• The Vancouver Queer Arts festival runs June 17-29 at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre. A visual art exhibition curated by Adrian Stimson will be up for the run of the festival, with performances and screenings in the evenings. In particular, the following programs may be of interest to NAISA attendees. Friday, June 23: Unsettling Colonial Gender Boundaries and Saturday June 24, 7:00 pm: Cris Derksen’s Orchestral Powwow, performed with the Chippewa Travellers and all-female orchestra Allegra Chamber Orchestra.
• Innovative Young Indigenous Leaders Symposium If you are staying after NAISA, check out the Innovative Young Indigenous Leaders Symposium. They are accepting applicants and are preparing amazing conversations and workshops. More information is on their website.
• At the Audain Gallery, Maps and Dreams, a group exhibition curated by Brian Jungen and Melanie O’Brian, specifically considers the territory of the Dane-zaa people of northeastern British Columbia, now in Treaty 8. Borrowing the title of Hugh Brody’s book Maps and Dreams, a 1981 anthropological study of the Dane-zaa, the exhibition includes work by artists who consider how this land and its intersection with human use is articulated, represented and contested.
• Indigenous Storytelling and Screening Night – Wednesday, June 21, 7:00 pm. Thunder in Our Voices with Drew Ann Wake, Gordon Christie and Martina Norwegian in conjunction with NAISA + Four Faces of the Moon with Amanda Strong screening and book launch. Join us for conversations, screenings and a book launch on National Aboriginal Day and the eve before NAISA begins! More information on the Grunt Gallery’s website
