Tag Archives: alvis

White Girls in Moccasins

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Yolanda Bonnell’s White Girls in Moccasins, presented by manidoons collective and Native Earth Performing Arts opened at the Aki Studio on Friday night.  Co-directed by Bonnell and Carmen Alvis, it’s a play about identity and and recovering roots.  The principal character Miskozi, like the playwright, is Indigenous but I don’t think the play is entirely about Indigenous identity.  The other two roles are Zlibi, played by a Bermudian Trans Woman of African ancestry and Waabishkizi; played by a second generation Settler woman.  So while the focus is on Indigenous identity I think it raises a lot of other questions too.

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Two Odysseys

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Soundstreams last night presented an intriguing double bill of works in Indigenous languages on Indigenous themes at, appropriately, the Daniels Spectrum.  First up was Pimoteewin; music by Melissa Hui, words by Tomson Highway.  This piece uses English narration with the singing in Cree.  It tells the story of the Trickster and the Eagle going to find out where people go when they die.  To quote him “Why are my people always disappearing like this?” The Trickster’ tries unsuccessfully to bring the spirits back to the land of the living and finally realises that that’s not such a good idea.  Musically it had almost a liturgical or meditative quality with a lot of fairly hushed choral singing behind strong solo performances by Bud Roach and Melody Courage.

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At the River

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It was the last concert of Confluence’s inaugural season last night.  The theme was “At the River” and the venue the rather splendid (if somewhat popish) St. Thomas’ Anglican on Huron Street.  It rather epitomized what I have come to expect, and love, from this series.  The musical styles on display were eclectic; classical, folk song, pop/rock, jazz with East and South Indian, Middle Eastern and Indigenous elements all well to the fore.  There was also some poetry including an unintentionally hilarious piece in praise of the idyllic Don River.  There was also a large and accomplished ensemble and a lot of joy and sheer fun.

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