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Indigenous Contemporary Scene
5th edition - 2019

Catalyzing a reflection on the Indigenous origins of the country’s name and the colonization process behind its formation.

From July 23 to August 24, 2019, Onishka Productions is partnering with the interdisciplinary arts collective O’Kaadenigan Wiingashk Collective, co-founded by Patti Shaughnessy, to present the 5th edition of Indigenous Contemporary Scene (ICS)  in Scotland: a month-long program of live arts and performative conversations featuring Kanata’s Aboriginal artists in theater, dance, visual arts, music and literature. SCA uses the term Kanata in place of Canada to impress a reflection on the Aboriginal origins of the country’s name and the process of colonization that led to its formation.

The idea behind SCA-Scotland is to create an international platform for Aboriginal artists from Kanata at the Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The theme of this edition is the shared history of oppression and colonization that connects Aboriginal communities with Scotland. Scotland’s history is marked by the British Empire’s policy of linguistic and cultural eradication and territorial appropriation. But the communities that left Scotland to settle in Kanata were then instrumental in the colonization of Aboriginal peoples.

SCA-Scotland begins with Creators Exchange on the Land, which brings artists from Kanata and Scotland to the Isle of Arran from July 23-28, 2019. A dialogue is woven to build bridges and interconnections between the realities and experiences of the participants.  This is the second time that Indigenous Contemporary Scenehas organized meetings of creators.

From August 1 to 24, 2019, SCA offers the public and the living arts community a program of performances and activities. At the Edinburgh International Festival, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and Evalyn Parry’s Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools explores Canada’s Aboriginal history, colonial legacy, feminism and the unfortunate consequences of climate change.

As part of SCA’s partnership with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Summerhall offers a retrospective of choreographer Lara Kramer’s work through the presentation of Native Girl Syndrome, This Time Will Be Different – a performative installation co-created with Émilie Monnet – and the work-in-progress Miijin Ki.

As part of Fringe at CanadaHub, the virtuoso Tomson Highway has created Songs In The Key of Cree, a cabaret of songs performed by singer Patricia Cano, saxophonist Marcus Ali, with Highway on piano. ARTICLE 11 stands out with the solo Dear Woman with Cherish Violet Blood, written by Tara Beagan and directed by Andy Moro. Finally, in Kanata Cabaret Hour, several Aboriginal artists intermingle concert, performance and dance.

In the external space of CanadaHub, the installation KanataClub by visual artist Greg A. Hill’s installation KanataClub immerses visitors in a place where Kanata’s Aboriginal present and future meet, creating a breach in the colonial present.

At the Edinburgh International Book Festival, SCA-Scotland merges literature and music in the performance program Songs from the Land. The program features Cree cellist Cris Derksen, Scottish musician Inge Thomson and Inuit spoken word poet and throat singer Taqralik Partridge. For Kuujjuaq-born artist from Nunavik, the creative process allows her to retrace the steps of her mother’s parents, who were originally from Assynt, Scotland, and spoke Scottish Gaelic. In addition, Shetland Island poet Roseanne Watt and Tara Beagan of ARTICLE 11 perform commissioned texts, with the participation of musician Cris Derksen. Beagan’s text is about the Beothuk human remains at the National Museum of Scotland (now extinct, the Beothuk were the aboriginal people who inhabited the area now known as Newfoundland in Kanata).

SCA-Scotland is generating a conversation that amplifies the voices of Kanata Aboriginal artists on an international plaftorm. SCA-Scotland is situated within the unique context of the various Edinburgh festivals that take place each year, bringing the realities of their peoples to the international stage and establishing a dialogue with the Scottish arts community.

Artistic Director and Co-Producer: Émilie Monnet Curator (Creators Exchange on the Land) and Co-Producer: Patti Shaughnessy Executive Producer: Sage Wright Tour Coordinator: Ivanie Aubin-Malo Supporting Producers: SelfConscious Productions, Jean Cameron (Scotland) Graphic Designer: Sébastien Aubin Marketing Director: Derek Gilchrist Press Relations: The Corner Shop

« For decades, indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing and, for decades, the problem has been ignored. The scandal is shocking in its own terms, but for many, they see the abuse as an expression of colonialism and link it not only to the excesses of capitalism but also the resultant climate emergency; all are about taking what doesn’t belong to you. These are themes that repeatedly bubble to the surface in Indigenous Contemporary Scene, a series of shows in the Edinburgh international festival and fringe. »
Mark Fisher, The Guardian, août 2019

PROGRAMING

Creators Exchange on the Land

Curator: Patti Shaughnessy
Participants: Keith Robertson (host), Donald S Murray, Bryony McIntyre, Barry Esson, Emilie Monnet, Patti Shaughnessy, Sara Roque, Elwood Jimmy, Leslie Kachena McCue.

Taking place on the Isle of Arran, Creators Exchange on the Land will bring together a group of Turtle Island artists, elders and language keepers with their Scottish and Gaelic counterparts.

The Isle of Arran

Deer Woman

Performance: Cherish Violet Blood
Screenplay: Tara Beagan
Director: Andy Moro

Deer Woman is a solitary work of righteous vengeance. 1600 missing and murdered Aboriginal women were officially recognized in Canada in 2019. With this premise, the play focuses on the story of Lila, the sister of a missing girl. A skilled hunter, Lila creates the perfect opportunity to avenge her sister’s murder.

CanadaHub, King’s Hall

Songs in the Key of Cree

Musician : Tomson Highway
Accompanying musicians: Patricia Cano and Marcus Ali

Cree playwright, pianist and singer Tomson Highway is the eleventh of twelve children born into a nomadic caribou hunting family on the Manitoba-Nunavut border. The evening takes the form of a retrospective cabaret with Tomsonat the piano, accompanied by Peruvian-Canadian singer Patricia Cano and jazz saxophonist Marcus Ali.

CanadaHub, King’s Hall

Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools
(moment of truth)

Performers: Laakkuluk Williamson and Bathory Evalyn Parry

Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools is the meeting place of two people, as well as the north and south of a country. Inuk artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and queer theatre maker Evalyn Parry met on an Arctic expedition from Iqaluit to Greenland. Sharing the stage, these two powerful voices explore new territory together in a work that gives voice and body to our inherited histories, culture and climate, and asks us how to deal with these “sharp tools.”

The Studio

Native Girl Syndrome

Creator : Lara Kramer
Performers: Karina Iraola and Angie Cheng

Native Girl Syndrome is inspired by the experience of Kramer’s grandmother, who migrated as a young woman from an isolated First Nations community to an unfamiliar urban environment. Kramer paints an unforgiving portrait of homeless Aboriginal women and, through raw performances, she creates a disturbing world of truth and reality. The dancers’ dissociated and drugged characters take the audience on a powerful journey through addiction, loss and alienation.

Discussion led by members of the Creators Exchange for the Land

Discussion led by members of the Creators Exchange for the Land

In Canada, it is becoming increasingly common to acknowledge the land before performances begin. How do we acknowledge and care for the land inside and outside of our art practices? How do we ground our work in the land on which we live and create?

Fringe Central

KanataClub

Creator: Greg A. Hill

Before there was Canada, there was Kanata. A Haudenosaunee word for village, Kanata became Canada through the colonial process of dispossession of Aboriginal land, identity and language. KanataClub raises awareness of the Aboriginal origins of the land that is now Canada. KanataClub becomes a space that reverses colonial history and entangles nationalisms, inserting a place for an Aboriginal present and future.

CanadaHub, King’s Hall

This Time Will Be Different

Creators: Émilie Monnet and Lara Kramer

This Time Will Be Different is a performative ritual and installation that denounces the Canadian government’s discourse on Aboriginal peoples and serves as a rebuttal to the reconciliation industry. Has anything really changed in the relationship between the Canadian government and Aboriginal peoples? three generations of elders, parents and children support each other on stage as they explore this question together.

Summerhall

Songs from the Land: Sometimes I Speak English

Performer: Taqralik Partridge
Accompanying musicians: Cris Derksen and Inge Thomson

Sometimes I Speak English is a contemplation of home, language and loss featuring Inuk poet, throat singer and visual artist Taqralik Partridge. The performance is a part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Songs from the Land mini-series. Scottish musician Inge Thomson participates in this exciting program and shares new works inspired by the beautiful landscape of her home on Fair Isle.

Charlotte Square

Songs from the Land: Calling Home

Curators: Émilie Monnet and Nick Barley
Performers: Cris Derksen, Tara Beagan, Taqralik Partridge and Roseanne Watt

As part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Songs from the Land mini-series, Calling Home features acclaimed Cree cellist Cris Derksen joins renowned ntlakapamux/Irish playwright Tara Beagan. The performance is a response to the ongoing debate over the Beothuk human remains currently in the National Museum of Scotland’s collection.

Charlotte Square

Miijin Ki

Creator: Lara Kramer

Miijin Ki, from the Anishinaabemowin language translates to “eating the earth,” is a new piece in which non-violent tensions of living and being on the earth are created. The work takes the form of a metaphor for the interconnectedness of all things in the modern and natural world.

Summerhall, Bruford

Kanata Cabaret Hour

Performers: Santee Smith, Kevin Loring, Lacey Hill, Brian Solomon, Spy Dénommé-Welch, Catherine Magowan, Cherish Violet Blood, Reneltta Arluk, Modern Māori Quartet, Patti Shaughnessy, Tai Amy Grauman, Ivanie Aubin Malo

The lineup for Kanata Cabaret Hour differs from night to night. each night, bringing together artists of several disciplines to offer a self-determined and emancipatory show! These evenings feature a radical offering of dance, music, opera and storytelling from an Aboriginal perspective.

CanadaHub, King’s Hall

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