By Debra Spark Kunji Mark Ikeda spent the first 20 years of his life, in Vancouver, “trying to be as white as possible,” he says. Mayumi Lashbrook, raised on the other side of Canada, in Toronto, did the same. “This doesn’t have anything to do with me,” Lashbrook would insist as her mother introduced her
By Kaija Pepper When Margaret Hart married Gitxsan Chief Kenneth Harris in 1953, she was groomed by her mother-in-law in the duties and functions that were now her responsibility. Important among them was to carry forward the traditional songs and dances of her husband’s lineage as a chief of the Gitxsan people — the People
by Tessa Perkins Deneault As a dance artist of Cree, Métis and mixed European descent from Treaty 4 Territory in Saskatchewan, Jeanette Kotowich’s cultural heritage is a source of inspiration for her work. She explores identity through dance, telling stories of culture, land and Indigenous traditions. To her, dance is a language that can express