Kiyanaan theatre festival strengthens work of Indigenous artists

At this weekend’s Kiyanaan Indigenous Theatre Festival, Erica Wilson is trying her hand at burlesque, puppetry, poetry and contemporary dance — and she isn’t worried about whether the performance comes across as a success or failure: the Winnipeg artist is simply ecstatic about the opportunity to present her work-in-progress to an audience of her peers.

That’s one of the tenets of Kiyanaan, which started in 2025 as a means for Indigenous artists across generations to share their works, at various stages of development, in an environment that emphasizes mentorship, community-centred guidance and sustainable growth.

The festival runs at Prairie Theatre Exchange, with free entry for Indigenous peoples. Full weekend passes are available at affordable ($15), general ($40) and donor ($75) levels at kiyanaanfestival.com.

“We have artists returning this year and I think there’s something about being able to offer space to continue developing their voices and practices,” says Philip Geller, who, along with Echo Theatre’s Charlene Van Buekenhout, serves as festival co-producer.

“When we share this work with the community, with these receptive audiences, it makes them stakeholders in the development of the work. I feel like as Indigenous Peoples, we’re often creating in relation to community and kin, and when we share that work in that circle and get feedback from not just an audience, but from fellow artists, it helps us to be responsive, responsible and accountable. It helps make the work stronger.”

That’s what encouraged Wilson, 31, to take a risk by submitting her variety show, Miss Carcass Caresse: Soft Waters, for Kiyanaan’s national development and showcase program, which will enable her to take the work to Toronto and to the Yukon later this year to share with other regional markets.

“In my experience, there’s a lot of frustration of hearing ‘no’ because I look a specific way. And I don’t think I look that bad, it’s just I do have darker skin, I do have longer hair, I do actively look Indigenous,” says Wilson, whose piece deals with the monetization of both women and water under the auspices of capitalism.

“And so people, and myself, are tired of being rejected. Being able to have access to money and to space is crucial as an artist to be able to explore. I see the audacity of other spaces and groups being able to experiment, to do works in progress, but I don’t see that a lot with Indigenous artists.

“Having the privilege to be able to be chosen, for (audiences) to see that I have strong, concrete ideas, the stubbornness to follow through and the care to show up in a respectful way to showcase all the weird little art I’m creating — it’s wonderful.”

The festival, whose name is derived from the Michif word meaning “us,” is organized around the principles of the Anishinaabe Medicine Wheel, says Van Buekenhout, with an emphasis on sharing works — finished and otherwise — by and for individuals at every stage of life.

For younger audiences, Kiyanaan is partnering with the emerging company Oshkagoojin Indigenous Theatre for Youth, founded in 2024 by Nova Courchene, to share Nanabush and the Spirit of Thunder by playwright Dezarae Meade. (Saturday, noon).

Van Buekenhout says in keeping with the idea of youth is the presentation of works in progress, such as those by Wilson (Friday, 8:45 p.m.), Rayna Masterton and Dannielle Morrisseau (Saturday, 1:30 p.m.), Jo MacDonald (Saturday, 7:15 p.m.) and Waawaate Fobister (Sunday, 5 p.m.).

On Thursday at 7 p.m., Fobister will also share dance work developed during an artist residency with the Young Lungs Dance Exchange.

On Saturday at 6:15 p.m., audiences will see an early rendering of Maamaan Kourazh, an adaptation of Brecht’s work Mother Courage, translated by Carolin Schroeder and transplanted to the era of the Red River Rebellion by Geller, Van Buekenhout and Geneviève Toupin, a folk artist who releases music as Willows. The cast for the reading includes local musical theatre talents such as Katie German, Simon Miron and Emily Meadows.

Other festival highlights include its Star Speaker Series lecture, set to be delivered by poet, playwright and radio host Rosanna Deerchild (Saturday, 2:45 p.m.); a performance by Michael Lawrenchuk of his solo play Where Are the Warriors (Saturday, 4 p.m.); and a festival closing reading of the late playwright Douglas R. Nepinak’s acclaimed, ever-topical comedy The Crisis in Oka Manitoba, set in Winnipeg’s North End during the Kanehsatà:ke Resistance in the summer of 1990 (Sunday, 5:45 p.m.).

While the festival is fuelled by catering from Shelley’s Bistro and Ashange, the closing reading on the Cherry Karpyshin Mainstage will coincide with a community feast, which is one way Geller and Van Buekenhout hope to engage audiences and make space for them to “be themselves.”

“Having the feast on the stage and having the reading on the stage at the same time is part of that, that trying to work towards a more accessible entry point into into theatre,” says Van Buekenhout, who will star in this month’s Prairie Theatre Exchange production of The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light, an art-world thriller written by Drew Hayden Taylor.

“Feasting is just one way to emphasize the communal element of this in a way that doesn’t feel so formalized or overly polite,” Geller says. “You can come as you are, and you’re welcome that way.”

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