The Indigenous Creative Spaces Project brings together a network of communities to support the development of Indigenous sovereign spaces across Ontario. Guided by an Indigenous Advisory Circle and supported by ArtsBuild Ontario, the project aims to build a framework of knowledge and experience within a cultural context, and determine the needs and recommendations for future infrastructure development across the ecology of Ontario.
Community Gatherings
Gathering Circles were held for Indigenous artists, arts organizations, and community members across the province. Communities were invited to speak about what is needed to foster development of Indigenous creative spaces. Gatherings took place in Kingston, Six Nations of the Grand River, Manitoulin Island, North Bay, Thunder Bay, Temagami, and Toronto.
Legacy Stories
Legacy Stories explore where the spaces begin, where they are going, to where they hope to be. These conversations were transcribed and shared internally with each organization and their communities to protect cultural knowledge that emerged from each Circle.
New Moon Dialogues
New Moon Dialogues is a series of online conversations for Indigenous communities to share their knowledge, learnings, and journey in creating Indigenous creative spaces. The dialogues are taking place from November 2022 – May 2023. The dialogues will discuss themes such as:
- Uplifting the relationship to land, water and territory
- Individual, organizational and digital sovereignty
- Systemic barriers in developing Indigenous creative spaces
- Space-based conversations with Woodland Cultural Centre, Friday Creeations and Debajehmujig Theatre Group
The audience and accessibility for each dialogue is determined by the lead speakers. Some conversations are meant to be internal among the pre-determined audience. The public dialogues are listed below. Please note the information shared in public dialogues may not be extracted for any reasons other than personal knowledge.
Guidance from the Circle
Needs and recommendations from the Community Gatherings and Legacy Stories as well as external research will form Guidance from the Circle. This document will be released in Spring 2023, and will illustrate what is needed to develop and sustain Indigenous sovereign arts spaces across Ontario.
Welcome to the Territory
In Fall 2023 and Winter 2024, six communities will host self-determined planning sessions for the future of Indigenous creative spaces in their territory.
A workshop for settler arts organizations on Indigenous space partnerships will also be offered during this time.
OCAP
The Indigenous Creative Spaces Project respects the First Nations Principles of OCAP (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession). Project materials are shared privately for Indigenous artists, arts organizations, and community members participating in the project. This protection creates a sovereign digital space for communities to connect and learn from the knowledge shared in this project. Access of this website is fully determined and managed by the Indigenous Advisory Circle.
Contact
The private website is located at: https://www.indigenouscreativespacesproject.com. If you are interested in learning about the password, please contact indigenouscreativespaces@gmail.com.
ArtsBuild Ontario thanks the Department of Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for supporting this project.
