Talking Stick Festival: Matriarchs Uprising showcases global Indigenous dance
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2020 19:00:23 +0000
Part of Talking Stick Festival
When: Program 1, Feb. 21; Program 2, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Historic Theatre, The Cultch
Tickets and info: From $10.50 at tickets.thecultch.com
As artistic director of O.Dela Arts, Olivia C. Davies approaches indigeneity through contemporary dance.
In pieces such as Crow’s Nest and Other Places She’s Gone, the B.C.-based choreographer of Anishinaabe, French-Canadian, Welsh and Finnish heritage examined the personal and political relationships someone can have with a specific place.
For this year’s Talking Stick Festival, Davies is curating and co-producing a two part program titled Matriarchs Uprising, which presents artists from Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
“Two evenings of Indigenous women dancing stories of transformation is pretty exciting,” said Davies.
“Finding an opportunity to showcase my kin, other Indigenous women creating and performing contemporary dance — not only through performance but also through master classes, community level classes and post-show artist talks — is wonderful.
“There will also be separate circle conversations meant to engage audience members into becoming interested in wanting to come and witness more such performances.”
The aim of all of these different facets of Matriarchs Uprising is to expose the new works by Indigenous female artists that bridge between tradition and today.
Too often, the idea of Indigenous dance is limited by critics and audiences alike as merely folk or cultural expression. Davies is dedicated to changing that notion.
“It’s something that we talk about in our community a lot, about what is contemporary Indigenous dance,” she said.
“There is still a lot of stereotyping that Indigenous dance is something only performed in ceremony in longhouses or at potlatches. My intention with the curating of Matriarchs Uprising is to showcase our contemporary dance practice and to provide context for that.”
Program 1 is titled Same But Different, and was created for DubaiKungkaMiyalk (DKM), a company formed by Australian Aboriginal choreographer Mariaa Randall to “inform, inspire and generate diversity through one’s movement.”
The original piece involved Randall and contemporary Aboriginal choreographers Henrietta Baird, Carly Sheppard, and Ngioka Bunda-Heath each telling stories from their particular movement technique. United in a common desire to move, none of the pieces is the same. Baird performs with Randall in Vancouver.
Randall’s I’Dentity questions who gets to determine identity and set boundaries around defining it. Baird’s Protocols is a potent work “questioning when to follow cultural law and when to break it in order to keep culture alive.” Both artists are focused on keeping the female Indigenous perspective in their work.
“Maria was invited to share work at the inaugural Matriarchs Uprising held in June, 2019, and I’m really excited to see what she and Henrietta bring this time,” said Davies.
“There has been a really steady bridge building between Australian and West Coast artists, and this year we are extending that to New Zealand as well. Kiri in Program 2 is an interdisciplinary dance, sculpture and video work by Maori choreographer and visual artist Louise Potiki Bryand and ceramicist Paerau Corneal.”
Kiri tells the story of Hine-ahu-one, the first woman created from earth. With the dancer and the sculptor working off of one another, the raw clay becomes moving skin and a springboard for concepts of both geology and whakapapa (genealogy).
“Kiri is a 45 minute project fusing Louise’s practice with Corneal’s, and I think that it is going to be something quite spectacular with its blending of visual art and dance,” said Davies.
“Kiri is the (Maori) word for skin, and this piece shows how this certain goddess/deity inhabits the realm of the skin. Audiences will really get to see something special here as the clay comes to life in the dance.”
Also on Program 2 is Mi’kmaq/Black/settler heritage interdisciplinary artist Aria Evans with a warrior dance titled Link. A Toronto-based queen-identifying performer, Evans is presenting a 15-minute excerpt of this work in progress. The goal is to develop it into a full-length piece.
Davies notes that all of these performers are united in developing a decolonized practice within dance.
It’s a movement that has been emerging for the past 20 years in Canada, with a 2000 residency in Banff Centre for the Arts credited with beginning to look at what it means to carry Indigeneity forward through the lens of dance.
The Talking Stick Festival has been key in providing a focus point for showcases of contemporary Indigenous art of all kinds. This year’s festival is loaded with dance, music, visual arts and more that is certain to challenge many perceived notions of Indigenous art.
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