Indigenous artists from across the Northern hemisphere gather at Coastal Dance Festival
Dancers of Damelahamid’s 15h annual event hosts Sámi artists from Norway and Sweden as well as Indigenous performers from throughout Canada and the U.S.
Liv Aira and Marika Renhuvudby. Photo by Sami Maldonado Lizarazu
Dancers of Damelahamid present the 15th annual Coastal Dance Festival in partnership with Nordic Bridges from April 20 to 24 at the Anvil Centre
TO CELEBRATE COASTAL Dance Festival’s 15th anniversary, Dancers of Damelahamid are bringing together Indigenous artists from all across the Northern hemisphere, including Sámi artists from Norway and Sweden. Descendants of nomadic peoples who had inhabited northern Scandinavia for thousands of years, the Sámi were hunters and gatherers who turned to herding of domesticated reindeer in the 17th century. Forced to give up land, first to farmers in the 1650s and later to forestry and mining industries, they were pushed farther and farther north. Though strong, their culture was on the brink of extinction by colonization, mirroring the reality of Indigenous people in Canada.
“I’ve had a chance to have conversations with the Indigenous artists that are going to be coming from Sweden and Norway, and over time I’ve really seen the parallels in the colonial histories,” Coastal Dance Festival executive and artistic director Margaret Grenier says in a phone interview with Stir. “For many of the artists I’ve spoken to, traditional dance is something that has been lost in those regions and is something that has been revitalized.
“There are similarities about relearning histories and reconnecting to languages and rebuilding our capacity in communities with our arts,” Grenier says. “My ultimate dream [for the festival] is that people really feel inspired and nurtured by the efforts of one another in all our different communities and different capacities. It really helps to sustain us.”
The programming came about through Canada’s yearlong Nordic Bridges initiative, which fosters cultural exchange between Canada and the Nordic region through the multidisciplinary presentation of contemporary art, culture, and ideas.
Despite “dance” being in the festival’s name, the event encompasses much more, including language, visual arts, regalia, singing, and storytelling. There will be joik, an ancient Sámi song tradition. Dedicated to a person, animal, or place, joik creates harmonies that reproduce the qualities of the object of the song.
Dancers of Damelahamid.
Among the festival performers are Liv Aira, a Swedish Sámi contemporary dancer and artistic director of the Sámi-based Invisible People Contemporary Dance; Marika Renhuvud, a dance educator and member of Invisible People Contemporary Dance; Norwegian Sámi aerial acrobatic dancer Camilla Therese Karlsen; Norwegian Sámi singer and activist Sara Marielle Gaup; and Sámi singer and poet Lawra Somby, among others from the region.
This year’s festival will, for the first time, feature a signature evening performance dedicated solely to contemporary dance. It will include a duet by Swedish Sámi contemporary dancers and a performance by Tasha Faye Evans (Coast Salish), a Port Moody dance and theatre artist who will share an excerpt of her latest work, Cedar Woman.
The fest will also host Theland Kicknosway (Potawatomi, Cree), an 18-year-old youth activist and hoop dancer from Walpole Island, Bkejwanong Territory, in Ontario.
Then there are 15 Indigenous groups from throughout British Columbia, Washington, Alaska, the Yukon, and Ontario. They include: Chinook Song Catchers (Skwxwu7mesh, Nisga’a); Squamish-based Spakwus Slolem (Skwxwu7mesh); mask-dancing groups Git Hayetsk (Nisga’a, Tsimshian) and Git Hoan (Tsimshian); a family group from many First Nations Xwelmexw Shxwexwo:s (Stó:lō, Musqueam, Sts:ailes, Snuneymuxw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Skwxwu7mesh); Rainbow Creek Dancers (Haida), in celebration of traditional Haida ceremonial dances; Tooma Laisa and Leanna Wilson, drum dancers and throat singers of traditional Inuit songs; the award-winning Inland Tlingit Dakhká Khwáan Dancers; Yisya̱’winux̱w, a group representing many of the 16 tribes of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw people; Chesha7 iy lha mens (Skwxwu7mesh, Stó:lō, Tsimsian), a family group of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters; Kwhlii Gibaygum, an energetic group representing the Nisga’a people of the Nass River valley in Northern British Columbia; and Dancers of Damelahamid (Gitxsan, Cree), whose performance will focus on the strength of Indigenous Elders in carrying artistic practices through the generations.
Rainbow Creek Dancers. Photo courtesy the artists
Coastal Dance Festival is introducing Artist Sharing, with panel discussions and short presentations to deepen people’s understanding of Indigenous artistic practices, histories, and sources of inspiration. Joining Sámi and local artists are fashion and jewellery designer Pam Baker (Skwxwu7mesh, Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw); fashion and regalia designer and Dancers of Damelahamid performer Rebecca Baker-Grenier (Skwxwu7mesh, Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw); and contemporary Indigenous artist Andy Everson (K’omoks, Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw).
Grenier is also executive and artistic director of and performer with Dancers of Damelahamid, which has a history of masked dance complete with a narrative arc and elaborate regalia. She grew up in Prince Rupert along the Skeena River, immersed from a young age in song and dance that was passed down for countless generations. Grenier considers dance to be the most significant inheritance she has, crediting her parents for being part of the generation that helped revitalize the artform.
“The way my grandmother described it was that the culture was asleep—it wasn’t gone, but we weren’t practising it,” Grenier says, recalling how her grandma held onto some masks that had been passed down to her, hiding them in her walls in the face of colonization. “We were fortunate in my family in that we had my grandmother; we had access to the knowledge of a dance lineage that goes back thousands of years. My parents began to work within our family and within the community to begin to dance again. That was really when we began to share dance through performance.
“The dances carry stories,” she says. “The stories in themselves connect us to land, to place; they connect us to history and to our language. They also teach us how to live a life that honours this lineage and our origin as people….It really is the knowledge that has been taught through dance that I’m most grateful for. That is the thing that will always endure and will always have the ability to be passed down.”
Dancers of Damelahamid is also creating a short documentary that will be available online this summer, sharing stories about its community of artists and highlighting themes of cultural revitalization and resiliency.
Grenier sees the festival as a way for performers and audiences to join in a spirit of reconciliation. “It’s not just a gathering of artists but a gathering of audiences and communities to come and witness, which is so important,” Grenier says. “It gives back to the artists, of course, but it’s also moving forward all together. It helps to find a way to move forward.”
For more information, see https://damelahamid.ca.
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