Native Earth Performing Arts is proud to announce its 42nd season with six projects including a reimagined dance series, purposeful collaborations, binge worthy festivals, and the 13th season of the Animikiig Creators Unit, featuring a new cohort.

The 2024-2025 season curated by Artistic Director Joelle Peters will feature: the 37th edition of Weesageechak Begins to Dance with excerpts from artists including Kenneth T. Williams and The NDN Act; the NIIMI’IWE Indigenous Dance Series featuring What We Carry by Barbara Kaneratonni Diabo and Black Ballerina by Syreeta Hector; Caleigh Crow's There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death or, The Born-Again Crow in partnership with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre; the 9th year of partnership with Paprika Festival; and the ever popular 2-Spirit Cabaret, in partnership with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.

AD Statement from Joelle Peters:

"Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous performing arts company. So, what does that mean? It means we hold a responsibility to the Indigenous artists and communities we have served in the past 42 years.

"No pressure.

"To us, while we acknowledge that responsibility, it means we must continue to create space for stories. Stories about identity, about culture, about us. About strength, growth, resilience, and the ways in which we see the world. It’s important to us to keep fostering emerging voices, producers, designers, and administrators; these are big reasons why I’m so jazzed about our season programming initiatives.

"Our goal at Native Earth isn’t just to present ready-for-production pieces, it’s also about the journey to get there – the workshops, the residencies, mentorship and professional development. We strive to play an active role in the future of Indigenous storytelling. We are equally interested in the investment in community-building, and further solidifying our roots within t’karonto.

"This season, we are honoured to present works that speak to self-expression and challenging expectations. The artists we’re working with throughout 2024-25 are exploring intersectionality within dance, theatre, and lived experiences".

NATIVE EARTH PERFORMING ARTS 2024/25 SEASON:

Weesageechak Begins to Dance 37

November 21-December 1, 2024 at Aki Studio

Festival Team:

Producer: Yago Mesquita

Assistant Producer: Stephanie Fung

The 37th edition of Weesageechak Begins to Dance will bring together thirteen Creators from across Turtle Island and beyond to develop and showcase new work and works in development. Audiences are invited to public sharings of some of these works between November 21 to December 1, 2024, as well as fun ancillary programming throughout the festival, including conversations around artistic practice and artistic process, various performances, screenings, and more. Join Native Earth in this continued celebration of Indigenous theatre, dance, and multidisciplinary works!

The Weesageechak Begins to Dance 37 Creators are Aleria McKay (Haudenosaunee & Teme Augama Anishnabai mother/ Red River Métis & Dene Tha’ father), Candace Brunette-Debassige (Mushkegowuk Cree Nation/ member of Peetabeck in Treaty 9 Territory / Settler), Daniela Carmona Sanchez (Tenochtitlán), Julie Lumsden (Manitoba Metis Federation/ Settler), Kenneth T. Williams (George Gordon First Nation in the Treaty 4 territory), Lacey Hill (Oneida/Mohawk, Wolf Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Reservation), Montana Adams (Akwesasne), Robyn Grant-Moran (Métis), Smokii Sumac (ʔamakʔis Ktunaxa), Natasha Barlow (mikmaw), PJ Prudat (Métis/nehiyaw), the wâhkôhtowin project (Yvette Nolan and Joel Bernbaum), and The NDN Act (Samantha Mandamin, Denise B. McLeod, Lena Recollect, and Jamie Whitecrow).

NIIMI’IWE Indigenous Dance Series Part 1: What We Carry

February 6-9, 2025 at Aki Studio

A production by: A’nó:wara Dance Theatre

Concept, choreographer, and performer: Barbara Kaneratonni Diabo (Kanienkeha:ka)

Elders: Wahiakeron Gilbert and Sedalia Kawennotas Fazio

Music: Red Cloud, Sedalia Kawennotas Fazio, Michael Tekaronianeken Diabo, Wahiakeron Gilbert, David Bowie

Kanien’keha language: Wahiakeron Gilbert, Sedalia Kawennotas Fazio, Kwawennawi Diabo, Kahentísa’s Alfred

Cradleboard: Patrick Bureau

Beaded dress: Anne Konwawennawi Hemlock

The buckskin dress worn in Part 1 of What We Carry was made by Barbara Kaneratonni Diabo's great-grandmother and given to her by her grandmother.

An A’nó:wara Dance Theatre solo choreographed and performed by Barbara Kaneratonni Diabo. It is an expression of her life's journey as she shares many experiences that she carries in the bundle of her body, mind, and spirit. What We Carry is sometimes painful and sometimes joyous as she explores motherhood, Indigenous language and cultural responsibility, relationships, the feminine body, ancestors, and more. She is grateful to be able to walk this path that her ancestors started and the next generations will continue.

There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death or, The Born-Again Crow

March 9-29, 2025 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

A Buddies In Bad Times And Native Earth Performing Arts Production

Cast/Crew:

Playwright: Caleigh Crow (Métis)

Director: Jessica Carmichael (mixed Abénaki/Euro)

Grocery-store clerk Beth has had a hell of a week. A hell of a life, actually, full of people squashing her soul. And after pushing back at life — stabbing a steak to her boss’s desk and lighting a magazine rack on fire, for instance — freshly unemployed Beth regroups at her mom’s suburban home. Just when Beth starts to think she’s to blame for systemic limits, the gift of a bird feeder sparks a relationship with a talking Crow who reconnects her with her true power.

This sly chamber piece from new voice Caleigh Crow turns post-capitalism ennui on its head with a righteous fury. It unearths the subtle and not so subtle ways we gaslight the marginalized (especially Indigenous women), people living with mental-health afflictions, and anyone struggling to make ends meet in low-income service jobs. There is Violence captures the vivacity and humour of one truly remarkable woman not meant for this earth, and brings her to her own glorious transcendence.

Paprika Festival

May 2025 at Aki Studio

Paprika is proud to be in its 9th year of partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts, presenting the 24th annual Paprika Festival in the Aki Studio for a week of showcases, workshops, community gatherings and more by emerging artists. Paprika Festival is a 24-year old performing arts company that offers emerging artists and arts administrators access to paid opportunities, mentorships, and hands-on labs to develop their artistic practices and gain professional experience in production and arts management. This work culminates in a performing arts festival of new work by young and emerging artists in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond.

NIIMI’IWE Indigenous Dance Series Part 2: Black Ballerina

May 22-25, 2025 at Aki Studio

Cast/Crew:

Creator/Performer: Syreeta Hector (Mi’kmaq, African-American and Acadian)

Movement Dramaturg: Seika Boye 2017-2020

Rehearsal Director/ Movement Dramaturg: Dedra McDermott 2020

Production/Lighting: Helin Gungoren: Noah Feaver

Set Design: Elissa Horscroft, Tristan Goethel, Mary Spyrakis (Courtesy of Canadian Stage)

Sound Design: Germaine Liu and Mark Zurawinski

Music: Marie Davidson, Richard Reed Parry, Kendrick Lamar, A Tribe Called Red, Germaine Liu, XRNA, Mark Zurawinski

Costume Alterations: Kleanthi Markakis

Outside Eye/ Film Editor: J. Adam Brown

Partners: Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, RBC Canadian Stage Creators’ in Residence, Creative Residency Program through Workspace Brussel, Kaaitheatre in Belgium, York University

Based on Syreeta Hector’s relationship to race, and her experiences in classical ballet, Black Ballerina is a powerful exploration of the nuances within one’s identity, and the unconscious ways that we all try to fit in. The 2019 performance of an earlier version of Black Ballerina was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award. Performed by Hector, Black Ballerina brings an unbridled energy to the stage.

2-Spirit Cabaret

June 2025 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

Presented in partnership with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

A celebration of the strength, beauty, and talent of queer and 2-Spirit Indigenous people, the Cabaret features music, dance, drag, performance art, spoken word, poetry and comedy.

Native Earth Performing Arts is also bringing in a new cohort of artists for the 13th season of the Animikiig Creators Unit, a two-year development program for emerging Indigenous creators, which offers participants the opportunity to develop their craft through individualized development plans and resources. The Animikiig Creators Unit 2024-2025 takes place under the guidance of professional mentors in consultation with the Program Director Irma Villafuerte (Nahuat Pipil Territory Kuskatan, post-colonial El Salvador). Multidisciplinary artists Montana Summers (Oneida First Nations of the Thames) mentored by Monique Mojica (Kuna and Rappahannock) and Jessica Zepeda (Kuskatan, post-colonial El Salvador) mentored by Violeta Luna (Chicana Mex/ San Francisco-based performance artist).

Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous theatre company. Currently in its 42nd year, Native Earth is dedicated to creating, developing and producing professional artistic expressions of the Indigenous experience in Canada. Through stage productions (theatre, dance and multidisciplinary art), script development, apprenticeships and internships, Native Earth seeks to fulfill a community of artistic visions. 

Tickets for There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death or, The Born-Again Crow are available now at: buddiesinbadtimes.com

Tickets for the Native Earth Performing Arts 2024-2025 Season will be available starting in September at www.nativeearth.ca.