The TALK

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.

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.