Dreaming the land

Dreaming the Land is a land-based arts initiative, which examines the values that inform the connection of humans to the land itself. The curatorial intention is to deepen the links to Indigenous epistemologies, territories, and customs through community relationality and embodied artistic experiences: How do we live here? What are our responsibilities to the many beings, both humans and non-humans, that share this land? How can the trauma of the land be healed? How do land-based, time-based, immersive artistic events impact the experiences of the audiences? How does the knowledge of the land itself inform the process?

These questions - formulated before the pandemic - are now more relevant than ever, as we are collectively engaged in imagining complex and uncertain futures. How can art deepen our connection to the land and to each other? Can art transform our relationship to the natural and supernatural worlds?

Inspired by the tradition of Dreamers in Indigenous communities, this project creates a space where land-based artistic practices, collaborations and ceremonies can emerge. The artists were invited to be respectfully inspired by this tradition of dreaming and then, to activate it so that audiences can remember and renew their connection with the land and the water through artistic experience.

These artists are:

• Arahmaiani, Indonesian artist (Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia)

• Kemi Craig, contemporary artist of American and African descent (Victoria, BC)

• Sharon Day, Ojibwe leader, activist, artist and writer (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

• Ayumi Goto, diasporic-Japanese artist (Toronto, ON)

• Soleil Launière, Innu multidisciplinary artist (Mashteuiatsh and Montreal, QC)

• Syrus Marcus Ware, Black visual artist, community activist and researcher (Toronto, ON)

• Peter Morin, Tahltan artists (Toronto, ON)

• Meagan Musseau, interdisciplinary artist of Mi'kmaq and French ancestry (Bay of Islands, NL)

• Natalie Robertson, Ngāti Porou, Clann Dhònnchaidh photographer, moving image artist and writer (Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand)

• Tania Willard, Secwepemc multidisciplinary artist and curator (Shuswap, BC)

https://dreamingtheland.wixsite.com/my-site/artist-offerings