CELEBRATION OF NATIONS
Celebration of Nations has emerged as one of Canada’s preeminent Indigenous cultural gatherings. With a highly credentialed Celebration of Nations curatorial team led by Artistic Director Michele-Elise Burnett and Artistic Producer Tim Johnson, each year presents a new and exciting exploration into a theme that possesses crossover appeal designed to resonate, not only with Indigenous peoples, but also with the broader Canadian public.
The level of Indigenous talent, recruited from all across Canada, that has participated in the annual Celebration of Nations events has been and will continue to be extraordinary. In effect, by curating unique annual programmatic themes Celebration of Nations becomes a new event every year, thereby establishing a brand known for intellectual and artistic excellence.
The level of Indigenous talent, recruited from all across Canada, that has participated in the annual Celebration of Nations events has been and will continue to be extraordinary. In effect, by curating unique annual programmatic themes Celebration of Nations becomes a new event every year, thereby establishing a brand known for intellectual and artistic excellence.
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(header photo and 2018, 2019, and 2020 photos by MarkZelinski.com)
In Year One, Celebration of Nations launched by focusing on the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Canada’s sesquicentenary and the Commission’s Calls to Action served as inspiration for the gathering’s programming. The inaugural endeavour served to pull back the curtain, in some cases quite literally, to reveal and commemorate Indigenous contributions to Canada’s defense and formation as well as to display the continuity and scope of Indigenous influence upon Canadian society today. Programming included the screening of the Sundance, Hot Docs, and Canadian Academy Award-winning film RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked The World, which revealed the substantial contributions Indigenous artists made throughout history to the development of popular music that we all know and love. Headline programming featured the legendary Buffy Sainte-Marie and a special Unity All-Star Jam Session featuring Kenny Lee Lewis from the Steve Miller Band, Two Time JUNO Award-winner Derek Miller (Mohawk), and an ensemble comprised of more than a dozen world class musicians.
In Year Two, Celebration of Nations had a powerful focus on Health and Healing featuring sessions covering the legacies of residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and the health disparities prevalent in Indigenous communities. It examined issues such as food security, respiratory disease among First Nations and Inuit children, and myriad other health concerns, all while supported by the healing creativity and energy of the gathering’s featured artists including the extraordinary Martha Redbone (Cherokee/Shawnee/Choctaw descent), one of today’s most vital voices in roots music and Howie Miller (Cree), one of Canada's top stand-up comedians.
Year Three’s theme in 2019 was Empathic Traditions: Honouring Mother Earth. The programs produced presented a wide range of Indigenous artistic expression and knowledge combined with scientific research to nurture human connections to the natural world that foster environmental ethics and manifest our collective responsibility for future generations. Empathic Traditions examined and presented intellectual and artistic expressions of the cultural foundations and meta-narratives many Indigenous peoples have related to the natural world, including environmental ethics and sustainability. The FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre became a hub of activity that included Indigenous stewards of Canada’s UNESCO biosphere reserves, climate scientists, and public policy leaders responsible for maintaining the environment, creating another meaningful program for the City of St. Catharines and further establishing the city’s standing as an innovative municipality doing cutting edge work with Indigenous peoples.
With thoughts about the powerful life-giving force and energy of water and the need to practice responsible stewardship of the region's environment, the theme for Year Four of Celebration of Nations was Mighty Niagara and the Great Lakes Watershed. The dozens of creeks and rivers serving as tributaries to the Niagara River and Lakes Erie and Ontario have, over millennia, created the conditions for sustaining hundreds of generations of human societies, reaching back to the Indigenous peoples who first explored and inhabited the peninsula some 13,000 years ago. Rising to the challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Celebration of Nations curators made the decision to produce and offer the entire weekend-long program on-line. It took incredible commitment and an enormous amount of work to produce what was essentially a three-day running network television special. However, audience members still received the same high-quality diverse programming that distinguishes Celebration of Nations as a premier Indigenous performing, visual, and intellectual arts event. Over 36,000 online viewers tuned in over the weekend, making Celebration of Nations 2020 an unqualified success.
In Year Two, Celebration of Nations had a powerful focus on Health and Healing featuring sessions covering the legacies of residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and the health disparities prevalent in Indigenous communities. It examined issues such as food security, respiratory disease among First Nations and Inuit children, and myriad other health concerns, all while supported by the healing creativity and energy of the gathering’s featured artists including the extraordinary Martha Redbone (Cherokee/Shawnee/Choctaw descent), one of today’s most vital voices in roots music and Howie Miller (Cree), one of Canada's top stand-up comedians.
Year Three’s theme in 2019 was Empathic Traditions: Honouring Mother Earth. The programs produced presented a wide range of Indigenous artistic expression and knowledge combined with scientific research to nurture human connections to the natural world that foster environmental ethics and manifest our collective responsibility for future generations. Empathic Traditions examined and presented intellectual and artistic expressions of the cultural foundations and meta-narratives many Indigenous peoples have related to the natural world, including environmental ethics and sustainability. The FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre became a hub of activity that included Indigenous stewards of Canada’s UNESCO biosphere reserves, climate scientists, and public policy leaders responsible for maintaining the environment, creating another meaningful program for the City of St. Catharines and further establishing the city’s standing as an innovative municipality doing cutting edge work with Indigenous peoples.
With thoughts about the powerful life-giving force and energy of water and the need to practice responsible stewardship of the region's environment, the theme for Year Four of Celebration of Nations was Mighty Niagara and the Great Lakes Watershed. The dozens of creeks and rivers serving as tributaries to the Niagara River and Lakes Erie and Ontario have, over millennia, created the conditions for sustaining hundreds of generations of human societies, reaching back to the Indigenous peoples who first explored and inhabited the peninsula some 13,000 years ago. Rising to the challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Celebration of Nations curators made the decision to produce and offer the entire weekend-long program on-line. It took incredible commitment and an enormous amount of work to produce what was essentially a three-day running network television special. However, audience members still received the same high-quality diverse programming that distinguishes Celebration of Nations as a premier Indigenous performing, visual, and intellectual arts event. Over 36,000 online viewers tuned in over the weekend, making Celebration of Nations 2020 an unqualified success.
WHY THE FIRSTONTARIO PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE?
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Why is Celebration of Nations held at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre? Situated as it is on St. Paul Street, the Centre’s front doors open directly upon the ancient and historic Iroquois Trail that was once a major thoroughfare for Indigenous peoples traveling through the Niagara Peninsula, and later, for settlers who built their roads upon this and other Indigenous trails in the region. Combined with its commitment to Truth and Reconciliation, this is one of the significant reasons why the Centre has become an important hub of Indigenous activity in the 21st Century and why, at that location, Celebration of Nations has become a model event for the entire country.
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