Akuaunissitaku means driftwood / to strike. For me these woods are bones, bodies washed up on the banks of the water. Boom Defense, a beach in Gaspé so called due to its military past, is a point that juts out into the bay and crosses the waters. Covered with akuaunissitaku but also with hay odors, it is the habitat of a colony of common terns which flies above our heads and protects their nests filled with eggs and children. On the last day of filming across the country on Turtle Island, children's bones were found. Dancing the land is the connection between the territories. The beings who live through us. Auass / child, driftwood. The bone of our territory, the body, the heart.
Mi'kma'ki and Wabanaki Confederacy land
Credits
AUEN Production presents
A performance by Soleil Launière
Production and editing: Lucile Parry-Canet
Composition and sound: Marcin Bunar
Executive production: Julie Marie Bourgeois
This performance was made possible with the generous support of the Centre de diffusion création de Gaspé, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Soleil Launière is Pekuakamiulnu from Mashteuiatsh and lives and works in Tiöhtià:ke–Mooniyang (Montréal). A multidisciplinary artist and director, they combine performance art, movement, theatre and song, intertwining the notion of the two-spirited body with experimental audiovisuals while drawing inspiration from the cosmogony and sacred spirit of the animals of the Innu world. Their practice explores themes of silences and universal languages.
Since 2008, Soleil has created several performances for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artistic gatherings and events, both within and outside conventional presenting networks across the continents.
Between 2019 and 2021, they presented their first production, Umanishish, directed by Xavier Huard at Usine C; co-directed (with Patrice Dubois) Courir l’Amérique at the Théâtre de Quat’Sous; presented Sheuetamu, created with the support of the Indigenous Artists in Residence program at the National Theatre School of Canada; and directed Meshtitau, presented at the Festival TransAmériques international dance and theatre festival.
They wrote, co-directed and performed Akuteu, a solo show presented at the Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui from April 21 to May 7, 2022.
In July 2020, Soleil founded their own company, Production AUEN.
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