≈ 70 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: November 18, 2024
Developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.
A Note from Indigenous Theatre and NAC Dance
hOOlmah! Way'!
We at Indigenous Theatre and NAC Dance are excited to welcome the Dancers of the Damelahamid back to the NAC with this beautiful piece honouring Elder Margaret Harris.
Like many women of her time, Elder Margaret Harris safeguarded the knowledge and history held in cultural practices through a time when such practices were banned. Thanks to her, we can all share in and celebrate the richness and beauty of the culture she protected so carefully and has now passed on to the next generations of her family.
The National Arts Centre is also honoured to have played a role in enabling the bold vision of the creators to reach its full potential through a contribution from the National Creation Fund.
Sit back and enjoy the striking mask work, beautiful regalia, detailed design, and compelling choreography.
Qwookstayp! Limlent! Thank you for joining us!
A Note from Margaret Grenier, Artistic Director and Choreographer, Dancers of Damelahamid
The Dancers of Damelahamid started in the 1960s under the leadership of our parents Chief Kenneth Harris and Margaret Harris. At that time the focus was on dance revitalization, following the lifting of the Potlatch Ban (1884-1951). I was born into this dance lineage and my role as a leader for the company has grown over the past 20 years. In 2010 our company began taking contemporary approaches to create newly choreographed works based on our ancestral form. Through this we are establishing our cultural dance form and addressing decolonization within dance.
Raven Mother is a very personal piece for our family, and we have put all our efforts into realizing this work. It recognizes the legacy left by the lifetime of work that my mother Margaret Harris gave to her family and the dance community, as a Cree woman who married into a Gitxsan dance lineage. It is a work that acknowledges the vital role that women have held in this intergenerational dance practice, as visionaries, as caregivers, and as catalysts that have ensured the survival 2of the practice itself. It is a piece that speaks to both the beauty and the hardships of this journey as women, the love we have for our children, and the hope they bring us.
About Raven Mother
Raven Mother is the Dancers of Damelahamid’s newly choreographed dance work in honour of late Elder Margaret Harris (1931 – 2020). Raven Mother illustrates the vast impact Elder Harris had on the revitalization of Indigenous dance along the Northwest Coast, and the integral role of women in holding cultural knowledge. It celebrates our mothers who created the stronghold of these art forms and influenced the next generation of women. Raven Mother illuminates the profound leadership of our mothers, their essential contribution in this resurgence, and the force and transformation of this awakening.
Raven Mother is the Dancers of Damelahamid’s most ambitious production and will be the culmination of generations of artistic and cultural work. With Raven Mother, movement, song, regalia, sculpture, and design, are interwoven with the embodied narrative. The Raven crest, manifested in multiple forms, embodies transformation, the strengthening of culture, the unveiling of a new spirit, and breathing life into a promise made to the children of generations to come.
Raven Mother speaks to our current realities, drawing from a rich lineage of teachings and insights. Innovation is conditional upon revealing the truths of today to pursue cultural endurance and intergenerational sustenance. Raven Mother is a tangible remembrance of a woman’s spirit, marking the shift between generations that has sparked a new role for our daughters as the force to hold their grandmother’s vision.
Artists
Margaret Grenier is of Gitxsan and Cree ancestry. She is the Executive and Artistic Director for the Dancers of Damelahamid. She has produced the Coastal Dance Festival since 2008. Margaret’s multimedia choreographic works bridge Gitxsan and Cree dance forms with current expressions. Her works have toured internationally and include Setting the Path (2004) and Spirit and Tradition (2007), and Visitors Who Never Left (2009), Luu hlotitxw (2012), Flicker (2016), and Mînowin (2019). Mînowin premiered at the Mòshkamo Festival, National Arts Centre, Ottawa (2019) and at the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, Mexico. Margaret holds a M.A. from Simon Fraser University and a B.Sc. from McGill University. She was a sessional instructor for Simon Fraser (2007) and faculty at the Banff Centre (2013). She received the REVEAL Award (2017), the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts (2020), DSA Distinction in Dance Award (2022), and the Isadora Award (2024).
Andrew spent 20 years training with the company and has performed with the company since 2004. Andrew has worked with cedar and textiles, creating the sets for the Dancers of Damelahamid productions since 2004 and for the annual Coastal Dance Festival since 2008. Andrew oversees all the technical and set requirements for the Dancers of Damelahamid and is the Production Manager for the Coastal Dance Festival. Andrew has a BSc from McGill University and Masters in Environmental Education from Simon Fraser University.
Hawilkwalał, Rebecca, is of Kwakiuł, Dzawada’enuwx, and Sḵwx̱̱wú7mesh ancestry. She is a multidisciplinary artist with a BA from the University of British Columbia. Rebecca is the Artistic Associate for the Dancers of Damelahamid and the Festival Associate for the Coastal Dance Festival. Rebecca has been dancing with the company since 2014 and is a pow-wow dancer with over 20 years of experience. She is the Regalia Designer for the company’s productions Flicker (2016), Mînowin (2019), Spirit and Tradition Remount (2020), and Raven Mother (2024). She began fashion design in 2021, debuting at New York Fashion Week (2022) followed by SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market, Vancouver Fashion Week, Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, and Indigenous Fashion Arts Toronto. Her work has been on exhibit at the American Museum for Natural History in New York, the Bill Reid Gallery, Museum of Vancouver, YVR Airport, and featured in Vogue and Elle Canada. She was the recipient of the YVR Emerging Artist Award, 2021.
Raven is an emerging choreographer, Indigenous contemporary dance artist, singer, and visual artist in formline design. She is a 4th year Indigenous Studies student at UBC and the Artistic and Administrative Assistant for Dancers of Damelahamid. Her silk screened limited edition prints are available at Lattimer gallery and Coastal Peoples Gallery in Vancouver. Raven’s work is also available at MOA Gift shop, and has been on display at her exhibition at the Dance Centre where her up-cycled mini collection was featured. Her films Spanochnonga and Lax Yip were commissioned by FORM and have been screened at FORM 2022 and 2023, Matriarchs Uprising 2024, Weesageechak 2023, live at Vines 2023, New Works 2023, and more. Her current project Wolverine is an in-the-works EP, music video, and choreographed performance supported by the Raven Spirit Dance Pakitinam mentorship program. The short experimental film was supported by Co Erasga and premiered at What Lab salon studio spring series.
Jeff is a four-time Jessie Award winning lighting designer for his work on Carousel Theatre’s Pharaoh Serket & the Lost Stone of Fire, Patrick Street Theatre’s Floyd Collins, Pi Theatre’s Blasted and Arts Club’s Hand to God. He is a graduate of SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, attended the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts and is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.
Andy Moro is the artistic co-director of ARTICLE11 with Tara Beagan, upholding the 11th Article of the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Current and recent work includes: The Unnatural & Accidental Women (NAC); Rise Red River (ARTICLE 11/Theatre Cercle Moliere/Prairie Theatre Exchange); PISUWIN (Atlantic Ballet); Sleuth, Extractionist, Gaslight (Vertigo Theatre); NOMADA (Diana Lopez Soto); F WORD (Downstage/Alberta Theatre Projects); Ministry of Grace, Reckoning, ROOM, Declaration, Deer Woman (ARTICLE11); Little Women, Honour Beat; (Theatre Calgary); Hookman (University of Calgar/Chromatic); The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time (NAC/Neptune Theatre); Post Mistress, Rez Sisters (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre); Blackhorse (Caravan Theatre); The Herd (Citadel Theatre/Tarragon Theatre); Frozen River (Manitoba Theatre for Young People); Third Colour, Spacegirl, War Being Waged (Prairie Theatre Exchange); Ministry of Grace, Time Stands Still, O’Kosi (MT7); Sky Dancers (A'nó:wara Dance Theatre); Minowin and Raven Mother (Dancers of Damelahamid); Finding Wolastoq Voice (Theatre New Brunswick); Blood Water Earth, Blood Tides, The Mush Hole (Kaha:wi Dance Theatre).
Film & Video: RECKONING (ARTICLE 11); Road to Hasalala Danxalax (Chan Ctr/Marion Newman). Upcoming: The Ring Cycle: Das Rheingold for Edmonton Opera.
Andy is of mixed Euro/Omushkegowuk descent, and is currently based in Calgary.
Charles Koroneho works in the fields of performance and culture. He explores cultural collaboration and the intersection between dance, theatre, visual arts and design. His projects are presented as performances, research workshops and arts collaborations exploring the collision between Maori cosmology, New Zealand society and global cultures.
Koroneho is a graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance and Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. He shares his vision of dance and performance by providing movement, improvisation and creative workshops for dancers, actors and performance artists. He supports the arts community as a choreographer, collaborative director, cultural consultant and mentor.
Credits
Artistic Director and Choreographer
Margaret Grenier
Set Designer and Artwork
Andrew Grenier
Regalia Designer and Creator
Rebecca Baker-Grenier
Song Composer and Vocalist
Raven Grenier
Collaborating Composer
Ted Hamilton
Lighting Designer
Jeff Harrison
Projection Designer
Andy Moro
Collaborating Director
Charles Koroneho
Northwest Coast Artists
David A. Boxley, David R. Boxley, Jim Charlie, Raven Grenier, Kandi McGilton, Dylan Sanidad
Composers of the song Strong Woman
Derrick Keeswood, Verrona Keeswood, and Lawrence Trottier
Elders
Betsy Lomax, Lawrence Trottier
Performers
Margaret Grenier, Rebecca Baker-Grenie, Raven Grenier, Nigel Baker-Grenier, Tobie Wick
Production/Stage Manager
Andy Grenier
Technical Director
Jeff Harrison
Wardrobe Assistant
Stevie Hale-Jones
World Premiere
October 9, 2024, The Cultch Theatre, Vancouver, Canada
Creation and Production
Dancers of Damelahamid
Collaborating Producer & Agent
Eponymous
NAC Indigenous Theatre Team
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 Dance Team
Executive Producer
Caroline Ohrt
Senior Producer
Tina Legari
Special Projects Coordinator and Assistant to the Executive Producer
Mireille Nicholas
Company Manager
Sophie Anka
Education Associate and Teaching Artist
Siôned Watkins
Technical Director
Brian Britton
Communications Strategist
Alexandra Campeau
Marketing Strategist
Marie-Chantale Labbé-Jacques
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Season Partner - NAC Indigenous Theatre
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Official Hotel Partner - NAC Indigenous Theatre
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Presenting Partner #ReconcileThis
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Official Hotel Partner - NAC Dance
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees