to have all our native traditions still active as of today,” says Troy Delaney of the Blackfoot Blood Tribe.
Delaney is a seasoned Chicken Dancer, which is a dance indigenous to the Blackfoot people. “Over the years, there have been many adaptations, and a lot of things happening in the world,” says Delaney about the Chicken Dance. “The dance almost got wiped out. But because of the language, because of the songs, because of the rattles that we dance with, and all the prayers that we have, we are lucky enough to still have it a part of our ways.”
He wears light blue and yellow traditional wear adorned with beadwork of the prairie rose. The rose is also along his head roach, which is lined with strands of beads that dangle along the ridge of his brow, hanging over his eyes. Fine peasant feathers line his skull, curving down his back into at a bustle of feathers at his tailbone.
I ask him to tell me more about the Chicken Dance. “If you ever see a real Chicken Dance – his footwork – he’s actually trying to impress the woman. In other word, he’s saying he wants the woman to be his spouse. Me and my brother, we dance proud for our wives. We dance proud for our people. We’re lucky enough we still have our women. The women are most important in the Blackfoot nation. They treat us with the most respect, and also, we treat them with the most respect. So when we dance, we bring them the joy of watching their spouse dance.”
I also ask Wolfleg to speak about what he knows about the Chicken Dance. “Sometime over our history, they say that the dance and songs were given to our people. It’s kind of like a show-off dance. What’s happening is that the male prairie chicken is trying to impress female prairie chickens out on the plains by doing these different fancy steps. It’s a neat thing to watch. We’re basically just imitating the mating ritual of the prairie chickens out there. It was given to the Blackfoots long ago, and for some reason it made us powerful and made us many. In a sense, you can say the dance and song promotes fertility.”
According to Blackfoot legend, the dance, known in the Blackfoot language as Kitokipaaskaan, came about long ago when a young Blackfoot man went out hunting on the prairies. He was hungry, and hadn’t had any food to eat for a while. He’d searched and searched, and then finally he came across some birds dancing in the tall grass. In a hungry haste, he shot an arrow at one of the birds, killing it instantly. Eager to eat, the young man brought the bird back home, cooked it, and fed himself and his family. That night, the man had a peculiar dream. In this dream, the spirit of the bird that he’d killed, which was a prairie chicken, came to him. The bird asked the young man why he had killed him, to which he replied: “I needed to feed my family”.
The prairie chicken then gave the man an ultimatum. After demonstrating the dance he was doing before he was killed, the prairie chicken told the man that he must go out and teach all the people this exact dance. If he did not do this, this prairie chicken vowed that he would come back and kill the young man. The man did so, and this is how the sacred Prairie Chicken Dance came about. (Story adapted from Blackfoot Crossing website).
The Siksika Easter pow-wow had an entire round dedicated to Chicken Dancing, and even a special dance-off between Chicken Dancers and Traditional Dancers. It was amazing to see the different adaptations of the dance, traditional wear, and see men from toddler to elder take part in the ritual. Between rounds, elders would tell stories of the dance, proudly honoring the Prairie Chicken Dance that is so integral to Blackfoot tradition.
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.
Conducted via a phone-call on November 20th, 2016.
Q: What are the Nations that make up A Tribe Called Red?
A: “I am Anishinaabe from Nipissing. Ojibiway is what I identify as. Tim (2oolman) is a Six Nations Mohawk. Bear Witness is of the Cayuga. Our cultures within A Tribe Called Red are completely different – everything’s different. That definitely brings a lot of perspective, and a lot of different ideas to the table.”
Q: Is there a specific First Nation’s language used in your songs, or does it vary?
A: “It varies with the drum we’re using. The drums that we are using a lot are from Blackbear, who are Atikamekw. They’re a super dope group from Northern Quebec, four hours away from Montréal. So yeah, we use the languages of the drum that we sample.”
Check out A Tribe Called Red’s Album ‘We Are The Halluci Nation’, delving into deep-rooted issues using the medium of modern dance music.
Q: Other than drums, is there any other traditional elements that go into constructing your music with an indigenous framework?
A: “Oh yeah. Over the past couple of year on our tours, we’ve been compiling material,” Campeau is audibly enthusiastic about this, and begins telling me a story.
“We went to Norway and played a festival called Riddu Riđđu, an all indigenous, global music festival. It’s, like, not massive. We’ve played massive festivals, and this one wasn’t very big, but it’s definitely one of my favorites where it was all indigenous people. We got to sit and hang out in Sami country, with Sami people. There were Tuvan throat singers, Greenland and Inuit people, we were there, and all kinds of other people.
“One of the people we met there was Maxida Marak, who is a Sami artist from Sweden. We got to record her traditional singing, which is called ‘Joik’. Their Joik’s – or their songs – are used to lead their reindeer herds. Reindeer herding is a part of their traditional way of living. So yeah, we got to record her Joik in Norway.” This recording can be hear on the A Tribe Called Red song ‘Eanan’.
“And then we got to record our friend Stew from the band Oka in Melbourne. He’s indigenous from Australia.” You can listen to their collaboration on the A Tribe Called Red Song song ‘Maima Koopi’. “It’s really cool to be able to record and sample indigenous singing, and indigenous instruments from their home – you know what I mean? Like recording Sami artists IN Norway; recording the didgeridoo IN Australia. It was really cool, and really important. I think that shines through on the record [We Are The Halluci Nation] a lot.”
I comment on how cool it was that they used indigenous music from all over the world, and not just Canada.
“Oh yeah. And travelling all over the world was very empowering in a way of realizing that we are not alone. We’re not alone, not in just our struggles, but even in a lot of our ceremonies. That was really eye-opening for me, travelling as far away from home as I possibly can – without leaving the planet – and seeing people doing smudging ceremonies. Seeing people do call-and-response songs that reminded me of Iroquois social songs.
“I knew we were going to connect on this colonial, oppressive history. All three of us, North American indigenous, Sami indigenous, and Australian indigenous, have gone through a type of residential school system. We’re all currently protesting against pipelines. It’s so empowering to know that we’re all going through this. In Canada, we don’t have a place to go back to. Like, when racist people say, ‘oh, go back to your country’, like, we don’t have a homeland. Our homeland was taken over and somebody else lives here now. And you feel really alone. You feel really lonely when you don’t have that place anymore. But, going to other countries, and seeing that we’re not alone – that there’s other people going through this and feeling the same thing – it’s really empowering. It makes me realize that we’re not in this struggle alone. We do have people to reach out to that are going through the same thing, and that are able to discuss the solutions.”
Ian ‘DJ NDN’ Campeau, Anishinaabe from Nipissing
Q: Why is electronica music the medium you use in order to express your culture?
A: “Thinking back on it now, it seemed to be the easiest transition from traditional music. Traditional music is also dance orientated. So that’s what we did, meshed up dance music with dance music. Making that bridge, I think it was really important, not only for non-indigenous people to experience or hear pow-wow music for – many of them – the first time, but on the other side, a lot of indigenous youths hearing electronic music for the first time – who never really had access to that sort of thing. I like being that bridge. There’s a lot of producers coming up within our community, and it’s extremely exciting to hear what they’re putting out.”
Q: How does the perspective of being an urban indigenous person live inside of your music?
A: “It’s because it’s uniquely from that perspective, and it’s from that perspective in a way that’s not done in a sad way. A lot of indigenous music that has shone through the community is typically oppressed music, like a lot of blues, a lot of country, a lot of rap. It comes from struggle music, which is totally understandable. We’ve come through a lot of struggle, and I understand that. But I think that playing music that is not like that, that is typically happy and more upbeat, gets people in a place where they’re not ready for a fight. Instead, we’re able to have a conversation in this place we’re everybody’s dancing and happy. Where there’s no finger-pointing, and it’s not in your face like on social media. Through art, it’s a much more laid-back approach.”
Q: What is the importance of being, or remaining happy, when talking about our indigenous issues? So many people are bitter when talking about the past.
A: “There’s a lot to heal. There’s a lot to know about what happened within Canada, what we call Canada, for it to exist. The decimation of indigenous people had to happen in order for Canada to exist as it does today. When we’re confronting a lot of these really hard reality’s, when we tell people these really hard realities, I think that having this conversation at a dance party is way easier to do. What we need to say, and what we need to get out there, is easier to do when you’re dancing. I think that’s something indigenous people knew a long time ago, and that’s why dancing is such an important part of our everyday life.”
Q: Why is it important for you to raise awareness on Mother Earth throughout your album ‘We Are The Halluci Nation’?
A: “Oh man, Mother Earth – we’re all of the earth! There’s a process a long time ago that Bear [Witness] told me on how the indigenous people – the Red Nation – was going to remind the world, and the rest of humanity, how to be human beings again. We have a history. There’s an archaeologist who was hanging out on my rez and taking kids out for digs. He was telling me that there is archaeological proof that the Nipissing people, my people – and he was telling me this at my Mom’s house, while we’re sitting on that lake – that we’ve been living on that lake for 13,000 years. Like, there’s archaeological proof of it. So 13,000 years ago, the ice-age was over, the ice was receding, the melting camp was going up, and we followed up from the south,which destroys the barring strait theory. Anyways, as we were coming up to the north, everything was getting uncovered from ice for hundreds of thousands of years. It took a long time for the tree’s and the vegetation that we see to come back. So on the scale, it showed as the tree’s were coming back – like as a timeline – and it was 6,000 years after we were there that the Maple Tree showed back up. Or showed up, I don’t even know if they were there before or what. But, like, that’s the symbol of Canada – the Maple Leaf. I’m 6,000 years older than your symbol on your flag. That is one of the most empowering moments that I’ve had. So when you look around at your 150 year anniversary next year, it kinda’ makes me, like, roll my eyes, you know what I mean? When I know that my history goes back 13,000 years.
“It gives me a lot of hope that all of this racism, this misogyny, the resource extraction without putting back, and the disruption of the natural laws is all brand new. It’s only 150 years old. So I think that we’re here to show that we’re meant to live within this. With this. We know how to live with this. That the idea of wilderness is a colonial idea. It wasn’t wild to us, it was very bountiful and it was very tame. So when people realized these things, it was home. It wasn’t wilderness, it wasn’t wild. It isn’t until we get these colonial ideas broken down that we can get that message out: that there’s other ideas of how to live, there’s other ideas of wealth.
“And I think that the smallest change in the idea of wealth will change everything. We have to change the idea of wealth from how much we can hoard and accumulate and keep away from other people, to how much we can help other people. Once we say, like ‘ hey, I grew more tomatoes, so I can give you as much as I have’, and that’s wealth. Why don’t we change it to that? That was an indigenous idea a long time ago. We have to make a change to these ideas, go back to the framework of 13,000 years ago. We can do it. All of this is brand new. All of these ideologies are brand new. We can change it. Coming from matriarchal societies, we are now living within a patriarchal society full of misogyny. This isn’t the way we lived for tens-of-thousands-of-years.
“So just getting back to your original question about representation of the earth, you know, Indigenous people believe that we are of the earth, and that we can’t live outside of that balance. Other people all over the world realize that too. So having, like, an Iraqi rapper saying the same thing, it just shows that we all understand. Again, this society that we live in within North America is brand new, and we can change it.”
Q: How do indigenous people define their identity, even when they’re off reserve and surrounded by western culture?
A: “Any way they want. It’s really funny, like, as an indigenous person, I want to be recognized as such. Even if I’m wearing my hoodie and a baseball cap, I’m still indigenous. You need to recognize that. Just because I’m not wearing buckskin and feathers all the time, it doesn’t mean that I’m not indigenous when I’m not doing that.
“It’s funny. Our time when we were in Europe playing a set, we’d have people, like, these European people, and they’ll will be upset with us. They’d say ‘I wish you’d play more of your music’. Then I’m like ‘well, we play, like, mostly our music’. Then they’re like ‘no, no, no, like more native music’, and I’m just like ‘if we make it, it’s native music’. So what they were saying is that they wanted to hear more pow-wow samples. But even when it doesn’t have pow-wow samples, the fact that we make it makes it indigenous music. It doesn’t have to have pow-wow in it to make it indigenous. Just because A Tribe Called Red made it, that’s what makes it indigenous.”
Yeah, you don’t have to put yourself in a box because you’re indigenous. It’s great to be traditional, but really –
“You can be whatever you want. Find your own way. It’s malleable, we don’t have to live in moulds. That’s a big thing within the indigenous community that we need to bring back. We never had these structures and such black and white ways of doing things. It wasn’t until the Indian Act showed up that the color of our skin mattered. It said ‘I’m white, you’re Indian, so this is what it is’. Race was legislated. People of color didn’t come up with slavery laws, with Jim Crowe laws, with the Indian Act. It was the hierarchy of race, and by white supremacy, that it was all legislated. That needs to be known, and a lot of people don’t know this. So listen, the Indian Act was not created by native people and enforced by native people. When you realize that the idea of white supremacy was what has been legislated, it will be easier to un-legislate it.”
Q: How do you think people should be going about taking that apart?
A: “I don’t know. I really don’t know. This is all very brand new, and it’s all super urgent. Like with these elections that just happened, things are scarier than ever.” I ask him what his views are on the US political election. “I understand that anything that has to do with North America doesn’t have to do with me. Any election, any government, anything that has to do with the well-being of North America, it doesn’t have to do with the well-being of indigenous people. Actually, it mostly has to do with the direct opposite of that. So I understand that the whole Trump process isn’t for me. That being said, I understand that it’s going to be really scary, and I have a lot of friends in Canada that are terrified. I don’t know what’s going to happen, I just don’t know. This is all so brand new.”
Q: What are your views on the peaceful protest our Brothers and Sisters are putting on down in the Standing Rock Sioux Nation?
A: “It’s incredible. Finally, FINALLY, people are starting to understand that our issues aren’t just indigenous issues, you know what I mean? Like water’s pretty important for humanity. And again, as indigenous people, we have to remind humanity on what it is to be human. Water’s important, we need this, guys. And so, as this protest is happening, solidarity protests are leading the news. It blows my mind that an indigenous issue would lead the news like that. I think that Trump is a direct response from non-indigenous people waking up to the plight that we’ve been talking about forever. It’s a direct reaction of Trump people trying to hold on to that white supremacy, and their ideas of capitalism.”
Since 1981, Theatre for the Living has been helping communities tell their stories through the expression of theatre. This year, director David Diamond and associate director Renae Morriseau will present šxʷʔam̓ət (Home) on March 3rd through to the 11th at the Firehall Arts Centre. It is hoped that audiences will find Home provocative and entertaining. This production is created and performed by an Indigenous and non-indigenous cast, and asks us to imagine what reconciliation really means.
I spoke with Diamond and asked him about Home.
“The play grows out of an organic process, and this is how Theatre for the Living works,” Diamond said. “The play will develop struggles, and it will try and try and answer what reconciliation means. I’ve been doing this work for a long time, and people’s perception of the world around us changes.”
If you want innovative theatre that is engaging and challenges your perceptions, than checking out Home would be it.
Theatre for the Living has a 36 year, multi-award winning history of creating cutting edge, interactive theatre that challenges perceptions and creates social change. With 11 performances slated, Home will weave stories based on real-life, and challenge the audience to make reconciliation real and honourable. When referring to reconciliation, Morriseau says that the deeper understanding we have, the better.
“The production sounds like it’s going to be heavy, but it will be a lot of fun and very interactive, only the subject is not.”
The title of the production, šxʷʔam̓ət (Home), is based on an hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (a local Indigenous dialect) word used to reference home. This word has so many different meanings to all of us who are living on this land.
The Theatre for the Living says there’s a conversation happening in Canada about reconciliation, and how it is manifesting action in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities across this country. The City of Vancouver has officially declared that Vancouver sits on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. But what do these initiatives really mean? If we are sincere about the desire for reconciliation, what kinds of shifts in perceptions and behaviours need to take place? What is the pulse of change each of us are shaping? How do we break down the walls of colonization that surround us all? Is Reconciliation possible without respecting promises and guarantees made regarding Indigenous consent for projects on Indigenous land?
In šxʷʔam̓ət (home),the production will invite audiences to change the patterns of behaviour inside characters who are struggling with these issues – patterns that audience members may recognize inside themselves – and rehearse true reconciliation.
The cast will consist of seven original actors of Inuk, Cree, Okanagan, Ho-Cak, Snaw-Naw-As, and a range of diverse performers.
Diamond is the recipient of the Otto René Castillo Award for Political Theatre in NY (2010), as well as the Mayor’s Arts Award for Community Engaged Art (2012). Morriseau is Cree and Saulteaux, and she is originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She works across Canada and the US in theatre, film, television and music. Among numerous honours, Renae was the recipient of the 2015 Mayor’s Arts Award for her work to cultivate social justice and inclusiveness through theatre and music.
