Laronde's career a celebration of Aboriginal culture

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In her youth, Sandra Laronde was given the same advice as many young people receive-if you work hard you can achieve anything. While Laronde believes those words to be true, she also believes there's more to it than that.

Recently, Laronde was in her homeland of Teme-Augama-Anishnaabe (People of the Deepwater) in northern Ontario, where she spoke to the Temiskaming district secondary school graduating class in New Liskeard.

During her visit, Laronde told the students things that she didn't hear when she attended the school but needed to hear-things about the arts, culture and about being proud of the place you come from.

"One of the things that I said to the kids is that you are going to hear a lot of things at this graduation about developing your mind and that is so important. But you also need to develop your heart and cultivate your heart and work within your heart and in the world to create peace."

Laronde likes to use stories to get her point across. It helps people remember and understand thing better, she said.

"You take what you need from that story. I find it so much more interesting because you paint pictures for people and it's the images that you walk away with and will remember."

In 1993, Laronde, who wears the artistic hats of performer, writer and producer, founded Native Women in the Arts, Canada's only organization for First Nations, Inuit and Metis women from diverse artistic disciplines. Before she founded the organization, there wasn't really any formal network for Aboriginal women artists in Canada.

"There was recognition but not a whole lot happening for these women," she said. "Now it's 13 years later and there is a lot more going on."

Through Native Women in the Arts, Laronde has been instrumental in getting the works of more than 200 Aboriginal women published. In July, the organization published its latest anthology, Sky Woman, which looks at Aboriginal women who have inspired, moved or shaped women in some way. Sandra said this was an opportunity to get Aboriginal women writing about other Aboriginal women.

"We know there are a lot of books about us but not by us," she said. "This gives women incredible confidence that they can go further into their writing career."

Seven years after she started Native Women in the Arts, Laronde founded Red Sky Performance, a professional performing arts company that creates original pieces incorporating theatre, dance and live music. The name Red Sky comes from Laronde's Indian name, Misko Gee Shee Gut Magize Kwe, which means Red Sky Eagle Woman.

Red Sky Performance's first production was Caribou Song, based on a story by Tomson Highway and staged at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto in conjunction with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Since then, Red Sky has reached out to audiences across the country and around the world. This past June, Caribou Song and another Red Sky production, Raven Stole the Sun, were performed at The Dreaming, Australia's International Indigenous Festival. The two productions also travelled to a variety of locations across Canada and the U.S., from Goose Bay, Labrador to Dawson City, Yukon, to San Diego, California.

Other Red Sky productions have met with equal success, most notably the critically-acclaimed Dancing Americas, a piece hailed as one of the top ten dance performances of 2003 by both the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.

Laronde doesn't want Red Sky to be pigeon-holed as a First Nation company, but instead wants to cross boundaries, "and really fly into all communities, whether that is First Nations, Inuit, Metis or mainstream or other culturally-diverse communities," she said.

"It's really a company that's about inclusivity. There is incredible cultural diversity within First Nations and I think we need to show the world this."

In the coming months, people from across the country will get a chance to see for themselves what Red Sky Performance has to offer, with perfomances scheduled across Ontario and into Western Canada.

"Travel is very important," said Laronde. "Travel within our First Nation communities ... then to connect with world Indigenous cultures. We have so much to contribute to the world and the world is just so incredibly thirsty for it, so we need to recognize and respect what everyone has to offer."

Laronde said that, while everything that she has done has been a lot of work, it has definitely been worth the effort. That effort, she added, has not gone unnoticed-many people have come up to her to congratulate her on her many accomplishments.

"I feel like it's been a lot of work and the harder I work the luckier I've become," she said.

Laronde holds a bachelor of arts (honors) from the University of Toronto, and studied Spanish and literature for one year at the University of Granada in Spain.

In 2004, Laronde was one of 225 Canadians chosen to take part in the Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference, held each year to help broaden the perspectives of the country's future leaders. Participants are drawn from the business, labor, government, academic, community and cultural sectors.

"It was really great to be chosen among the 225 other Canadians," said Laronde. "I was able to meet those people from all areas."

When asked what she sees as her greatest accomplishment so far, Laronde said two things come to mind-being able to do what she loves to do, and representing Temagami.

"I feel that I am helping to put Temagami on the artistic and cultural map and I think that is a wonderful accomplishment."