July 2: Qaumma: Evening Performance

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July 2: Qaumma: Evening Performance 〰️

ALIANAIT ARTS FESTIVAL

July 2

5:30 PM Canadian North Big Top Tent, Nakasuk School Parking Lot Iqaluit

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Qaumma

Qaumma is a play that deals with serious subject matter and is meant for mature audiences. It contains religious conflict, discussion of colonization, swear words and deeply felt emotional display. The play also contains a lot of joy and hope.

(Iqaluit/Montréal)

Qaumma is a multimedia performance co-written by Vinnie Karetak and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory. Signifying "light" in Inuktitut, Qaumma echoes the fire that Inuit individuals keep burning to protect our families. We recount how Inuit find light and sculpt our own space, despite being marred by centuries of colonization, with the help of our language, our guts, our culture.

Performing in a circle around an ever-changing sculpture and set as juxtaposition to Uyarakq’s pulsing music, performers Charlotte Qamaniq and Vinnie activate the emotional dimension of the landscape that surrounds us. In the show, we directly address the audience, punctuated by performative moments and elements of uaajeerneq (mask dance). Under what threats, in front of what artificial progress, did our families lose self-determination? How do we resist? How are we working to take back our language and our autonomy by decolonization?

Qaumma is not a cultural display of Inuit life; it is a deep-seated conversation and an artistic search for self-determination.

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Written by: Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and Vinnie Karetak

Performers: Charlotte Angugaattiaq Qamaniq, Vinnie Karetak and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory

Directed by: Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory

Music composed by: Uyarakq Lighting Design: Catherine FP

Projection Design: Elysha Poirier

Stage Design: Catherine Desroches-Lapointe

Technical Director: Claudie Gagnon Sound Designer: Jean Gaudreau