Tag Archives: Serpent People

Aanmitaagzi participating in the 23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus

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Installation photo of NGAPA YAAN / NIIBI AANMITAAGZI from Pier 2/3 at the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct in Dawes Point, Australia.

NGAPA YAAN / NIIBI AANMITAAGZI

(WATER SPEAKS)

12 March – 13 June 2022
Pier 2/3 at Walsh Bay Arts Precinct
13 Hickson Road, Dawes Point, NSW 2000

As part of the 23rd Biennale of Sydney: rīvus, taking place from March 12 – June 13, 2022, Aanmitaagzi collaborated with Moogahlin Performing Arts to create Ngapa Yaan / Niibi Aanmitaagzi, a short video work on display at the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. The work is  one stage of an ongoing artistic and knowledge exchange between the two companies, and features creation stories told in Murrawarri and Northern Cree language as well as footage of their respective lands and waterways.

As stated on Moogahlin’s website:

This project is a durational investigation of two cultural stories, Serpent People from Nipissing First Nation (Turtle Island) and Mundagudda from Murrawarri Country in Far West NSW, Australia.

Through a discursive practice of storytelling, and story-weaving connected by a common theme – WATER – we are engaging with historical references to water from across different nations and countries that celebrate and highlight our relational identities and connection to country. The stories come from juxtaposed locations, one a frozen inland lake, the other in an often-dry land. We ask, what knowledge about water is contained and transferred through each story? How do these stories define a relationship to water?

In articulating our relationship to water, we are in a process of communicating our identity, blood ties, and clan affiliations.

Aanmitaagzi would like to thank our artistic team Perry Mcleod-Shabogeesic (Storyteller / Knowledge Keeper), Penny Couchie (Creative Lead / Script / Narration), Megan Lozicki Paulin (Creative Lead), Sid Bobb (Creative Lead / Script), Cecile Hookimaw (Northern Cree Translator / Narration), Bradley Trudeau (Camera), Sherry Guppy (Production Support), Michaela Washburn (Production Support), and Merilee Helmer (Production Support) for their amazing work, as well as Richard Fortin (Camera Assistant) & Bernardo D’Avila (Camera and Drone Operator) from RFPMEDIA for helping us to produce our portion of the video.

We also want to thank the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for their continued support, and Moogahlin Performing Arts and the Biennale of Sydney for inviting us to participate in this project.

Serpent People at Nuit Blanche 2017

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In the fall of 2017 at Nuit Blanche Toronto, Aanmitaagzi presented a large-scale installation series with accompanying interactive performance events. From sunset to sunrise, thousands of audience members engaged with Serpent People. The performance and installation was much anticipated and was chosen as part of “Must See” spectacles at the 2017 Nuit Blanche event. Serpent People was also chosen as the “Best of Nuit Blanche” by blogTO.

Ice Follies 2018 opens this Friday

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Ice Follies / Mikwamiike
February 9 – 20, 2018
Opening – Marathon Beach, February 9 at 5 pm

Aanmitaagzi has once again teamed up with the Near North Mobile Media Lab and White Water Gallery to present Ice Follies 2018. Ice Follies is biennial festival of contemporary and community-engaged art on frozen lake Nipissing. Audiences are invited to engage with works situated off shore from the North Bay waterfront (Marathon Beach) and along the shores of Nipissing First Nation. This year’s theme is Exposing to Strengthen:

The creation of ice roads requires the clearing of snow to expose the ice to the cold. The snow is cleared well beyond the used roadway to ensure safe ice thickness from the center to the edges of the used portion of the ice road. What do we bring to light, allow or expose so a strengthening can occur?

For this year’s Ice Follies, Aanmitaagzi will present a series of installations from their ongoing Serpent People project alongside artists Aylan Couchie, Reece Terris, Chris Kosloski & Andrew Ackerman, and others. For more information, please contact Aanmitaagzi or visit www.icefollies.ca.

Winter Workshops: 2018

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Aanmitaagzi invites artists, arts enthusiasts, and community members of all abilities to participate in their Winter Workshop series as part of their ongoing Serpent People project. The weekly workshops are free to the public and take place at Big Medicine Studio. Hope to see you there!

January 15 – April 25, 2018

Tuesday        3:30 – 5:15 pm     Kids Multi-Arts Workshop

6:30 – 8:30 pm     Pow Wow Jam!

Wednesday   7:00 – 9:00 pm     Adult Contemporary Dance

January 22 – February 15, 2018

Thursday       1:30 – 5:30 pm     Open Studio Art-Making for Ice Follies

Serpent People heads to Toronto this week for Nuit Blanche 2017

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Serpent People @ Nuit Blanche Toronto
Albert Street & James Street (behind Old City Hall)
September 30, 2017 – October 1, 2017
7 pm – 7 am

As part of Life on Neebahgeezis; A Luminous Engagement curated by Maria Hupfield, Aanmitaagzi is thrilled to bring Serpent People to this year’s Nuit Blanche in Toronto.

Building upon the stories of the Black Sturgeon from Nipissing First Nation, as told by Perry McLeaod-Shabogesic, and the previous Serpent People incarnations, Aanmitaagzi will present a series of community-engaged provocations that ask the questions:

  1. What are we eating that gives us power?
  2. What are we consuming that takes us away from who we are?
  3. What will bring us back to ourselves?

This durational live theatre provocation/intervention/interactive installation will ebb and flow from dusk to dawn, providing different encounters with the audience throughout the evening. Like stars dropped down from the sky, this work will be performed as an immersive performance at street level with a series of sculptural installations, performative interventions and a 15-foot puppet that explore our relationship to consumption.