image Jeanette Kotowich
Jeanette
Kotowich
Cree-Métis
Feb 14–19, 2022
Online, On-demand video
Kiyâm and or ThunderBeing is an offering of speculative digital performance, dance and ritual by Jeanette Kotowich in collaboration with Toby Gillies. Kiyâm—to be at peace with oneself—is just one interpretation of the work in the animated Nêhiyaw language.
credits
concept, direction, performance Jeanette Kotowich
video collaboration Toby Gillies
audio weaving by Jeanette Kotowich, sourced from original samples by Graham Kotowich and Song for Today sung by Jeanette, produced by Kathleen Nisbet
filmed on the unceded and Ancestral Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Sel̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ, and Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm territories
commissioned for Harvest Moon Showcase, Matriarchs Uprising Festival 2021
Jeanette Kotowich is a multi-disciplinary iskwêw, independent dance artist, creator, choreographer and professional Auntie of Nêhiyaw Métis and mixed settler ancestry. Originally from Treaty 4 territory Saskatchewan, she creates work that reflects Nêhiyaw/Métis cosmology within the context of contemporary dance, Indigenous performance, and Indigenous futurism. Fusing interdisciplinary collaboration, de-colonial practices and embodied research methodologies; Jeanette’s work references protocol, ritual, relationship to the natural/spirit world and Ancestral knowledge. Her practice is intergenerational and vocational; it’s a living and lived experience. Jeanette resides as a guest on the Ancestral and unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) əl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ/ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) territories, colonially known as Vancouver.