Participants of the PC/Cp 2017 Gathering were invited to join the roundtable to discuss a particular question that involved reflecting on their own artistic practices, personal histories and experiences, and dissect the challenges/fractures/progress within the current Canadian art system in order to imagine the future(s) together.
#2 Roundtable - shortened
#2 Roundtable (extended version)
For more information about the Lekwungen Gathering 2017, click here.
Other Roundtable Resources
Sylvia D. Hamilton is a Nova Scotian writer, filmmaker and artist whose awards include a Gemini, the Portia White Prize and honorary degrees. Her films include Black Mother Black Daughter, Portia White: Think on Me and The Little Black School House among others. Her poetry collection, And I alone Escaped to Tell You was shortlisted for the 2015 League of Canadian Poets Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the East Coast Literary J.M Abraham Poetry Award. She lives in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia.
Twitter: @maroonfilms
Website: http://maroonfilmsinc.wordpress.com
Farheen HaQ is a South Asian Muslim Canadian artist who has been living on unceded Lekwungen territory (Victoria, BC) for 20 years. She was born and raised in Haudenosanee territory (Niagara region, Ontario) amongst a tight-knit Muslim community. Her multidisciplinary practice which often employs video, installation and performance is informed by interiority, relationality, embodiment, ritual and spiritual practice. Farheen’s current work focuses on understanding her family history on Canadian territories, caregiving and the body as a continuum of culture and time. www.farheenhaq.com
Writer, poet, performer and visual arts curator, Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui rejects categorizations and defines himself above all as a creator. A member of the Wendat people, he was raised and still lives in Wendake. He has been focused on promoting Indigenous arts and cultures for the past fifteen years. He is the co-founder and director of Kwahiatonk!, the only Canadian Francophone NPO entirely dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of Indigenous literature.
His first book, Yawendara et la forêt des Têtes-Coupées (Le Loup de gouttière, 2005), was a finalist for the Prix Salon international du livre de Québec / Ville de Québec in 2006, in the children’s book category. His poetry has been read across the country and overseas, presented in exhibitions, adapted in an animated film, and published in various collections, such as De la paix en jachère (Éditions Hannenorak, 2012) and Les grandes absences (Mémoire d’encrier 2013). He has published several papers in journals and collectives, including Amun (Stanké, 2016) and Les bruits du monde (Mémoire d’encrier, 2012). In 2017, he published his first collection of short stories, Chroniques de Kitchike : la grand débarque (Éditions Hannenorak), where he paints a scathing universe that mirrors the realities of Indigenous people living on reserves in southern Quebec.
In his writings, Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui alternates between the desire to share the wisdom and values of his ancestors, the need to express his individuality and the need to fight against the colonial grip.
Valerie Sing Turner is a Vancouver-based award-winning theatre artist who performs, writes, directs, and produces. A former artist-in-residence with National Arts Centre, she is currently developing a 10-actor play, In the Shadow of the Mountains. She is founder/Artistic Producer of Visceral Visions, a company whose activities feature a potent mix of storytelling, advocacy, and professional development; their latest initiative is DiverseTheatreBC, a digital platform for Indigenous and racialized theatre and opera artists launching June 2019, for which Valerie is Creative Director.
