Talking Stick Festival – Season of Four Fires

October 26, 2021

October 27, 2021

Free

Exhibition Hall, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre & via Zoom, Vancouver

Website

Events Description

 

For the 20th h Anniversary of the Talking Stick Festival in 2021, Full Circle: First Nations Performance has called to the Four Directions and All Our Relations to gather around Four Fires in each season: winter, spring, summer, and fall. The anniversary celebrations began early in the year with The Winter Lodge: Sitting with our Ancestors (February 18–27), Spring Awakening (April 29 – May 1) and Summer Sojourn (June 1 – July 1).

The 20th Anniversary festival celebrations now culminate with FEASTING OUR WORDS – building our collective Fire through our songs, dance, deeds and stories. On October 24, Full Circle has partnered with the Queer Arts Festival to present Piano Burning.

On Tuesday, October 26, Indigenous poets, storytellers and musicians come together for Wordplay & Rhythms for the Spirit! Also, in the afternoon on October 26, an Industry Series event is presented: Residencies as Re-imaginings: A Roundtable Conversation. AND on Wednesday, October 27 — a gala and feast to honour this final fire: The 20th Anniversary Talking Stick Gala Comes Full Circle!

FEASTING OUR WORDS is “a way to remember our Sacred Teachings, to honour legacy, to celebrate abundance.

We raise our hands to those who have gathered throughout this season of four fires. With gratitude, we honour those who have made possible a 20-year legacy of creative sovereignty, cultural wisdom, and Indigenous joy. / We feast in honour and remembrance for what has endured. We feast around this final fire to strengthen those who carry forth the sacred roles of artist, knowledge keeper, warrior, teacher, leader and learner. / Our work around these four fires has been an echo of our ancestor’s sacred teachings and a call to the future ancestors within us all. Gather now to feast our words, to ensure a lineage of Indigenous abundance, and to harvest a collective embodiment of ancestral hope.”

Here is what’s on tap on October 26 & 27

Residencies as Re-imaginings: A Roundtable Conversation

Tuesday, October 26 at 2-5pm

Exhibition Hall, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre & via Zoom

Part of an ongoing Industry Series, all are welcome to a discussion exploring how Indigenous artist residencies can co-create new models of colonial disruption and cultural transformation – both inside and outside of mainstream arts organizations.

Free

Wordplay & Rhythms for the Spirit!

Tuesday, October 26 at 7pm

Exhibition Hall, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre

Free

Spoken words of wisdom, of knowledge, insight, humour, anger, awakening – welcome to an evening of sharing and learning with acclaimed Indigenous artists, poets, and storytellers.

… and then — music!

Featuring: accomplished poet, storyteller, playwright, researcher, and archaeologist, Joseph A. Dandurand; scholar and award-winning author of adult and children’s free-verse poetry, fiction and non-fiction prose, Nicola I. Campbell, and; published writer, performance artist, academic, award-winning filmmaker, community worker and mother of four incredible sons, Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin.

With: the dance-inspiring sounds and beats of Orene Askew, aka DJ O Show

And, to end the evening, the distinctive and groove-heavy swing blues music from the Rocky Mountain Badlands duo, Blue Moon Marquee.

20th Anniversary Talking Stick Gala Comes Full Circle!

Wednesday, October 27 at 7pm

Exhibition Hall, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre

Free

Welcome to an eclectic evening celebrating 20 years of the Talking Stick Festival. Tonight we celebrate the legacy of our pioneering and groundbreaking Indigenous arts festival. It has brought together so much talent, heart, energy and spirit from the community here, and from around the world, over two decades of passion and purpose. This is an evening for reflection and honouring, certainly – and to thank those who have joined us on our year-long program of presenting performances during the four seasons of fire – as well as to rejoice, celebrate and look forward together.

Our Emcee for the evening is performing artist, public speaker, and filmmaker, Jordan Waunch.

Featuring: a touch of fabulous burlesque with fiery femme, Afro-Indigenous life coach, semi-retired showgirl, advocate/activist and Virago Nation member, Monday Blues, and; co-founding member of Virago Nation with a passion for mixing pussycat doll hip hop with a nerdy and exotic (stripper) twist, RainbowGlitz.

Plus:

A fashion show, VIFW X SUPERNATURALS, from Supernaturals, an Indigenous boutique modeling agency who present Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week. They have a mission to make visible Indigenous peoples, focusing on healthy and high-end cultural representation.

Experience the fresh, dynamic and unpredictable sound mix from DJ Kookum; participate in the Moccasin Contest, where attendees are encouraged to bring their moccasins to enter into the competition. Everyone gets to vote for ‘the best’ in a number of categories (best blinging moccasins, best baby moccasins, best jigging moccasins, etc.) AND, to end the evening and the 20th anniversary celebrations on a true high note, revel in the swing blues groove of Blue Moon Marquee.

Join Talking Stick at FEASTING OUR WORDS (Oct. 24-27), and come full circle in the celebration of 20 years of brilliant Indigenous performance and art!

HOW MUCH

Tickets:

Free – Register

How to get tickets?

Buy Online

WHEN & WHERE

Date & Time:

Residencies as Re-imaginings: A Roundtable Conversation

Tuesday, October 26 at 2-5pm

Wordplay & Rhythms for the Spirit!

Tuesday, October 26 at 7pm

20th Anniversary Talking Stick Gala Comes Full Circle!

Wednesday, October 27 at 7pm

Venue:

Exhibition Hall, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre & via Zoom

Vancouver

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