Sabina Sweta Sen-Podstawska, left, and Quanah Daniels are shown in an Indigenous adaptation of the play, Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov. The 2020 Poundmaker Indigenous Performance Festival takes place online from August 6 to 8. (submitted photo/Alix Van Der Donckt-Ferrand)

By Angela Brown

Performing arts

Poundmaker Indigenous Performance Festival taking place online this year

Aug 6, 2020 | 2:52 PM

People will have an opportunity to take in a multimedia arts festival this week without leaving the comfort of their homes.

The 2020 Poundmaker Indigenous Performance Festival takes place online, running today to Saturday.

The event is organized by Miyawata Culture Inc., with the Chief Poundmaker Museum, on the Poundmaker First Nation.

The festival usually is held at the lake at the Miyawata Culture Stage, but this year due to the pandemic it is instead being shown online, with segments both pre-recorded and live.

The full schedule of the performances and online links are available on Miyawata Culture’s website.

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Director of Miyawata Culture Inc. and the festival organizer Floyd Favel said the event is an international Indigenous performance with participation from local artists.

“It gives you varieties of Indigenous performance,” he said. “It is centered around our research work for the last three years, which is looking at Indigenous performance as an artistic discipline, rather than one that is limited by identity. By classifying it as an artistic discipline it makes it open to all peoples of the world.”

The presentations include music, poetry reading, visual arts, dance, theatrical production as well as lectures focused on traditional Indigenous knowledge and teachings.

Some of the participants include renowned artist Kent Monkman, performer Sabina Sweta Sen-Podstawska as well as author and artist Gerald McMaster.

The event also includes an Indigenous adaptation of the play Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, that was filmed both on the Poundmaker Cree Nation as well as in Poland with international collaborators.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

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