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Reaching Back + Reaching Out

THE 7TH ANNUAL NEW SUN CONFERENCE

ON ABORIGINAL ARTS: REACHING BACK + REACHING OUT

The signature image for the 7th AnnualNew Sun Conference on Aboriginal Artsdramatically symbolizes this year’s theme,Reaching Back + Reaching Out. The photograph of dancer Santee Smith is arich visual metaphor for a communal act ofreaching back into the past to affirm thestrength of traditions, to honour theknowledge of elders, to rescue stories fromthe shadows, and to revitalize art forms fora new generation. The photographic imageis no less a metaphor for reaching outbeyond the Aboriginal community to amyriad of other communities in a spirit ofgenerosity and celebration.

At this year’s conference Six Nationsdancer/choreographer Santee Smith willperform an excerpt from her work,Kaha:wi, and discuss the challenges andrewards of a life in dance. In tandem withher presentation, well knownactor/choreographer Michael Greyeyes willscreen the film, Tryptich, an exploration ofresidential school fallout which he wrote,choreographed and performed in. Film isalso the favoured medium of Kahnawakenative Tracey Deer whose documentary treatments of urban Aboriginal youth have

earned her a devoted following. Her recentaward-winning film, Mohawk Girls, resonates with the experiences of youth farbeyond the Aboriginal community. No less compelling are the smart and sassy lyricpoems of performance artist TaqralikPartridge, whose wry observations of urbanInuit life surge with a restless rhythm and energy. The rhythms and energy of contemporary Aboriginal life are givenadded context and historical depth by heritage language conservationist Clealls(John Medicine Horse Kelly), and ethno-musicologist and pianist Elaine Keillor, whowill trace the development of the ency-clopaedic websites, www.nativedance.ca andwww.nativedrum.com. Joining them intheir presentation is singer Beverly Souliere,a contributor to the latter website.

It promises to be a most rewarding day.

All my relations,

Allan J. Ryan

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8:30 - 9:15Registration Coffee/juice/muffins

9:15 - 9:30Welcome, ALLAN J. RYAN

New Sun Chair in Aboriginal Art and Culture

Opening prayer, Elder JIM ALBERT

Welcoming remarks, JOHN OSBORNE, Dean of Arts and Social Sciences, Carleton University

9:30 - 10:20TRACEY DEER, documentary filmmaker

10:25 - 11:15ELAINE KEILLOR, ethnomusicologist and pianist, CLEALLS (JOHN MEDICINE HORSE KELLY), heritage language conservationist,

11:15 - 11:30Nutrition Break

11:30 - 12:20TAQRALIK PARTRIDGE, lyric-poet performance artist

New Sun Conference on Aboriginal Arts

PROGRAM 2008

and special guest singer BEVERLY SOULIERE

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12:30 - 1:30 Buffet luncheon of Native cuisine, Fenn Lounge, Residence Commons:• Bannock bread with whipped maple butter• Grilled root vegetable salad• White and wild rice salad with clams• Roasted sweet and Yukon potatoes• Acorn and butternut squash• Venison and buffalo ragout• Pan seared Arctic char with creamy lobster bisque• Pumpkin and blueberry pie with vanilla pod whipped cream

1:30 - 1:50SANTEE SMITH in performance: an excerpt from the dance production, Kaha:wi, Fenn Lounge

2:10 - 3:05MICHAEL GREYEYES, actor/choreographer

3:10 - 4:05SANTEE SMITH, dancer/choreographer

4:10 - 4:30Concluding remarksClosing prayer

Reaching Back + Reaching Out

PROGRAM 2008

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Tracey Deer is a filmmaker from Kahnawake,and obtained her degree in Film Studies fromDartmouth College, graduating with twoawards of excellence. She began her profes-sional career with CanWest Broadcasting inMontreal and later joined Rezolution Picturesof Montreal. She was co-director of One MoreRiver, a film that documented the emotionaland political turmoil within the Cree Nationwhen they signed a new deal to allow morehydroelectric damming on their land. Thefilm won the Best Documentary Award at theRendez-vous des Cinema Quebecois in 2005and was nominated for the Donald BrittainBest Social/Political Documentary at theGeminis. The film was broadcast on APTN inMarch 2005. Her second film was MohawkGirls, which she wrote, directed and filmed,about the lives of three Mohawk teenagersgrowing up on the Kahnawake reserve. It wasco-produced with Rezolution Pictures and theNational Film Board and won the AlanisObomsawin Best Documentary Award at theImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in2005. Her latest projects are a feature docu-mentary called Club Native, examining theconcept of modern Native identity, and a fea-ture documentary about a Mohawk immer-sion elementary school, with Mushkeg Media,as well as two short fiction films currently indevelopment with her production company,Mohawk Princess Pictures.

New Sun Conference on Aboriginal Arts

TRACEY DEER

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Elaine Keillor is an internationally knownconcert pianist, and a Distinguished ResearchProfessor Emerita at Carleton. With all of thetheoretical requirements completed at the ageof ten, she remains the youngest ever recipientof the Associate diploma in piano from theRoyal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Shehas made numerous highly acclaimed record-ings as well as being a prolific writer, and hasreceived a variety of prestigious awards. Hiredby Carleton as a specialist in Canadian music,she developed and taught the first universitycourse in Canada to explore First Peoples’musical expression. Throughout her career

Dr. Keillor has amassed a vast collection ofthis musical expression, which forms the bulkof the material now available through twowebsites. Dr. Keillor headed the teams thatproduced Native Drums (2005)(www.nativedrums.ca), a comprehensive,educational, and information web site onmusical expressions of the First Peoples with-in Canada, and its sequel, Native Dance (2007)(www.nativedance.ca). These are joint proj-ects of Canadian Heritage’s Canadian ContentOnline Program and Carleton University.

Clealls (John Medicine Horse Kelly) is fromSkidegate, on Haida Gwaii, otherwise knownas the Queen Charlotte Islands. Dr. Kelly is anAssistant Professor in Carleton’s School ofJournalism and Communications and serveswith Elaine Keillor as co-director of CIRCLE,the Centre for Indigenous Research, Culture,Language and Education. Clealls was one offifteen researchers designated by CanadianHeritage as authorities on language and cul-tural revitalization to advise the governmenton strategies to perpetuate aboriginal lan-guages in Canada. Dr. Kelly has developed

unique electronic recording and editing sys-tems for creating language resources, and hastrained aboriginal community members inthe use of these systems to record their ownelders. Clealls was co-investigator, editor anda writer for the Native Drums and NativeDance websites developed and facilitated byElaine Keillor.

www.nativedrums.cawww.nativedance.ca

Reaching Back + Reaching Out

CLEALLS (JOHN MEDICINE HORSE KELLY)

ELAINE KEILLOR

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Taqralik Partridge is a spoken word performer, throat singer and writer fromKujjuaq, Nunavik, (Nothern Quebec). Nowliving in Montreal, she has developed aunique style that is grounded in traditionalInuit storytelling and blended with grittyurban speak to tell contemporary storiesthat evoke the challenges of being Inuit inmodern Canadian society. The NunatsiaqNews has written, “When she performs, youcan never tell what you’ll hear next: anamusing satire perhaps, a delicate lyric, or araucous barrage of high-speed lines, deliv-ered straight from the gut.” Taqralikrecorded her Eskimo Chick piece for thecompilation CD distributed with SpiritMagazine’s 2006 spring music issue and isworking on a debut CD. She is communi-cations director of the Avataq CulturalInstitute, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and promoting thelanguage and culture of Inuit in Nunavik.

New Sun Conference on Aboriginal Arts

TAQRALIK PARTRIDGE

photo provided by: Nadya Kwandibens

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Michael Greyeyes is a dancer, actor, andchoreographer, and Assistant Professor inthe Department of Theatre at YorkUniversity where he teaches movement foractors. He began his professional career asa classical ballet dancer with The NationalBallet of Canada and the company of EliotFeld in New York. As an actor he hasworked on stage and extensively in film andtelevision for the last fourteen years. Thispast year he was invited to create new danceworks for the Dusk Dances festival inToronto and for Nozhem: First PeoplesPerformance Space and Trent University’sIndigenous Studies Program. The theatrework developed for Trent was a duet, co-choreographed by Santee Smith, whichwill tour across Canada in 2008 and is aninvited dance work for the 2008 CanadaDance Festival held bi-annually in Ottawa.Professor Greyeyes wrote, choreographedand appears in the film, Triptych, directedby Byron McKim with an original score byMiquelon Rodriguez. The film is part of anoriginal series developed for Bravo! andsubsequently broadcast on APTN.

www.michael-greyeyes.comwww.soaringheartpictures.com

Reaching Back + Reaching Out

MICHAEL GREYEYES

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Santee Smith is a dancer, choreographerand artistic director from Six Nations,Ontario. She attended the National BalletSchool and holds a Masters in Dance fromYork University. Santee was an integral partof the Aboriginal Dance Project, ChinookWinds, at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In 1996 she began creating and performingher choreography including works:Kaha:wi, Here On Earth, MidwinterDreaming, A Constellation of Bones, TheThreshing Floor, Woman in White and AStory Before Time. She presents her worknationally and internationally and is therecipient of several awards for excellence indance. She is the founder of Living Ritual:World Indigenous Dance Festival.Currently, Santee is in the process of cre-ation and production for Transmigrationwith Odawa composer Barbara Croall, andL'Histoire de Soldat in partnership withTheatre Aquarius and the HamiltonPhilharmonic Orchestra. She is touringnationally with The Threshing Floorfor the CanDance Network's IndigenousDancelands, and Fragmented Heart whichin June will be performed for the CanadaDance Festival at the National Arts Centre.

www.santeesmithdance.com

New Sun Conference on Aboriginal Arts

SANTEE SMITH

THE NEW SUN CONFERENCE ON

ABORIGINAL ARTS: BACKGROUNDER

Since its beginning in 2002, the New SunConference on Aboriginal Arts has broughttogether in a public forum individuals fromvarious First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities, as well as the non-Nativecommunity. Presenters have included thosewith expertise in photography, painting,sculpture, film making, musical perform-ance, curating, arts education, literature andthe culinary arts. Themes such as “healingthrough the arts,” “transforming traditions,”“engaging authenticity”, “interweaving communities” and “survivance” have beenexplored in a collegial and communalatmosphere that encourages dialogue onimportant cultural and artistic issues. Theconference honours, and seeks to raise public awareness of individuals whose workaffirms contemporary Aboriginal experienceand contributes to increased cross-culturalunderstanding. All conference presentationshave been archived on video and DVD andcan be borrowed from the CarletonUniversity Library.

Allan J. Ryan was appointed as the New SunChair in Aboriginal Art and Culture in July,2001. The first of its kind in Canada, theChair is situated in the School of CanadianStudies at Carleton. It was made possiblethrough the support of the New Sun Fund,administered by the CommunityFoundation of Ottawa.

CONTACT: allan_ryan@carleton.ca www.trickstershift.com

Reaching Back + Reaching Out

A presentation of the New Sun Chair in Aboriginal Art and Culture

with the support of the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences and the New Sun Fund

administered by the Community Foundation of Ottawa

Design:NATION MEDIA + DESIGN LTD

Printing:ELM PRINTING