Native Earth Performing Arts marks 40 years of highlighting Indigenous stories
Posted November 16, 2022 4:58 pm.
Last Updated November 16, 2022 7:22 pm.
Native Earth Performing Arts (NEPA) is marking a milestone anniversary this year as the organization celebrates 40 years of highlighting Indigenous stories told by Indigenous artists.
Launched in 1982, NEPA is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous theatre company. Interim artistic director Joelle Peters says it is both part of, and showcases, a timeless cultural tradition.
“Storytelling has been part of our culture since time immemorial. It’s how we share our histories, how we share lessons, teachings and make sure our folks know what to do moving forward,” she explains. “It’s providing lessons for our youth and sharing intergenerational, multi-generational healing.”
The company not only showcases, but also helps develop Indigenous stories across all performance art mediums.
“We are in theater, we’re in dance, we’re in comedy — really, you name it. We’re kind of like dabbling in a bit of everything. It’s really exciting.”
Native Earth Performing Arts has had a long-standing artist incubator program called the Animikiig Creators Unit – a two-year development program that supports and mentors emerging Indigenous creators.
“It’s all about, I would say, Indigenous brilliance. There’s so much interesting work happening across Turtle Island, across the city, and we really strive to be part of folks’ beginnings, their middles, their ends,” says Peters. “Wherever people are at with their art, we want to support them.”
In addition, the company launched a new initiative this year called “40 Seeds for 40 Seasons,” providing 40 differenr artists with a grant of $4,000 each.
“They wanted to celebrate our 40th year, and what better way to do that than to have new work — to really start these seeds and just to see where they go,” says Peters. “It’s not even about like, ‘Oh, you have to do this, you have to do that, you have to have this product for us — it’s just giving people the time, the resources to try.”
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Himanshu Sitlani, the managing director of Native Earth Performing Arts, said those resources were simply not available even in the recent past.
“Funding was pretty hard to come by even as early as 10 years ago … it’s just recently that everybody’s woken up –‘Oh, we need to represent the Indigenous culture, we’ve forgotten about them,'” he says. “It’s like, ‘yeah, you have, and it’s your responsibility to do something about that.’ So the funding has started to come in and we’re able to dream bigger, build bigger projects, support more artists.”
Sitlani says it’s the perfect time for an infusion of resources.
“Post-pandemic, there’s a lot of work that is looking to burst through and a lot of stories that want to be told. And we’re in that unique position of being able to support them now as opposed to saying ‘hold on, we’ll talk in five years.'”
Many of the artists whose work has been developed with the support of NEPA are showcasing their final products at Weesageechak Begins to Dance, the company’s theatre festival that’s marking its 35th anniversary.
“There’s a lot to look forward at the festival — there’s a dance piece, there’s a burlesque piece, there is live music,” Sitlani says.
“The festival has always been about supporting the works in development … it is about supporting the playwrights, it’s about supporting each other and really community-based,” Peters added.
“We’re still getting used to being back in person – it’s a bit of a feat. So we’re also working in a bit of a hybrid model. We’ve got online digital works — which really works out for us because we’re starting to build more, connections, more networking with people outside of the city — so they’re still able to tune into our work and if they can come in person, that’s great too.”
The festival runs until Sunday and ticket prices are set at $15. Click here for the full lineup.
