HAPPY (almost) 2013 EVERYONE!

Well, 2012 was another exciting year for the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance. Our membership has grown dramatically, our website traffic is increasing monthly, we have published our first online journal and forged ahead with our second publication, and our wonderfully talented and hard-working Coordinator Falen Johnson has been pushing the organization and its membership forward! 2013 promises many great things for our membership. We will be releasing our second journal issue in early January and our third issue in September.

We would like to welcome our new members, and there too many to list here, but please check out our Membership Directory for detailed information on our member artists and organizations. We would also like to encourage our members to keep in touch about upcoming projects so that we can both advertise these projects on the website and update the respective membership profiles.

2012 saw many fantastic undertakings by our member artists and arts organizations! Here's IPAA's 2012 in review:

Let's first send out our many congratulations to: the ultra-talented Marie Clements, who has been awarded $120,000 – The Women in the Director’s Chair – to support completing her first feature, Stonefaces; the wonderful Kaha:wi Dance Theatre whose brilliant TransMigration (co-produced with Harbourfront Centre’s Plant IndigenUS) was nominated for two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Sound Design/Composition and Outstanding Production in the Dance Division; and Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company on receiving 4 – count em’ – 4 awards at this year’s SATAwards for “Where the Blood Mixes,” including: Curtis Peeteetuce (Outstanding Performance-Male), Lindsay Knight (Sound Design) Philip Adams (Direction), Bill McDermott (Lighting).

The year began, more or less, with Full Circle: First Nation's Performance's annual Talking Stick Festival in Vancouver, BC. It was phenomenal - so was the weather - and over its two-week period showcased an incredible multi-disciplinary line-up, which included many IPAA members and affiliates, such as: Monique Mojica & Jose A. Colman with Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky Way; Starr Muranko, Raven Spirit Dance, Floyd Favel & Michelle Olson, Dancers of Damelahamid with Margaret & Nigel Grenier! There were also wonderful performance from Sheldon Elter with his one-man show Metis Mutt; Drew Hayden Taylor, Trevor Duplessis & Kurt Spenrath with In a World Created by a Drunken God; and music marvels, such as Dave Larocque, Kinnie Starr, A Tribe Called Red, Os12, Elaine Bomberry, and Wes Nahanee. We were very happy to hold our AGM in conjunction with the festival. Many thanks to all those who joined in our discussions!

Spring 2012 saw Native Earth Performing Arts (NEPA), Tara Beagan & Buddies in Bad Times Theatre launch free as injuns in Toronto; Kaha:wi Dance Theatre toured the east coast with A Story Before Time and then in May premiered TransMigration in Toronto, with Harbourfront Centre's Planet IndigenUS; Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company presented Kevin Loring's Where the Blood Mixes in Saskatoon; Raven Spirit Dance & Nyla Carpentier held Pow-Wow Bootcamp to much fanfare; NEPA brought home to Toronto its brilliant production of Daniel David Moses's Almighty Voice, which was directed by Michael Greyeyes and featured the massively talented Derek Garza and PJ Prudat; Falen Johnson presented A Walking Tour as part of the Theatre Centre’s Invisible Toronto project; red diva projects teamed up with Frog Girl Films to produce the short film Jesus Indian; Marie Clements also connected with Frog Girl Films for the short documentary Language of Love, which examines writer/actor/activist Stephen Lytton's experience in the residential school system!

Check out some wonderful photos from both Kaha:wi's eastern tour (Facebook) and Dancers of Damelahamid's Coastal First Nations Dance Festival (Website).

2012 kept on going! The summer was filled with festivals! There was the Ode'min Giizis Festival in Peterborough; the Adaka Cultural Festival in Whitehorse; the 4th annual Rubaboo Arts Festival in Edmonton; the Alianait Arts Festival in Iqaluit; and rounding it out, in September, Prismatic Festival in Halifax.

Raven Spirit Dance toured Gathering Light during June and performed the stunning Frost Exploding Trees Moon in July.

Debajehmujig Storytellers, under Joe Osawabine's artistic direction, have not only produced and hosted many great works, but also reached out to the Attawapiskat Community in its continued effort to educate and enliven youths through engaged arts programs. Our continued admiration for Debaj's important out-reach programs.

The transition from Summer to Fall brought with it some excellent performances and events, including Falen Johnson's Salt Baby; Planet IndigenUS's Flash Mob; Waawaate Fobister's Medicine Boy; Cliff Cardinal's Huff; Kaha:wi's Susuriwka – Willow Bridge; Leonard Linklater's Justice, presented by Gwaandak and directed by Floyd Favel; and from thine eyes presented by Signal Theatre with Onelight Theatre.

The colder months have not slowed the artistic output. Kevin Loring's Where the Blood Mixes, starring Craig Lauzon and Lorne Cardinal, continued to move between provinces; Native Women in the Arts presented I'm not the Indian you have in mind; Waawaate Fobister, hosted by Alberta Aboriginal Arts, performed Agokwe in Edmonton; Yvette Nolan's The Unplugging, starring Margo Kane and Jenn Griffin, premiered in Vancouver; and Keith Barker's The Hours that Remain landed in Saskatoon and Toronto.

CLAIMING SPACE & SHARING SPACE: IPAA'S ONLINE JOURNAL

IPAA has published its first online journal, Claiming Space, which is available to view or download on the IPAA website! Many thanks to our contributors. It was an enormous endeavour and we have learned an awful lot in the process. We are so so happy with the final product, and hope everyone finds it equally engaging.

Sharing Space, our second issue, is due for publication in January 2013. We have again been fortunate enough to wrangle together some super talented and inspiring artists as contributors! It will be available to view or download on our website!

Some background information: The journal is artist driven. So far, it is entirely supported by IPAA’s own human resources, which include our coordinator, Falen Johnson, and website administrator, Charlotte Calon. The publication provides us with an important bi-annual project that embodies and advances our mandate. It is founded in our commitment to encouraging communication, circulating ideas and information, and empowering the Indigenous performing arts community across time and space. It provides yet another medium by which Indigenous performing artists, arts organizations, and interested people can engage with each other. We strongly believe that IPAA can best benefit the Indigenous performing arts community by (1) enabling ongoing dialogue, (2) claiming and expanding an open, accessible, and assured space that cuts across geographical and artistic differences, and (3) recreating the inspiring felt-performance-experience that is central to why performing arts in particular is so important to protecting and celebrating Indigenous culture and community. We’re enthusiastic that this project is an excellent method by which to achieve these goals.

Finally, get in touch with coordinator Falen Johnson (falenjohnson@ipaa.ca) about upcoming issues! We are always excited to have people bring forward ideas!

THE IPAA 2013 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The IPAA 2012 Annual General Meeting will be held in February 2013, concurrent with Full Circle: First Nation Performance’s Talking Stick Festival, Vancouver, BC. IPAA members will be well represented at the Festival.

IDLE NO MORE

I'm sure everyone is aware of and also participating in the Idle No More movement. We'd like to share the following blog post The Natives are Restless. Wondering Why? from the website âpihtawikosisân.

HELP US HELP YOU

Our website is always being updated. We do our very best to keep the information relevant, but we would certainly appreciate our members input. Send along any and all information that you think should be included on our website to falenjohnson@ipaa.ca!

We are especially happy to receive information from members about upcoming events, performances, submission calls, opinion pieces, etc. Please send along any and all information to falenjohnson@ipaa.ca.

Suzanne Hawkins, Communications Coordinator, suzannehawkins@ipaa.ca