Hexsa’am/To Be Here Always: “Six Questions” was created by Diane Roberts with sound and video designer Troy Slocum. In an interweaving sound narrative in dialogue with the environment, artists Siku Allooloo, Navidu Taylor, Marianne Nicolson, Diane Roberts, Althea Thauberger and Lindsey Willie answer 6 questions about art, identity, longevity and hopes for the future. This project was funded by the New Chapters Fund of the Canada Council for the Arts.
This project utilizes the methodology of The Arrivals Legacy Project founded by Diane Roberts which values the role of the full bodied witness: to our immediate environment, our personal histories/legacies, our present and future kin and with ever present world of our ancestors. www.arrivalslegacy.com Hexsa’am/To Be – Here always ‘Six Questions’, 2019, 5 photos printed on sticker paper overlaid by vinyl text, 5 digital audio tracks on loop and 1 digital video on loop on a digital monitor, 6 headphones 83,8 x 101,6 cm chaque / 33 x 40 in each
This project was originally commissioned by Marianne Nicholson & Althea Thauberger as part of the Mirrored in Stone multi-generational Indigenous artist residency that took place January-July 2018 at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Alert Bay and Kingcome Inlet, Vancouver Island British Columbia. Sounds, photo and video images were captured by Diane Roberts during her 1-week creative residency in the Kingcome Inlet community. We carry story. We make story. We witness story. I have long been impassioned by the practical application of all forms of performance and live art and have seen how it impacts the lives of those who participate in it. Over the years, I have witnessed how an expanding knowledge of cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary performance has shaped not only my practice but the organizations and communities I have collaborated with. As an accomplished director, dramaturge, writer and cultural animator, I have had the pleasure of collaborating with innovative theatre visionaries and interdisciplinary artists for the past 30 years.
Two phrases that best describe my artistic vision are “cultural intersections” and “artistic collisions”. My interest in exploring authentic cross-cultural collaborations has inspired a unique creation process that tackles the themes of social responsibility and cultural appropriateness without sacrificing spontaneity and aesthetic values. Founded in 2004, The Arrivals Legacy Project (www.arrivalslegacy.com) opens the door for a deeper examination of African and Indigenous ontologies as a necessary grounding for the uprooting of decolonised creative processes drawn from Ancestral sources.
Hexsa’am: To Be Here Always “Six Questions” was created drawing on an exercise from the first stage of Arrivals Legacy Project. Diane Roberts is an accomplished director, dramaturge, writer and cultural animator. Her directorial and dramaturgical work has been seen on stages across Canada and her reputation as a mentor, teacher and community collaborator is nationally and internationally recognized. Diane is a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholar and current PhD Candidate in the Fine Arts Interdisciplinary HUMA program .Diane’s celebrated Arrivals Personal Legacy Project has birthed new Interdisciplinary works across Canada, throughout the Americas, in the UK, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. This work has allowed her to articulate, cultivate and realise a vision for theatre that encourages Indigenous ways of knowing as a stepping stone to creative expression.
