workshops and lectures
As part of the Dwellings class and accompanying our creation work we had invited a number of knowledge holders to visit our classroom. This page acknowledges the various events that took place in the context of the process of making Dwellings. Each guest speaker or workshop facilitator brought fresh insights to the materials and situations we as an ensemble were studying and reflecting on during the creation of the various sections of Dwellings. The seeds gathered from each event made their way directly or indirectly into the performance. Each speaker/event is listed in chronological order.
Kahente Horn Miller came very early on to our class and performed her unique re-telling of the Sky Woman Kanien’keha:ka creation myth. It is appropriate that this was the first of the extraneous events, as the story can be seen as laying the groundwork for our investigation of Dwellings.
Chantel Henderson, The Blanket Exercise , Jan 31, 2017
Developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers and educators, the KAIROS Blanket Exercise (KBE) is an interactive and experiential teaching tool that explores the historic and contemporary relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in the land we now know as Canada.
During this 2 to 3-hour workshop, participants step on blankets representing the land and into the role of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. They are guided by trained facilitators, including Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers, who work from a script that covers pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization, resistance and much more. Participants read scrolls and respond to cues in the script. The KBE concludes with a debriefing, conducted as a talking circle, during which participants discuss the learning experience, process their feelings, ask questions, share insights, and deepen their understanding. https://www.kairosblanketexercise.org/programs/
Peter Kulchisky Feb. 2, 2017
Peter Kulchisky gave a talk on “pagnirtun architecture and the coffin houses.”
Peter Kulchisky is the Graduate Program Chair in the department of Native studies at the University of Manitoba.
Kelly Daniels Feb. 4, 2017
Kelly Daniels, cultural advisor and recording artist from Red Pheasant Reserve, SK, lead a traditional telling of the Cree creation myth at a very special venue, Ondinnok Theatre. Ondinnok Theatre is a renowned Indigenous theatre in Montreal. One thing that was especially important for Daniels’ storytelling was the burning of sage and sweetgrass, something which this venue could accommodate.
Karl Hele, Feb 9th, 2017
On Feb. 9th Karl Hele gave a talk diving deep into the Indian Act. This was a much appreciated presenting of and questioning of this document which has had such a devastating legacy.
Dr. K. S. Hele is a member of the Garden River First Nation community of the Anishinaabeg people and was educated at schools in Sault Ste. Marie. He earned a B.A. (Waterloo) in 1993, a M.A. (Toronto) in 1994, and a Ph.D. (McGill) in 2003. His dissertation examined the Ojibwa encounter with nineteenth-century missionaries to Sault Ste. Marie. At that time Karl was the chair of First Peoples Studies at Concordia University.
Carol Rowan and Ramona Benveniste Feb. 17th, 2017
Carol Rowan is a professor in the Department of Education at Concordia University in Inuit Studies. She did her PhD dissertation on “Thinking with Nunangat in proposing pedagogies for/with Inuit early childhood education”. She asks the questions: “How can we think with the land and engage with elders/hunters to co-create pedagogies for Inuit early childhood education?” and furthermore, “how can narrations be employed in Inuit educational practice, to help access indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing?”
Ramona Benveniste is an artist working across performance, architecture, visual art and social and community dialogue and engagement. She is based in Montreal and worked with Senselab.
This workshop focuses on improvisation to activate ecologies of attention: with our bodies, the existing environment, architectural forces and even the weather, to foreground a thinking-feeling-making event. The aim was to experiment with creative techniques for thought in the act. This session is part of an ongoing practice that continually re-enters collectivity at the thresholds of becoming. We’ve been questioning our tendencies to plan in advance. We’ve tried to move away from the pre-choreographed so we can learn to tend to what’s immanent in the process, to what’s happening as it’s happening.
Glenna Matoushe, March 7th 10am-12pm (cancelled).
Glenna Matoushe unfortunately had to cancel her class visit, but joined us in Kelly Daniels’ storytelling and was open for several conversations with members of the cast and collaborators.
Glenna Matoush has been a professional artist for more than thirty years and now resides in Montreal. But she was born on the Rama reserve near Orillia, Ontario, and lived for many years in Mistissini, the Cree village where she raised her children. She shares the Crees’ love of people, and the land and all it contains. Acutely aware of the circumstances impinging upon First Nations peoples, Glenna’s work confronts many aspects of aboriginal history. Most recently, issues related to identity, the destruction wrought by hydroelectric development, and the despair caused by AIDS have been major preoccupations.
Dayna Danger and the Montreal Native Women’s Shelter (March).
In a round table setting led by Dayna Danger, the group gave us an overview of their work and life situations followed by a long session of questions and answers. We are very grateful that they were willing to join us for this very meaningful meeting.