Navigating the Canoes: Return to Community
Since September 2023, Circle Co-Conveners and the ABO team have visited four communities, all of whom held gatherings in the first two years of the project. Members of the Advisory Circle from Aanmitaagzi (North Bay), Debajehmujig Theatre Group (Manitoulin Island), the Agnes Etherington (Kingston), and Bear Island (Temagami) have hosted host epilogue sessions, in which the future of Indigenous creative spaces in their territory was discussed in relation to Paddling Upstream and the four Bundles of Knowledge: Land, Community Health, Funding and Resources, and Reciprocity.
The remaining two gatherings will take place at Woodland Cultural Centre (Six Nations) and Native Earth (Tkaronto).
The gatherings have been unique to each community, with a shared need for self determination to move forward in the sector.
A workshop for settler arts organizations on allyship and space will be taking place on March 25th, 2025 in Aki Studio at Native Earth.