introduction
From the forests and plains to the streets, from sky world to the womb, along rivers, tipis and jail cells, Dwellings is exploring Indigenous homes.
She:kon, Aneen! Dwellings is a performative, immersive and, now, digital response to the complex Indigenous-Canadian relationship that addresses the history, realities, dreams and futures of the Indigenous house and home, and its effect on the land and on our bodies. Over centuries there has been a massive displacement of Indigenous Peoples from their homes and homelands. The Dwellings project acknowledges this history and tries to bring forth the possibilities of home and land. We acknowledge the Indigenous Nations in whose territory we are working: the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, the Huron. We acknowledge as well the artists and culture workers of this territory along with the diverse backgrounds of all involved in creating or viewing this project. Thank you for spending time together.
During the live performances, small audience groups “migrated” through a series of unconventional performance spaces on Concordia’s downtown campus to experience themes ranging from the sacred to the abject. In this archival and educational website the audience is invited to follow the traces of the performance through photos, videos, sound recording, supportive text material and research sources. Most of the section texts originated in the Performance program with extra quotes and explanations added for this particular context. The Dwellings website aims to serve as a research publication, pedagogic tool and historical resource for this project; more, it will bring closure and leave palpable traces of a performance research process that addressed stories and issues around Indigenous notions of home that continue to be relevant.
The performance event was led by theatre professor Ursula Neuerburg, in collaboration with Indigenous visiting artists Emilie Monnet (Anishinaabe/French) and Floyd Favel (Cree). The project includes works by Kanien:keha’ka media artist Skawennati, and Kanien:keha’ka scholar and storyteller Kahente Horn-Miller, Bear Clan. Dwellings connected Concordia students, faculty, researchers and artists across disciplines and communities including Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Matralab, Indigenous Futures Cluster + Obx Labs for Experimental Media, Topological Media Lab, and SenseLab.The website team includes several of the original collaborators.
Dwellings was co-funded by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The Dwellings website is supported by the Office of the Dean of Fine Arts, the Department of Theatre and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.