Full Event Descriptions Coming Soon…
Wednesday June 15th
6pm
Honouring our Anishinaabe Garden
The Garden brings together art, the land and a variety of local indigenous plants. This Garden can be used as medicine and for ceremonies. The Elders who provided guidance asked that strawberry, pennyroyal, tobacco, and wild rice be planted in the Garden. The other plants were chosen not only because they were local, but for their medicinal properties and as a food source for birds and butterflies. This Garden gives us the opportunity to think about how we come to dwell in a landscape and our relationship to all on the land and the water.
Catalogue Launch
ayaandagon: outdoor art installations in an anishinaabe garden, curated by William Kingfisher.
descriptor coming soon.
Book Launch
Dancing on our Turtles Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-creation, Resurgence and a New Emergence by activist, educator and editor Leanne Simpson.
Many promote Reconciliation as a “new” way for Canada to relate to Indigenous Peoples. In Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence activist, editor, and educator Leanne Simpson asserts reconciliation must be grounded in political resurgence and must support the regeneration of Indigenous languages, oral cultures, and traditions of governance.
Simpson explores philosophies and pathways of regeneration,resurgence, and a new emergence through the Nishnaabeg language, Creation Stories, walks with Elders and children, celebrations and protests, and meditations on these experiences. She stresses theimportance of illuminating Indigenous intellectual traditions to transform their relationship to the Canadian state. Challenging and original, Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back provides a valuable new perspective on the struggles of Indigenous Peoples.
ROBERT HOULE: PARIS/OJIBWA
Ongoing Exhibition from MAY 14 TO SEPT 4, 2011
Robert Houle’s art installation, Paris/Ojibwa re-imagines a grand 1845 Parisian room in which two different cultures, Ojibwa and Parisian, make contact, evoking the lingering memory of the historical Maungwudaus and his (Mississauga) dance troupe performing for the Parisian court.
The artist first became aware of this enduring connection between cultures during a trip to Paris. He noted that exotic encounters with Native Americans impressed the 19th century Parisian imaginations of poets and painters, notably George Sand, Charles Baudelaire and Eugène Delacroix.
Robert writes that, “seeing the Delacroix sketch, Cinq etudes d’Indiens, (of the Ojibwa dancers) at the Louvre’s Pavillon de Flore, le department des arts graphiques was like traveling back in time to when Delacroix first drew it”.
The artist’s re-imagining of what may have happened in this encounter began in 2006 during his residency at La Cite des Arts in Paris. The resulting multi-media installation pays homage to the memory of the indigenous dance troupe, as well as a reflection on the crucial theme of the aesthetics of disappearance. The title of the work alludes to contact between Europeans and a group of Mississauga from Upper Canada guided by a remarkable man, George Henry, Maungwudaus (a Great Hero). Houle explains that his 16 foot square by 12 foot high set that installs replete with a sound component and futurist animation projection is “a cultural hybrid of theatricality and ethnicity”.
Robert Houle’s Paris/Ojibwa received support from the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council.
Thursday June 16th
10pm
Spoken Word and Electric Pow Wow
In 2008, DJ’s NDN, Frame and Bear Witness founded A Tribe Called Red. In 2010, they added 2 time Candian DMC champ, DJ Shub to the crew. Electric Pow Wow is a bi-monthly club night dedicated to showcasing Aboriginal DJ talent and Native urban culture and is aimed at creating a space for Aboriginal people. These three veterans of the Ottawa music scene come together to create an eclectic sound made up of a wide variety of musical styles ranging from Hip-Hop, Dance Hall, Electronica, and their own mash-up of club and Pow Wow music. You can catch Electric Pow Wow every other month on the second Saturday at Babylon nightclub in Ottawa, Canada.
Friday June 17th
6pm
Performance Art: Robin Brass. ‘mi ima ehkosit’ (there it hangs…)
A video/audio/performance in nahkewewin (plains anishinaabemowin), expressing the interconnectivity of story, language, love and transcendence. As stated in the performance, “There is no end/We do not stop”.
8pm
Theatre Sports:Tonto’s Nephews vs. Twoshees Andahee
Live Comedy with Impov Theatre Sport stars!
On Friday June 17th, at 8pm sharp, at the new and improved Market Hall Performing Arts Centre, the Ode’min Giizis Festival promises an evening of laugh out loud Theatre Sports. Two teams, Tonto’s Nephews, an all-Native improv troupe led by well known Canadian actor, Herbie Barnes, (appearing in 4th Line Theatre’s production of Drew Hayden Taylor’s, Berlin Blues this June), and comedian Craig Lauzon, (member of The Royal Canadian Air Farce), belly up to the lightning-fast reflexes of Twoshee’s Andahee, a made-to-order improv troupe led by Millbrook’s Paul O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan, (a close friend to comedy and theatre in Canada and the United States), with Lisa Merchant (winner of three Canadian Comedy Awards), and Jan Caruana (Mean Girls), are pitted against Tonto’s Nephews in competitive improv matches. Using the audience to fuel the laughs, the two teams must create totally improvised situations on the spot. Referee Neal McLeod (Trent U. professor, visual artist & comedian in his own right), will slap the improvisers with penalties and jabs – or reward them with bonuses, as he sees fit. Round after grueling round, the audience will be called on to vote for the best scenes and the sharpest improv.
10pm
The Red Revue: Cutting edge, contemporary Indigenous music headlining at the Red Dog
The Historic Red Dog Tavern will host a rollicking evening with a Peterborough Showcase featuring: Missy Knott, Sarah DeCarlo, Sean Conway, Rob Foreman and Charlie Chickenhawk (Charles Glasspool) and the Anishnaabe Babes.
Headlining this concert is Shawnee Oklahoman Samantha Crain (recent chart topper on the National Aboriginal Music Countdown), who has added Peterborough to her “You (Understood)” cross-border tour of the US and Canada.
Saturday June 18th
8pm
IndieGenius Outdoor Music Concert