The TALK

in partnership with Halifax Central Library
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Panel #1: The TALK - Art as Healing

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023 | 2:00PM – 3:30PM
Halifax Central Library – Room 301 
Open to the public | FREE

About the Panel:

Art comes in myriad and infinite forms, and yet too frequently, Indigenous artists are put into a box – expected to foreground tokenistic themes and present a didactic vision in their work. While art can be a meaningful and effective site for teaching others, it can also be a mechanism for artists’ own or collective healing. 

When do we Indigenous artists use our work to teach, but why else do we create? How can / does it help us personally?

Join us for a sharing circle facilitated by Margo Kane. This conversation will make space for Indigenous artists to share who they are, why they create what they do, and where healing enters in their practice.

Facilitator: Margo Kane

Panelists: Cheryl Simon, Aaron Prosper, Meagan Musseau

TALK Theme: shalan joudry

About the Panelists:

Cree-Saulteaux Metis performing artist, Margo Kane, is the Founder and Artistic Managing Director of Full Circle: First Nations Performance. For over 45 years she has been active as an actor, performing artist, and community cultural worker. Her desire to share artistic performance that has meaning for her people is the catalyst for her extensive work, travels, and consultation within Indigenous communities across Canada and abroad. Moonlodge, her acclaimed one-woman show, an Indigenous Canadian classic, toured for over 10 years nationally and internationally.

She developed and runs the annual Talking Stick Festival and numerous programs with Full Circle in Vancouver. Presently she is the Director of Indigenous Initiatives at the PuSh International Festival of the Performing Arts in Vancouver and is chair of IAKE, the Indigenous Knowledge Exchange.

She has received numerous awards and honors including an International Citation of Merit from the International Society for the Performing Arts, an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of the Fraser Valley, the Order of Canada from the Governor-General and most recently an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC.

Cheryl is a proud Mi’kmaq woman from Epekwitk (Prince Edward Island). She is an assistant professor of law at the Shulich School of law at Dalhousie University, as well as being an artist. She has been a porcupine quiller for over 15 years, during which she has had numerous apprentices. She recently became a basket maker after undertaking an apprenticeship with an Elder from her community and is working to incorporate porcupine quillwork into her basketry. Cheryl harvests her material annually according to traditional Mi’kmaw protocols. She lives with her husband and their two children in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Aaron Prosper is a proud L’nu artist and healthcare professional from the Eskasoni First Nation, now residing in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

In 2018-2019, Aaron served as President of the Dalhousie Students’ Union, becoming the first Indigenous person to serve in this role. A graduate of Dalhousie University’s Bachelor of Science (Neuroscience) program, Aaron currently works as the Indigenous Health Consultant for Nova Scotia Health, is a graduate student at the University of Prince Edward Island, and most recently has served as a sessional instructor at Dalhousie University. Aaron’s work and research span a variety of disciplines including Indigenous Health and Sciences, Indigenous Ethics and Research Methodologies, and contemporary & traditional Mi’kmaw song, dance, and history.

Outside of his academic work, Aaron is a member of two professional Indigenous music groups: the Eastern Eagle Singers, a contemporary Mi’kmaw drum group based out of Sipe’kne’katik First Nation, and the multimedia band Alan Syliboy and the Thundermakers. Aaron’s artistic collaborations have included Symphony Nova Scotia, the Fountain School of Performing Arts, Canadian Chamber Choir, Animalingo produced by the Mermaid Theatre, Open Borders, Upstream Music Ensemble, Fluid Forms presented by Mocean Dance, and the recent full length dance production Samqwan.

In all of his work, Aaron takes most pride in contributing to the promotion of Mi’kmaw rights & self-determination and the preservation and revitalizing of Mi’kmaw culture, language, and traditions.

Meagan Musseau is a L’nu woman from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk (Bay of Islands, Newfoundland) currently living in Unama’kik (Cape Breton Island). She is an artist, dancer, and proud aunty who works with artistic mediums such as basketry, textiles, land-based performance, and video. Her works explore themes of kinship, harvesting, connection to territory and matriarchal empowerment through the use of customary and contemporary materials. Throughout her career she has won numerous awards and exhibited works nationally and internationally.

Panel #2: The TALK - At the Threshold

Wednesday, October 4th, 2023 |  10:00AM – 11:30AM
Halifax Central Library – Room 301 
Open to the public | FREE

About the Panel:

We have arrived at a critical moment in time. The forced pause in the global arts sector has made us hyper-aware of the inequities inherent in what we had, in the past, taken for granted: the right to breathe.

Rather than rushing headlong into an uncertain future, we can take a collective breath at this threshold to examine our surroundings with new clarity. In questioning the ways our needs have been systemically neglected and how embodied practices and connections have been prevented, we must ask: what do we carry with us, and what do we leave behind? Through this discussion, we discover what we can create together, and what can bloom from the ruins of the dismantled structures.

Facilitator: Diane Roberts

Panelists: Margo Kane, Jacob Sampson, Bruce Sinclair, Anju Singh

About the Panelists:

Jacob Sampson (he/him) is Associate Artistic Director at 2b Theatre and is a graduate of the Acadia University Theatre Studies program. He is a descendant of the Historic Black Nova Scotian community of Beechville. Jacob has been involved in the Nova Scotian Arts industry for 20 years, working primarily as an actor with many companies in the region and has written plays such as Chasing Champions which premiered at Ships Company Theatre in 2016 and Umoja Corp which was part of Obsidian Theatre’s 21 Black Futures project and was shown on CBC Gem in 2021.
Bruce Sinclair is a Metis theatre artist, teacher, student of the nehiyawewin (Cree) and Michif languages, and is currently based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Bruce formed an artistic entity, miyoteh performance, that will develop and produce works based on working with Indigenous artists, youth, elders, and the nehiyawewin\michif languages as well as artistic collaborations with diverse communities. Bruce teaches drama at the University of Saskatchewan to SUNTEP\ITEP students, acts, directs, writes plays\stories and strives to merge artistic practice with life. This year Bruce is working on two plays, kaskawahkamin, a work commissioned by Native Earth Performing Arts as part of their Forty Seeds initiative. As well, Mary of Patuanak will be produced by Gordon Tootoosis Nikanawin Theatre in Saskatoon December 2023. ahki meyimo (do your best)….
Cree-Saulteaux Metis performing artist, Margo Kane, is the Founder and Artistic Managing Director of Full Circle: First Nations Performance. For over 45 years she has been active as an actor, performing artist, and community cultural worker. Her desire to share artistic performance that has meaning for her people is the catalyst for her extensive work, travels, and consultation within Indigenous communities across Canada and abroad. Moonlodge, her acclaimed one-woman show, an Indigenous Canadian classic, toured for over 10 years nationally and internationally. She developed and runs the annual Talking Stick Festival and numerous programs with Full Circle in Vancouver. Presently she is the Director of Indigenous Initiatives at the PuSh International Festival of the Performing Arts in Vancouver and is chair of IAKE, the Indigenous Knowledge Exchange. She has received numerous awards and honors including an International Citation of Merit from the International Society for the Performing Arts, an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of the Fraser Valley, the Order of Canada from the Governor-General and most recently an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC.

Anju Singh is a composer, musician, sound designer and media artist whose practice is an exploration of texture through the use of extended or experimental techniques, use of electronics, experimenting with musical and non-musical materials, and electronic processing. One of the core processes in her practice is to use methods of deconstruction and reanimation to repurpose and contextualize materials in new compositional environments. Anju’s work has been presented across Canada, in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States at festivals, galleries, and events in a variety of spaces including Send + Receive Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Polygon Gallery, and music venues.