Overview
What does it mean to us when we acknowledge the nations upon whose traditional lands we are standing? Oneida Nation group, The Ukwehuwe Connection, offer us a cultural sharing on National Indigenous Peoples’ Day – an opportunity to make a deeper and meaningful connection to the history of this land. Through song and dance, they highlight the culture of the Haudenosaunee people. The group’s members, who have performed across North America and Europe, have been singing and dancing since they could walk and talk and consider song and dance as gifts from the Creator to cherish.
Nahté né kantuhé kanyo í ʌtwátoké tsi’nihunuhuntsyo•tʌ́ tsi’ laonuhuntsya•te ítweté. Onyʌ́ta’a•ka niyukwahuntsyo•tʌ yukwatsyohkwa, Né U’kwehu•we yukwáshutlúnyu yukhinaktótanihé ʌ́twatyésté né ka’ikʌ National Indigenous Peoples Day. ʌ́yokwenyoháke ʌ́twatu’nit tok nahté ʌ́yolihowanahtuháke okhale shahá ʌ́shutluháke tsi’olihwa•kayu ka’ikʌ́ ohuntsya•ke. Tsi’nu kala•na okhale kanyu•nyásla thonu ʌ́hatiliho•wanahte yukwalihwáshuhá Yukwanuhshyuni’ha•ka. Né laotitsyohkwa tho wahuntliwahtantyéte kwa’ yuhuntsyákwe•ku yukwá’we•noté anowálko tho lutlíwahtantya•tuhati latila•nóte okhalé tehotinunyákwʌ tsi’ yukwenyú ʌ́huthakwe okhale ʌ́hunya•ti ne•oní ʌ́huntláno•tʌ okhale ʌhatinunyákwe thos laonawáshuha tsi’Shukwayatísu ʌ́twanásteke.
About The Ukwehuwe Connection
An Oneida Nation dance troupe that engages in Longhouse and Pow Wow dance styles. They travel nationally showcasing culture and storytelling through song and dance.
About Olivia Shortt
Olivia Shortt (they/them) is a Tkarón:to-based storyteller and performing artist. They are a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, noisemaker, improviser, composer, sound designer, video artist, drag artist, curator, administrator and producer.
Shortt was featured in the 2020 Winter edition of Musicworks Magazine and was described as a “glittering, rising star in the exploratory music firmament.” They made their Australian debut in 2017, performing new Canadian and Australian works for saxophone and Ondes Martinot, in Melbourne, with keyboardist Jacob Abela. They made their Lincoln Center debut in 2018 in New York, performing Michael Pisaro’s A Wave and Waves with the International Contemporary Ensemble and made their film debut, acting and playing saxophone, in acclaimed filmmaker Atom Egoyan’s 2019 film Guest of Honour. They have recorded an album with their duo Stereoscope, consisting of Robert Lemay’s composition Fragments Noirs in the SnoLAB (an underground laboratory specializing in Neutrinos and dark matter physics in Northern Ontario, Canada). Their performance-art-storytelling-work has been featured at Native Earth’s Performing Arts’ Weesageechak Festival, Upintheair Theatre’s e-Volver Festival, Paprika Festival and the Vector Festival.
Recent commissions and collaborations include Long Beach Opera, the JACK Quartet (part of the inaugural JACK Studio), a new opera for Loose Tea Music Theatre and a commission for the Blueridge Chamber Festival (Vancouver). As a curator, they have presented artists like Du Yun, Joy Guidry, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Tara Kanangara, Nannaam, Silla and Rise, Darren Creech, Cris Derksen, Teiya Kasahara and Classic Roots. As well, they have curated panels for The Music Gallery, the Canadian New Music Network and the Indigenous Curatorial Collective.
Shortt was awarded and named one of the 2020 Buddies in Bad Times’ Emerging Queer Artists and was a finalist for the 2021 Toronto Arts Foundation’s Emerging Artist Award.
Dates & Times
June 21
7pm
60 mins
More Info
Darien Nicholas – Dancer
Allyson Doxtator – Dancer
Ty Smoke – Dancer
Frazer Sundown – Singer/Speaker
Venue
Wheelchair accessible
Outdoors
Between Lower Spadina and Dan Leckie Way