Aboriginal artists take centre stage when the world visits

A throat singer from Nunavut and a Hupacasath artist from Vancouver Island are just a couple of the multi-talented Aboriginal musicians, artists, dancers and videographers that will be showcased at the Cultural Olympiad 2010, both before and during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“We sent out a proposal call last year for interested artists to submit a synopsis of their work, whether dance, theatre, visual art or video,” Janet Miller, the communications manager for the Cultural Olympiad, said. “We had hundreds of responses, including 180 Aboriginal submissions from all the Canadian provinces and territories.”

Submissions were juried and put on a registry for the Olympiad.

“We invited some high profile artists, such as Tanya Tagaq, the world famous Nunavut throat singer, and Sandra Laronde’s Red Sky Productions from Ontario, and Vancouver Island’s Ron Hamilton to be featured performers,” Miller added.

During the Cultural Olympiad, art galleries, theatres, the Aboriginal Pavilion, parks, streets and squares in Vancouver will be alive with new and electrifying productions. In communities along the Sea to Sky Highway and in Whistler Village, art, theatre, music and dance productions will mingle with Olympic and Paralympic events in civic squares, theatres and open spaces.

On the stage of Whistler’s very new Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, Sandra Laronde, a Teme-Augama-Anishnaabe from Temagami and Toronto, brings her contemporary dance version of a traditional Tlingit story ‘Raven Stole the Sun’ to its stage. The piece will re-appear as part of the Talking Stick Festival in Vancouver, along with the works of both new and established First Nation, Inuit and Metis artists, dancers, actors and singers.

Replicating the Olympic spirit of international co-operation, Laronde uses Aboriginal dancers form Inner and Outer Mongolia, China and Canada in Tono, an electrifying dance performance to be staged in Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

“We share similar histories,” said Laronde. “The performance combines the Blackfoot and Mongolian plans and our mutual horse culture in a collaborative piece interwoven with a spirit of shamanism. Language is always an issue,” she added, “but after many practices we communicate mostly through dance.”

‘Backstory’, a magnificent ceremonial curtain, the work of the Nuu-chah-nulth high profile painter and carver Ron Hamilton, will be a highlight at the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery in Vancouver. His piece revives the nearly lost Nuu-chah-nulth art of painting ceremonial curtains that depict a family history, the family’s adventures and successes, and their everyday life.

His version, a contemporary cotton curtain, will share wall space with historical cedar bark antique curtains from both Canada and the United States.

The Cultural Olympiad starts on Jan. 22 and continues for 60 days during the Olympic and Paralympic Games and up to its end date, March 21, 2010. There will be 600 performances in more than 60 venues.

When the games are finished some performers and performances will be selected to go on a national presentation and touring program, which is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.

For the performers, “It is a highlight in our lives to celebrate world Indigenous culture at the Cultural Olympiad 2010,” said Laronde.