≈ 60 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: September 18, 2024
A Note From NAC Indigenous Theatre
Kwey! hOOlmah! Way' Welcome to the 5th season of Indigenous Theatre at the NAC! We are honoured to welcome back to the NAC the inspiring work of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre led by the amazing Santee Smith. The connection between Indigenous culture and the wellbeing of Mother Earth is an integral aspect of the stories we share. Homelands continues this tradition, highlighting the deep connection between women and the life giving power of water. We believe that protecting, honouring, and doing everything in our power to retain and celebrate the knowledge held in Indigenous languages and storytelling is also protecting and honouring Mother Earth. We are honoured to present Homelands, our first production of the season, as part of the SPHERE Festival. It is only by paddling together, that we arrive at the destinations we seek. Kidadisokaninan mashkikiwanon: Our stories are medicine. Miigwetch! Kwukstemc! Limlemt! Thank you for being here!
Kevin, Lori, and Indigenous Theatre Team.
Welcome to SPHERE 2024!
SPHERE celebrates the near-endless artistic and intellectual inspiration that our natural world awakens in us. Through the eyes, ears, and bodies of artists, and in this city at the confluence of rivers, we will explore the symbiosis between our creativity and the surroundings that catalyze it. We will reflect on our fragile relationship with Mother Earth and how the confluence of art, science, and ethics will inform the coming chapters in our shared history. As a wave of brilliant and visionary artists from across genres and generations sweeps into Canada’s National Arts Centre, we warmly invite you to join them and us on this journey of multi-disciplinary discovery and artistic dialogue.
Welcome to SPHERE 2024!
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THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS
Thank you to our visionary donors Earle O’Born and Janice O’Born, C.M., O.Ont. for their generous support of SPHERE.
Homelands
Homelands honours our kinship connection to the natural world, its patterns, energies, and life force. Through multimedia a dreamscape is created of landscape, water, textures and womxn. Three live women dancers embody the elemental, offering, receiving and aligning with the imagery.
Braiding earthy and cinematic media, sound design and performance, Homelands places Yethi’nihstenha / many womxn within the homelands and waters of Kahnyen’kehàka territory / enhsenonhstate’ of upper state New York and around Ohswé:ken / Six Nations of the Grand River.
Onkwehón:we / people of the way of forever maintain and honour our umbilical connection to our lands and water and our kinship connections on A’nowarà:ke / Turtle Island. Making joyous, transcendent and powerful embodied alignments to Ka’satsténhsera’kó:wa Sa’oyé:ra / movement in the direction of the immense creation / nature, Homelands opens a space to remember as people, we are creation made, we are land and water. In making our connections we question: how do we condole with, yield, listen and move in the way of the forever? Moving through seasons and sites, Homelands also delves in the areas of grief, loss and separation from home and kin. It is a renewal of our connection to earth.
Honouring Ka’nisténhsera’ / Life Givers umbilical ties to Yethi’nihsténha tsi onhontsá:te / Mother Earth past, present, and future, the design and performance represent transformations of Yethi’nihstenha through time eras and portals. Symbolic of the consistency of creation and the resilience and adaptability of the people. Patterning, gestures, and soundings are in communication with the everlasting cycles of Yethi’nihsténha tsi onhontsá:te / Mother Earth and depict the perpetual passage of generations unbroken despite colonial disruption. The narratives circle around supporting orén:na’ / life substance, the loving responsibility for sustaining the continuance of life.
Creator and artistic director Tekaronhiáhkhwa Santee Smith gathers an incredible team of collaborators: performers Sarah Prosper and Katie Couchie; composition/score by Pura Fé with Adrian Dion Harjo and vocalists Biine Kwe Elijah and Jennifer Kreisberg. The stunning cinematography features the work of Onkwehón:we filmmakers: Shane Powless, Ian R Maracle, Katsitsionni Fox, Jaiden Mitchell along with Ami Kokui Tamakloe. Media designers Louise Potiki Bryant and Shane Powless integrate the imagery in a unique and epic video projection design with animations by AVA Animation and Visual Arts. Layering illumination to the performance space is Lighting Designer Sebastian Marziali. Time period costumes for video and live performance were created by: Elaine Redding, Adriana Fulop, Bruno Henry and Santee Smith. Homelands is supported by a stellar technical team: Tour Stage Manager Senjuti Sarker.
The creation was supported by a Harbourfront Centre technical residency and McMaster University.
About the Company
Kaha:wi Dance Theatre is a Rotinonhsyón:ni led company renowned for exquisitely produced and viscerally impactful performances, embodying stories which cultivate space for transformation, dialogue and connection to Indigenous knowledge and experience.
Founded in 2005 by Ohswé:ken / Six Nations of the Grand River based Artistic Director Santee Smith, Kaha:wi (Ga-HA-Wee) means “to carry” in Kanyen'kéha. Sharing new Indigenous performance, embodied and multidisciplinary storytelling Smith’s work is focused on Indigenous methodology, interdisciplinary and intergenerational work. Artistic and community research for performances delved into ancestral memory, Onkwehónwe:néha mind-set and strive to align with and share truth, creativity, and story. The company plans and hosts land-based creation labs such as “Inviting the Land to Shape Us” and offers educational opportunities through masterclasses and workshops. Reaching audiences regional to global, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre ignites awareness and sparks opportunities for collaborations and exchange.
Artists
Santee Smith / Tekaronhiáhkhwa is a multidisciplinary artist from the Kahnyen’kehàka Nation, Turtle Clan, Ohswé:ken/Six Nations of the Grand River. Transformation, energetic exchange and fostering mind-heart connections through performance and design is her lifelong work. Santee trained at Canada’s National Ballet School; holds Physical Education and Psychology degrees from McMaster University and a M.A. in Dance from York University.
Premiering her first production Kaha:wi – a family creation story in 2004, one year later she founded Kaha:wi Dance Theatre which has grown into an internationally renowned company. Santee’s work speaks about identity, teachings and way of life within Onkwehonwe:neha, creativity and Indigenous artistic process. She is a sought-after teacher and speaker on the performing arts, Indigenous performance, and culture.
Smith is faculty at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity’s World Indigenous Dance Residency 2024 and curator and visionary of Inviting the Land to Shape Us series of land-based workshops and creation labs focused on Indigenous performance research.
Recently, she premiered Dora Award nominated multimedia production SKéN:NEN at TOLive 2024 and toured award-winning The Mush Hole embodying the truths of Canada’s oldest and standing Indian Residential School, The Mohawk Institute.
Katie Couchie is an Anishinaabekwe Oji-Cree dance artist from Nbisiing (Nipissing First Nation), now based in Tkaronto. Katie has worked with companies and choreographers including Kaha:wi Dance Theatre (Santee Smith), A’nó:wara Dance Theatre (Barbara Diabo), Human Body Expressions (Hanna Kiel), Alejandro Ronceria, Christine Friday, Peggy Baker, and Cameron Fraser-Monroe.
Katie is a Dora nominated artist for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble for the productions of Homelands and SKéN:NEN created by Kaha:wi Dance Theatre and has performed at events including APTN’s Indigenous Day Live (2022), the FODAR Dance Festival (2023), Governor General’s Performance Awards (2023), and MOCA Live: Contemporary x Dance (2024).
Currently, Katie is working on her first solo piece where she spent the summer as the Artist in Residence at the University of Toronto and is grateful to be back working on Homelands again with the Kaha:wi Dance Theatre team.
Sarah Prosper (she/they/nekm) is from Eskasoni Mi’kmaq First Nations. Prosper's practice encompasses a lens that deepens the threads of respect and reciprocity to dance, movement, social sciences, social justice, mental health & the land. Sarah began dancing at age 2 at Cape Breton School of the Arts (Gallop’s) and NADACA dance programs. Her first works created as an artistic director and choreographer is the Merritt Award winning show SAMQWAN 2021-2023 at the Highland Arts, Neptune Theatre, Stratford Festival Film and 2023 Canada Games.
Prosper’s collaborations and creations have taken her on an international tour and her passions remain in creating community work and extending the opportunities of wellness. An award winner of the 2022 Nova Scotia Indigenous Artist Recognition Award and Recognized by the Province House in 2023. Performing and creating on national stages in collaboration with world artists such as: Alan Syliboy & the Thunder Makers, Mocean Dance (Where Dance & Music Meet, Touring Utawtiwow Kijinaq), Nestuita’si Storytelling (Koqm & Winter Moons), Biennale, Spirit Song Festival, Prismatic Arts Festival, IOTA Bodies in Movement, JUNOS, performed with Yo-Yo Ma/Jeremy Dutcher & Toronto Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, and more.
Credits
Tour Production Credits
Production
Kaha:wi Dance Theatre
Creator/Director/Designer/Performer
Santee Smith
Performers
Katie Couchie, Sarah Prosper
Composer/Singer/Songwriter
Pura Fé
Composer/Mix/Master
Adrian Dion Harjo
Recorded Singers
Biine Kwe Elijah, Jennifer Kreisberg, Santee Smith
Projection Design/Editor
Shane Powless
Projection Design
Louise Potiki Bryant
Animation
AVA Animation and Visual Arts Inc. / EmmaLopez, Pedro Narvaez
Cinematography
Shane Powless, Katsitsionni Fox, Jaiden Mitchell, Ian Maracle, AmiKokui Tamakloe, Santee Smith
Live Performance Costume Designers
Elaine Redding, Santee Smith
Pottery
Steve T. Smith
Lighting Designer/Technical Support
Sebastian Marziali
Technical Consultant
James Kendal
Tour Stage Manager
Senjuti Sarker
Video Performers
Julianne Blackbird, Feryn King, Santee Smith
Video Costume Designers
Bruno Henry, Elaine Redding, Adriana Fulop
Video Tech Support
Thru The Red Door, McMaster University – L.R. Wilson Black Box, Harbourfront Centre – Torque Series
Funding Support
Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council
NAC Indigenous Theatre
Managing Director
Lori Marchand
Artistic Director
Kevin Loring
Producer
Michelle Yagi
Associate Producer
Brit Johnston
Producing Resident
Jessica Campbell-Maracle
Associate Producer #ReconcileThis
Josh Languedoc
Technical Director, Theatre Department
Spike Lyne
Cultural Advocate
Mairi Brascoupé
Education Coordinator
Kerry Corbiere
Communications Strategist
Ian Hobson
Marketing Strategist
Marie-Pierre Chaumont
Senior Marketing Manager
Bridget Mooney
NAC Production Team
Head Carpenter
Charles Martin
Head Properties
Michel Sanscartier
Head Electrician
Eric Tessier
Assistant Electrician
Martin Racette
Head Audio
Doug Millar
Head Projection
David Milliard
Head Wardrobe
Linda Dufresne
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Season Partner
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Official Hotel Partner
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Presenting Partner #ReconcileThis
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees