ShoShona Kish, one half of the duo that fronts JUNO Award-winning band Digging Roots, has invited five of Canada’s most accomplished female Indigenous artists for Anishinabekwe, an unforgettable evening of music and musical storytelling, backed by musical powerhouse Digging Roots.
Polaris Prize-winner Tanya Tagaq is an Inuit throat singer and provocateur who creates music like almost nothing else in the world. From Ottawa, Canadian Folk Music Award winner and JUNO nominee Amanda Rheaume delivers her unique blend of folk-country-pop with a soulful ability to translate personal stories into song.
Sandy Scofield is a multiple award-winning Métis composer, musician, and singer from the Saulteaux and Cree Nations who hails from four generations of fiddlers, singers, and musicians. Singer-songwriter Iskwé draws on her Cree/Dene and Irish roots to produce a sound filled with booming bass lines and heavy beats, defining her distinctive offering of alternative RnB/TripHop. And Métis artist Moe Clark is a musical chameleon who creates sonic landscapes that pull from the soul, gospel, folk, and spoken word genres.
WHEN: Saturday, June 21 4:30 and 5:00 pm WHERE: Babs Asper Theatre at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa
Tanya Tagaq. Image provided by the National Arts Centre. Moe Clark. Image provided by the National Arts Centre. Iskwé. Image provided by the National Arts Centre.
Curator Alexandra Nahwegahbow presents an thematically strong and visually stunning show at the Âjagemô Art Space.
Consider the concepts of Decolonizing and Indigenizing. One feels heavy with past burdens, forward movement decelerated by arguments with ignorance. The other is charged with the quantum lightness of dreams. The time traveller moves forward swiftly and at the speed of light arrives back into the present with a renewed vision and the tools to construct an imagined future. To Indigenize is to banish colonization to a peripheral edge, advancing over the primitive mess to get on with the business of building improved systems that dramatically alter the landscape.
Moving around within time and the power this strategy provides for transformation is what foregrounds Temporal (Re)Imaginings, the current exhibit at the Âjagemô, Canada Council’s art space on Elgin Street in Ottawa. Curator Alexandra Kahsenni:io Nahwegahbow writes that “in Indigenous traditions, storytellers and artists frequently challenge and disrupt Western perceptions of time as a linear, progressive unfolding of events. Rather, our stories and histories exist in places where time is round, open, malleable, and can fold and fluctuate.”
The exhibit begins with Carl Beam’s impactful Burying the Ruler and sets the intention for letting go of a colonial concept of time. This exhibit also presents an imagined future. While Canada is considering what ‘reconciliation’ with the past will look like as a cultural product, many of the works in this show feel unencumbered by history
They float within the space.Clouds (Hannah Claus) hovers on a sky blue wall.
They speak of time travel.Navigating by our Grandmothers (Rosalie Favell) is set in a scenery of stars.
They alter landscapes. In Here on Future Earth Joi T. Arcand “presents snapshots of Saskatchewan towns, cities and First Nation reserves in an alternate futuristic reality where Cree is the dominant language.”
They traverse the in between space of visions finding powerful antidotes to bring back from the other side. Meryl McMaster’s Victoria “explores the artist’s bi-cultural heritage (Indigenous/European) by engaging in an extraordinary liminal reality. Rather than viewing her identity as two opposing cultures in historical conflict, she fearlessly transforms it into a site of synergistic strength.”
At a time when centres of culture tend to slot alternate narratives in with reductive simplification, as an emerging curator, Alexandra offers elegant complexity. Beyond the concepts and cosmologies embedded in the selected work the choice of the pulsating palette – hot oranges and azurite blues – plays off the predominately white space to stimulate the eye, even energize the body.
Temporal (Re)Imaginings is both potent and curative, a compelling case for a future that is (re)imagined as it is Indigenized.
Temporal (Re)Imaginings closes this weekend on Saturday, April 30. Canada Council’s Âjagemô art space is on the main floor of 150 Elgin Street. Hours of operation 7 am – 9 pm.
Below images from top to bottom: Weesahkay Jack and the Great Flood (Roy Kakegamic 2005) & clouds (Hannah Claus 2008)
Detail of clouds (Hannah Claus 2008) image by Georges Khayat, provided courtesy of artist Navigating by our Grandmothers (Rosalie Favell 2000) image courtesy of artist Other Worlds (Alex Janvier 1984), Here on Future Earth (Joi T. Arcand 2010) & Alice from the series Modern Tipi (Caroline Monnet 2008) Here on Future Earth by Joi T. Arcand (2010) Victoria (Meryl McMaster 2013) image courtesy of artist
Alexandra Kahsenni:io Nahwegahbow is Anishinaabe and Kanien’keha:ka, and a member of Whitefish River First Nation with roots in Kahnawake. She grew up just outside of Ottawa and is currently pursuing her PhD in Cultural Mediations in the Institute of Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture at Carleton University. She has a strong interest in stories, oral history and Indigenous art and material culture, and believes that creativity, art and processes of imagining and art-making have the ability to change the world.
We can feel the seasons changing! We welcome the spring and the Omushkegowuk Walkers from Attawapiskat First Nation to Parliament Hill today. If you missed being part of the welcoming party you can support them by attending the Potluck Farewell Feast at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church (across from the Supreme Court) at 5 pm on Wednesday evening. If you can provide food for this event please visit the Reclaiming our steps, past, present and future – Ottawa Facebook Event Page for contact details.
Soup Ottawa is a recurring micro-grant participatory dinner event. For a $10 entrance fee you get soup and a vote for the pitch that moves your the most! Everyone’s $10 goes into the pot for the lucky winner to put towards their initiative. This time round the presenters are: Indigenous Walking Tours, Youth Can Slam, BeadWorks, Death Cafe, TACTICS Theatre Co-op and Beyond Dawn.
THURSDAY: YAO
This Thursday and every Thursday the National Gallery of Canada is FREE after 5 pm and so is the Museum of Civilization just over the bridge in Gatineau. Nice way to get out of the cold and get inspired!
“A multitalented artist, poet, passionate advocate for the quest for knowledge through literature and music, YAO is comparable to a modern-day troubadour.
Although his music is characterized by a sweet mix of Slam poetry, Jazz and Blues, his eclectic approach and escapades in various musical genre gives it a rich, unique and very pleasant sound.” Read more…
FRIDAY: THE JERRY CANS + SAALI
Friday is The Jerry Cans & Saali at Zaphod Beeblebrox, 27 York Street.
“The Jerry Cans will take you on a stroll through Iqaluit, Nunavut with their unique mix of Inuktitut country swing, throat singing, reggae, and blues, sharing a glimpse of life in Nunavut while challenging misrepresentation of the great white north. Nunavuttitut! Nunavut Style!”
“The Winter Village Storytelling Festival & Meshkwadoon is a celebration of the First Peoples’ winter culture through artistic and oral traditions of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis People…Alongside these wonderful presentations will be some of Ottawa’s finest vendors showcasing both Aboriginal and non- aboriginal arts and crafts.”Read more…
Part of Sunday’s lineup is a performance by madeskimo.
Saturday, March 1st, 10am – 5pm & Sunday, March 2nd, 11am – 5pm
Individual Day Pass $5
Family Day Pass $12
Individual Weekend Pass $8
Family Weekend Pass $20
Children under 3 Free