Night Theatre | New play casts light on 24-hour Arctic darkness

Friday, Jan. 8, 2010 | 11:08 AM PT

Watch Clip (Runs 2:27)

A chance meeting between two characters who lead very different lives — a busy Toronto anthropologist and a fiery 16-year-old Inuk girl — lies at the heart of a new play called Night.

The play, told in both English and Inuktitut, delves into the lives lived in an Arctic town. It examines the relationship between Daniella, a researcher from the big city, and Piuyuq, an Inuit girl with dreams that are bigger than her small community.

The story unfolds over 24 hours of darkness in Pond Inlet on the northern shore of Baffin Island.

Read the complete article on CBCNews.ca

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10th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009 | 11:14 AM PT

For Immediate Release
10th Annual
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
Presented by CTVglobemedia
October 14 – 18, 2009 Announces
Opening and Closing Night Galas

www.imagineNATIVE.org

(September - Toronto, ON) –

The evolution of Indigenous cinema will be celebrated at the 10th Anniversary of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, which runs in Toronto from Wednesday, October 14th until Sunday, October 18th, 2008.

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6th Annual Aboriginal Music Festival

Wednesday, Sep. 9, 2009 | 10:19 AM PT

The 6th Annual Aboriginal Music Festival will be held September 10-11 at TCU Place, Saskatoon in over 14,000 square feet of displays, entertainment and workshops. All proceeds made through this event go to the Aboriginal Youth Leadership Development Programs.

Day One will feature one of Saskatchewan's largest career fairs for youth and students with over 120 company displays, 12 of Saskatchewan's top emerging performers and 16 youth leadership workshops.

Day Two will feature Saskatoon's premiere indoor music event, the AMF Gala with many of North America's Top Aboriginal Performers including Leela Gilday, George Leach, Star Nayea, Billy Joe Green, Winston and Eric Wuttunee, Tracy Bone, JC Campbell, Mitch Daigneault, Out of the Blue, Eekwol and Mykal Gambull.

For more information visit: www.ccde.usask.ca/go/amf.

Tickets are on sale now at McNally Robinson, U of S Info Kiosk, IPP Office (966-4272) or FSIN Head Office (667-1879). More info on Career Fair display booths, AMF sponsorship and advertising opportunities or volunteering: (306) 966-2027 or (306) 261-4741.

Again, big thank you to Dominga Robinson for sharing this with us.

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National Conference on Aboriginal Cemeteries

Thursday, Sep. 3, 2009 | 10:53 AM PT

Image from www.remco-memorials.ca

AMI Memorials and Remco Memorials are leading the way to change the situation of Aboriginal Cemeteries by sponsoring “Restore and Respect,” a national conference that will tackle issues such as: developing a management structure for First Nations cemeteries; proper record-keeping systems, administration and maintenance; restoration of dilapidated cemeteries; guidelines for new cemeteries; possibilities for First Nations sections in urban cemeteries; and new sources of revenue for cemetery restoration, design and administration.

For more information, go to www.remco-memorials.ca/conference/challenge.php.

Special thanks to Dominga Robinson for sharing this with us.

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Shirley Bear, Vancouver & Kamloops | April 2 & 3, 2009

Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 | 12:08 PM PT

shirleybear.banff.org The author of a book of poems entitled Virgin Bones (McGilligan Press, 2007), Shirley Bear is a multi-media artist, writer, activist, and native traditional herbalist. Born on the Tobique First Nation, she is an original member of the Wabnaki language group of New Brunswick, Canada. Shirley Bear was the 2002 recipient of the Excellence in the Arts Award from the New Brunswick Arts Board.

Upcoming Readings in BC:

Thursday, April 2, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Presented by The On Edge readings series
South Building, Room 406
Emily Carr University
Vancouver, BC

Friday, April 3, 7:30pm - 10:30pm
Presented by CiCAC > centre for Innovation in culture and the arts in Canada
the Speakeasy Gallery
#201, 248 Victoria Street
Kamloops, BC

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Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun at Western Front Gallery, Vancouver | March 7 – April 3, 2009

Wednesday, Mar. 25, 2009 | 11:48 AM PT

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Guardian Spirits on the Land: Ceremony of Sovereignty, 2000.
(Collection of Michael O'Brian, Vancouver) Western Front Exhibitions is pleased to present the work of Vancouver-based artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. Curated by Candice Hopkins and Mark Soo, the exhibition presents a single painting, Guardian Spirits on the Land: Ceremony of Sovereignty (2000) alongside a selection of pulp science fiction novels. The exhibition is held in conjunction with a series of talks by writers that explore Yuxweluptun’s work in relation to the genre of science fiction.

Drawing from Aboriginal Northwest Coast and Coast Salish cultural myths and iconographic traditions as well as the conventions of epic Western painting, Guardian Spirits on the Land: Ceremony of Sovereignty depicts a congregation of spiritual beings encamped upon a hallucinatory and supernatural landscape. These spirits, whose intense colourings glow with extraterrestrial luminescence and whose ovoid forms bear resemblances to mechanical or android-like parts, are portrayed as caught in a state of ambiguous reverie.

Learn more at Western Front online.

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The big score: Cashing In offers a sexy slice of First Nations life

Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2009 | 11:17 AM PT

Sarah Podemski, left, and Kyle Nobess in a scene from Cashing In, the sexy new casino drama on the Aboriginal People's Television Network.(APTN) The first episode of Cashing In, the new dramatic comedy from the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, starts with a bang. The beautiful, naked Liz McKendra (Karen Holness) is in bed with an equally beautiful, equally naked man when her BlackBerry signals a message from head office. Liz checks in — the one thing she likes more than sex is work — and then puts on her Christian Louboutins and heads to Bay Street, pausing only to tell her lover, who also happens to be her personal assistant, that he's been dumped, personally and professionally.

An unabashedly sexy soap, Cashing In ups the ante in First Nations programming with lots of glitz, glamour and greed. Don’t expect the gritty urban feel of Moccasin Flats or the earnest, plaid-shirted tone of North of 60. Set at a gaming palace on Stonewalker First Nation, a fictional southern Manitoba reserve, Cashing In is about good-looking people behaving badly.

The North Beach Casino is packed with high rollers, fast dealers, corporate sharks, bored wives, discontented daddy’s girls and local kids on the make. According to scriptwriter Elizabeth Denny, a Métis based in Winnipeg, the casino setting leads naturally to the audience-pleasing themes of “power, money and sex.” The series’ Manitoba-based producers, Animiki See Digital Productions and Buffalo Gal Pictures, are betting that Cashing In has crossover potential. The six-part series airs Tuesday nights on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and on Wednesdays on Showcase.

Continue reading on CBCNews.ca

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Canadian rockers, powwow group and actors vie for Grammys

Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009 | 01:58 PM PT

Some well-known and some not so famous Canadian acts are up for Grammys, including rock icons Rush and Neil Young, and Alberta's powwow dance group Northern Cree.

Rush, up for a sixth Grammy nomination, is in the running for best rock instrumental performance — for Hope (Live For The Art Of Peace ) — while Neil Young is up for best solo rock vocal performance (No Hidden Path). Neither has ever garnered a trophy.

Other Canadian nominees include Rufus Wainwright, polka king Walter Ostanek of St. Catharines, Ont., actors Ellen Page and Michael Cera for their contribution to the Juno soundtrack and Joel Zimmerman, a Niagara Falls, Ont., DJ who performs as Deadmau5. In the classical music division, Montreal composer Marc-Andre Hamelin and Toronto soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian will also be waiting to see if their names are called.

Northern Cree, nominated for their fourth time, have never been in the victory circle either. The 15-member group, which includes dancers, has been around for 20 years.

Powwow member Steve Wood, a drama teacher at a First Nations high school near Edmonton, says winning isn't his sole goal. Wood says it's more about being a role model for his students.

Continue reading on CBCNews.ca

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Joseph Boyden on Ontario Today

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009 | 04:17 PM PT

This item originally aired on CBC Radio: Ontario Today on January 28, 2009.

Giller Prize winning novel
Love and hate. Life and death. Tragedy and triumph. Those classic themes are woven together in Joseph Boyden's Giller Prize winning novel, Through Black Spruce. But the story offers something more. A realistic look at the ties binding one aboriginal community together, and the forces trying to tear it apart. Author Joseph Boyden is our guest this afternoon. We'll discuss his book, and take your calls.

LISTEN [Runs 22:20]

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Hot Docs turns spotlight on Alanis Obomsawin, NFB

Monday, Jan. 19, 2009 | 04:10 PM PT

Filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin will be given the Outstanding Achievement Award at Hot Docs. (Jeff Bear)

Canadian filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, who has been focusing her camera on aboriginal stories for more than 40 years, is to be given the Outstanding Achievement Award at the 2009 Hot Docs festival in Toronto.

Hot Docs, one of the world's most prominent documentary festivals, will also host a retrospective of her work this May.

Obomsawin has made films with the National Film Board since 1967. They include:

* Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance,1993.
* Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child, 1986.
* Waban-Aki: People from Where the Sun Rises, 2006.

Continue reading on CBCNews.ca

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2008 Aboriginal People's Choice Music Awards

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008 | 03:27 PM PT

First Round of Winners Announced at APTN First Night Awards

The Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards announced the winners of the APTN First Night Awards, which were given out November 6, 2008 at McPhillips Street Station in Winnipeg. And the winners are:

BEST ABORIGINAL MUSIC RADIO STATION/PROGRAM
Think NDN
Metis Hour Times Two
The Plex Show

BEST ALBUM COVER DESIGN
Derek Miller The Dirty Looks
Broken Walls The Father’s Dance
Red Power Squad Here To Stay
Donny Parenteau What It Takes
JC Campbell Lazy James

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Joseph Boyden wins $50K Giller Prize

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 | 02:58 PM PT

Joseph Boyden waves from his table at the beginning of the Giller Prize gala in Toronto on Tuesday.(Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

Author vows to 'always write about the First Nations'

Joseph Boyden joined the ranks of Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler and M.G. Vassanji Tuesday night when he was named winner of the Giller Prize, Canada's richest award for fiction .

The New Orleans-based author took home the $50,000 honour for his second novel, Through Black Spruce, a contemporary tale following a Cree woman's search for her missing sister, as well as an account of how drugs and violence plague life on a Northern Ontario reserve.

"I'm so deeply humbled to be counted among the writers here," Boyden said at the posh Toronto awards gala packed with a who's who of Canadian literature.

Continue reading on CBCNews.ca

Neil Herland reports: Joseph Boyden wins $50K Giller Prize (Runs: 1:18)

Heather Hiscox interviews Giller Prize-winning author Joseph Boyden (Runs: 6:44)

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Eagle & Hawk nab 4 trophies at aboriginal music awards

Friday, Nov. 7, 2008 | 11:23 AM PT

Crystal Shawanda's debut album, Dawn of a New Day, was released in June.(RCA Nashville/Associated Press)

New country artist Crystal Shawanda and rockers Eagle & Hawk were big winners Friday at the annual Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards.

Shawanda, born in Wikwemikong, Ont., captured single of the year for You Can Let Go, as well as the award for best new artist.

Her debut album, Dawn of a New Day, was released in June and her hit song has been called the fastest-climbing single on the Canadian country singles charts, reaching the Top 10 in five weeks.

Continue reading on CBCNews.ca

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Folk legend Buffy Sainte-Marie set for music honours

Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2008 | 02:36 PM PT

Buffy Sainte-Marie performs during the Songwriters' Circle concert at the Burton Cummings Theatre as part of the 2005 Juno festivities in Winnipeg.(Mike Deal/Winnipeg Free Press/Canadian Press)

Buffy Sainte-Marie, whose career has taken her from Saskatchewan to Sesame Street to Hollywood, will be presented with a lifetime achievement honour at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards this fall.

Organizers of the 10th annual awards gala made the announcement Monday.

Born on a Saskatchewan reserve, Sainte-Marie, 67, began her career in the 1960s. She is best known for her folk music with lyrics about her aboriginal heritage.

Continue reading on CBCNews.ca

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HOW: Engagements with the "Hollywood Indian" | Toronto

Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2008 | 01:28 PM PT

Sep 25 2008, 6:00PM
Trinity Square Video
A Space Co-presented by A Space and Trinity Square Video


Exhibition:

Trinity Square Video Gallery – September 25 - October 25, 2008
A Space Gallery – October 17 - November 21, 2008
Reception and Curator’s Talk – October 17, 5pm at TSV and 7pm at A Space

Curated by Ryan Rice

Artists:
Tommy Deer, Rosalie Favell, Terrance Houle, Walter Kahero:ton Scott, Nadya Kwandibens, Torry Mendoza, Sarah Sense, Greg Staats

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Bob Boyer: His Life's Work | Regina

Monday, Sep. 15, 2008 | 03:02 PM PT

Bob Boyer exhibition
September 20, 2008 to January 18, 2009

CBC Saskatchewan is proud to sponsor the MacKenzie Art Gallery's first major retrospective of Bob Boyer (1948-2004), a nationally and internationally recognized aboriginal artist, art historian, curator and educator from Saskatchewan. Bob Boyer: His Life's Work is a nationally touring exhibition of sixty works that we are pleased to see presented here.

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CBC Northwind: Inuvik's new music studio

Friday, Sep. 12, 2008 | 02:30 PM PT

Facilitator Rupinder Sidhu (right) plays a musical loop on the new computer while watched by Nathan Nokadlak (centre) and Aaron Storr (left).
(Philippe Morin/CBC)

The Inuvik Youth Centre got an expensive upgrade in September as it welcomed video and sound editing equipment.

A foundation called Beat Board interactive youth programs installed the new computers, speakers and mixing board, which were paid for by sponsors.

Organizers hope young people will use the computers for video and musical projects, such as making rap songs and movies. The centre's equipment will be locked when not directly supervised, as the centre has many troubles with vandalism.

CBC Northwind conducted this interview with Beat Board facilitators Rupinder Sidhu and Mike Sheehan, featuring sounds from their session with youth on Sept. 10. (Runs 7:11)

Visit CBC Northwind to read more and view a photogallery from the session

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Culture Shift: Aboriginal and African Youth

Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008 | 10:38 AM PT

CBC Manitoba recently launched a new website called Culture Shift | Aboriginal and African Youth: Sharing Knowledge About Their Cultures.

Winnipeg's a diverse city. But who are the people living in your neighbourhood? The people you pass on the street? The people you sit next to in class? How much do you know about the changing face of this city?

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MÉTIS FILMMAKER SHANE BELCOURT MAKES FEATURE FILM DEBUT WITH TKARONTO

Monday, Aug. 4, 2008 | 02:44 AM PT

PREMIERING in OTTAWA at THE BYTOWNE on AUG. 8th and in TORONTO at THE ROYAL on AUG. 15th.

KinoSmith Distribution and imagineNATIVE are pleased to announce the release of writer-director Shane Belcourt’s feature length film, TKARONTO. This stunning and poignant debut feature film will be opening in Ottawa on Aug 8th and in Toronto on August 15th, as a co-presentation with the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

The award-winning film was a highlight of the 2007 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, where over 100 people were turned away from the sold-out closing night gala screening. Kerry Swanson, the Executive Director of the festival in 2007 called it “the most successful closing night screening in the festival’s eight-year history.”

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The Fur Trade

Thursday, Jul. 31, 2008 | 04:00 PM PT

It would be difficult to find any student of Canadian history who hasn't heard of the fur trade. The trade in beaver pelts that dominated most of the country's early history. Rodney Brown writes songs about the fur trade as one way of introducing it to students, but recently he visited Whitney England where the fur trade has a different name - there it's called the wool trade.

CBC Radio Thunder Bay's Heather McLeod talked to him about this historic commercial link and how it's seen on both sides of the Atlantic.

Listen (runs 5:26)

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Cadets in Hobbema, Alberta

Wednesday, Jul. 30, 2008 | 04:20 PM PT

They're part of the world's largest Aboriginal community cadet corps in Hobbema, Alberta. The community has been plagued by gang activity, making headlines after last Spring's drive-by shooting of a 23-month old girl. Founded just two-and-a-half years ago, the cadet corps now has more than one thousand members - that's one thousand kids saying no to a life of crime and drug abuse. The cadet drill team has been doing its thing this week at the RCMP Academy and Heritage Centre in Regina.

CBC Radio's Jillian Pavlin stopped by for a visit.

Listen (runs 5:27)

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Gwich'in Gathering and Climate Change

Wednesday, Jul. 30, 2008 | 02:33 PM PT

Change. That's the theme sweeping out of Canada's Arctic these days. You might have heard this week of two more huge chunks of an Arctic ice shelf snapping off. Another indication of rapid warming in the high north. The effects of change are hitting the Gwich'in people in northern Yukon. They've fought for decades to protect the migrating caribou herds they depend on from the threat of oil development. Now they're facing other threats.

CBC Radio's Leonard Linklater attended a social meeting recently in Old Crow called the Gwich'in Gathering where he heard people expressing a wide range of fears about the future.

Listen (runs 4:31)

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Native Daycare in Edmonton

Wednesday, Jul. 30, 2008 | 02:08 PM PT

There are quite a few Aboriginal schools in Canada. But there aren't many places where non-native kids can learn about Aboriginal language and culture especially when they're very young. But in Val D'Or Quebec there's a very popular daycare centre where all the children are taught to speak and sing in Cree and Algonquin as well as French and English. The children who go to the Abinodjic-Miguam child care centre (native and non-native alike) all play together, and learn about first nations culture.

CBC Radio Edmonton's Ainslie MacLellan spoke to France-Claude Goyette, director of the Centre de Petite Enfance Abinodjic-Miguam in Val D'or.

Listen (runs 4:18)

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Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company - Performers' Playhouse

Tuesday, Jul. 22, 2008 | 09:21 AM PT

Camp Date:
August 11, 2008-August 15, 2008

Performers’ Playhouse is an initiative developed to involve youth in a safe and fun-filled theatre environment. The Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company (SNTC) presents this five-day theatre camp for youth ages 8 to 15 years of age. Participants are immersed in theatrical games and creative activities that develop their interests in the performing arts. The workshops utilize positive role models and mentors to inspire and encourage participants. This unique cultural/theatrical experience includes team building exercises, cooperative games, self-awareness and cultural activities that build confidence and strengthens self-esteem, self-concept and identity.

This performing arts camp aimed at Aboriginal youth involves five fun-filled days of performing arts activities facilitated by artists from the performing arts industry.

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The Trail of Tears on Ideas

Monday, Jul. 21, 2008 | 05:09 PM PT

In the winter of 1838, an astonishing sight could be seen in the eastern United States. On rough earthen roads and through mountains and valleys, a great stream of Cherokee, 15,000 of them, slowly made their way west. Wagons with women and children, men walking, herds of cattle and horses, there were thirteen of these caravans. It must have been a terrifying sight too, for the white settlers along the route; who were these Indians, what might they want? Better to move them along.

This was the Trail of Tears, the great Cherokee removal, a move on the political chessboard of the young United States that was to have long repercussions. The Cherokee were an independent nation, but in the great game of the building of America, they were disposable. Cheated out of their lands in the east, the Cherokee were forced to relocate a thousand miles to the west, in Indian territory, beyond the Mississippi. The long march of the Cherokee, through the bitter winter of 1838, had a dreadful toll: maybe as many as 4,000 dead - of exposure, disease, sickness, the whole episode a great human tragedy, a betrayal of ideals, both American and Cherokee, that ripples down to our own time.

Documentary maker Philip Coulter traveled along the Trail of Tears, asking questions about how such a thing could happen, how the past shapes the present, what the legacy is today.

Listen to episodes one and two of Trail of Tears on CBC Radio One's Ideas

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Proof 15 - Susan Blight and Keesic Douglas Exhibition

Thursday, Jul. 17, 2008 | 09:21 PM PT

Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival and the Drake hotel co-present:

PROOF ON SITE RESIDENCY TALK

Tuesday, July 22, 6:00PM - 9:00PM
Drake Salon at the Drake Hotel
1150 Queen Street West

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Waterheart - Deline Project

Friday, Jul. 11, 2008 | 10:10 AM PT

A special week long series from CBC North

Elders at exploration camp.(CBC)
In April 2008 Polar Radio and CBC North collaborated with 10 teenagers from the Ethseo Ayah public school in Délįne, a small community of about 700 Sahtú Déne First Nations situated by the Great Bear Lake in Northern Canada. The lake is among the largest in the world, surrounded by a vast wilderness that reaches into the Arctic tundra; Délįne the sole settlement on its shores.

The teenagers were introduced to basic tools of radio feature making and storytelling during an intensive 10-day Polar Radio production workshop. They set out to interview the town's elders; their grandparents and great grandparents. These men and women recalled their working life from 1932 to 1960 at Port Radium - a uranium mine on the eastern shore of The Great Bear Lake.

For more on the Deline Project click here

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Shoot the Indian, Magnetic North Theatre Festival - HIVE2 2008

Sunday, Jul. 6, 2008 | 08:51 PM PT

Shoot the Indian, HIVE, Vancouver, BC, June 2008 (Photo: Merle Addison)
"Shoot The Indian is a performance geared specifically to a mixed (read "non-native") audience. Presented during the Magnetic North Festival HIVE event, Shoot The Indian is an audience participation piece, where attendees had the opportunity to shoot a real Indian (me) with a paintball gun for $5. Riffing on the circus freak, vaudeville and old 'Wild West' shows, this piece is a commentary on violence against Native people.

A clown show, in other words" - Archer Pechawis

Click here to watch performance

(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in new window)

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Stolen Child: The tragic true story of Pastedechouan

Friday, Jul. 4, 2008 | 11:24 AM PT

Tapestry delves into the story of a 17th-century Innu boy whose unhappy fate foreshadows the damages inflicted by the residential school system. It’s the story of a forgotten figure from colonial New France whose tragic fate resonates with today’s headlines.

Read more and listen on CBC Words at Large (runs 40:07)

First broadcast June 22, 2008 on Tapestry.

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Steppe to it

Wednesday, Jul. 2, 2008 | 12:22 PM PT

The dance production Tono: Higher, Faster, Stronger is a collaboration between the Toronto-based aboriginal troupe Red Sky and performers from Mongolia and China. (Laura Vanags/Banff Centre)

In the winter of 2006, Sandra Laronde visited the city of Yinchuan, China, with Red Sky, her Toronto-based aboriginal dance troupe. Yinchuan lies just south of Mongolia, and Laronde remembers looking out toward that fabled country – whose most famous figure remains the 13th-century conqueror Genghis Khan – and thinking, “That’s our next project, right there.”

Continue reading on CBC News

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Bill Reid Foundation

Tuesday, Jul. 1, 2008 | 10:50 PM PT

Portrait of Bill Reid (posthumous) 2005 (Chris Hopkins, Painter)
Bill Reid is one of Canada’s greatest artists of the 20th century. Goldsmith-turned-sculptor, carver, writer — he was truly a renaissance man.

In a long career, he embraced many art forms, driven always by a passion to create the “well made object”. This passion, combined with a gradual discovery of his rich Haida cultural heritage, informed and inspired his development as a visual artist of tremendous power and brilliant accomplishment.

Visit the Bill Reid Foundation website to learn more about Bill Reid and his legacy.

www.billreidfoundation.org

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Tono - Red Sky Performance

Tuesday, Jul. 1, 2008 | 12:45 AM PT

A three-country project with Canada, Mongolia and China

Red Sky Performance will preview its newest production, Tono, at the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival. This new creation brings together Indigenous cultures of Canada, Mongolia and China for three performances in the Margaret Greenham Theatre at The Banff Centre on Thursday July 3, Friday July 4 and Saturday, July 5.

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Leadership Series: The Evolution of Aboriginal Identity

Saturday, Jun. 28, 2008 | 09:45 AM PT

Thursday July 3, 2008 from 6 pm - 9 pm
Native Canadian Centre of Toronto
Talking Room
16 Spadina Rd (Spadina & Bloor)
Everyone welcome
Free admission
www.nativewomeninthearts.com

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Gratitude - New Work by Enpaauk Andrew Dexel

Monday, Jun. 23, 2008 | 11:43 PM PT

Enpaauk Andrew Dexel (Photo: Suzette Amaya)

grunt gallery
July 4 to August 2, 2008
Opening Friday, July 4 @ 8:00 p.m.
Artist talk 9:00 - 9:15 p.m., Friday, July 4

"My work relates my spiritual path; my journey. I express the inspiration lovingly given to me through teachings and stories from my elders and mentors. My work embodies the powerful visions that I have been given through these teachings. I am grateful."

"My work is a modern expression embodying the symbolic abstract inspired by my home: Coast Salish Territory." - Enpaauk

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Go wild! Popularity of organics feeds appetite for indigenous foods that grow in wild

Monday, Jun. 23, 2008 | 03:30 PM PT

A red-winged blackbird perches on a cattail.
The cattail hearts are harvested in late spring and are
similar to hearts of palm. (Toby Talbot/AP) Milkweed pods marinated in cider vinegar? Curry soup with cattail hearts? Wild salmon with white spruce sauce? Brie with wild rose petal jelly? Who knew that many of the things that grow along Canadian trails, ditches and back roads are not only edible, but in demand?

In fact, back fields and forests from coast to coast are a natural grocery store for those who have a keen culinary eye and a sense of adventure.

It's not just back-to-the-earth types who are showing a penchant for wild things. Foodies, including some of the country's top chefs, are singing the praises of our indigenous delights - and more and more products are showing up at markets and on store shelves to meet the demand.

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Comedy, music flow at National Aboriginal Day events

Sunday, Jun. 22, 2008 | 05:37 PM PT

Country star Shane Yellowbird

Though Canadians across the country are participating in National Aboriginal Day events Saturday, Yellowknife and Winnipeg are two hotspots for this year's celebrations.

The star-studded annual Aboriginal Day Live show takes place both in the Northwest Territories and Manitoba on Saturday evening, the culmination of a myriad of free daytime events.

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Northwind - Inuvik Aboriginal Day

Sunday, Jun. 22, 2008 | 12:31 AM PT

The Inuvik Drummers and Dancers have been performing in Inuvik since 1989. Here, the drummers launch into their performance for Aboriginal Day 2008. (Philippe Morin/CBC)
Photo gallery
Aboriginal Day celebrations at Jim Koe Park, Inuvik

To view gallery visit Northwind

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Kent Monkman: Mischief Maker

Saturday, Jun. 21, 2008 | 05:45 PM PT

The Trappers Bride, Kent Monkman Presented by CBC Arts & Entertainment, this photogallery examines artist Kent Monkman's series, The Triumph of Mischief.

From a distance, Kent Monkman’s large-scale paintings of majestic landscapes and heroically posed figures could pass as examples of the florid Romantic art that advanced the 19th-century myth of North American civilization’s triumphant westward expansion. Take a closer look, though, and the works of Monkman — a Manitoba-bred artist of Swampy Cree and Irish-English descent — open up to present a very contemporary take on how history works.

The Triumph of Mischief — which originated as a collaborative project between the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and is currently on view at the Winnipeg Art Gallery – features paintings and multimedia works from the last five years.

View photogallery.

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Celebrate - A National Aboriginal Day Special with a Twist

Saturday, Jun. 21, 2008 | 11:01 AM PT

Listen to CBC Radio 1 at 3:00 pm on Saturday, June 21st, National Aboriginal Day, for an hour of music and outrageous comedy with the Almost Ready for Self-Government Players, and special musical guest Shane Yellowbird.

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A Celebration of Aboriginal Heritage from CBC Digital Archives

Friday, Jun. 20, 2008 | 05:11 PM PT

Activist and Singer-Songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie (Bahman/Flickr Creative Commons)

As the sun rises on June 21, the longest day of the year, Canadians celebrate National Aboriginal Day. It's a day to honour the history and culture of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis who were here long before the founding of Canada. To mark our country's aboriginal heritage, CBC Archives presents a selection of clips about notable aboriginal personalities and aboriginal culture. Enjoy radio and video clips spanning from 1970 to 2002, featuring such notable personalities as Buffy Sainte-Marie, Mathew Coon Come, Phil Fontaine and more. Also links to special topics and background information.

View CBC Archives' Celebration of Aboriginal Heritage

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Canada Live: Stolen Children Broadcasts

Friday, Jun. 20, 2008 | 03:20 PM PT

In response to the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission CBC Radio has decided to celebrate Canadian Aboriginal culture by commissioning several music works by aboriginal artists based around the idea of 'reconciliation' and what that means to individual artists across the country.

Please join CBC Radio 2 and Canada Live to celebrate the diverse culture of our indigenous peoples with special concerts that will be broadcast on various dates depending on the region.

See full schedule

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David Ruben Piqtoukun - Carving

Monday, Jun. 16, 2008 | 06:04 PM PT

Location: Sutton, ON

David Ruben Piqtoukun

Click here to watch (runs 2:29)

View artist's full profile on Artspots

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Northwind with Wanda Mcleod

Tuesday, Apr. 22, 2008 | 10:29 AM PT

CBC Radio's Wanda McLeod speaks with Governor General Michäelle Jean in Inuvik

Part one

Part two

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Haida Heritage Centre at Qay'llnagaay, Queen Charlotte Islands

Monday, Jul. 30, 2007 | 01:01 PM PT

Known to the Haida as "Islands of the People," Haida Gwai has been inhabited by the people for more than 12,000 years, a history which is being commemorated by the Haida Heritage Centre, Kaal Naagaa'y. The Haida Heritage Centre officially opened to the public with an Open House on June 20, 2007.

The Centre represents a significant aspect of the Haida's efforts to repatriate artifacts and ancestral remains to their homeland. The Centre is a space to carry out this work and keep the culture alive. For example, only twelve Haida elders are currently fluent in X'aadaa and maintaining recordings of the words and phrases are key.

CBC Radio Daybreak North was invited to attend the Centre's Open House on June 20.

Click here for links, further information, and to view a slideshow gallery featuring photos of the Haida Heritage Centre and some of its exhibits&#151a CBC.CA exclusive.

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