Whitehorse hosted the Arctic Arts Summit at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre this week. The event, co-hosted by the government of Yukon and the Canada Council for the Arts, brings together representatives of Arctic countries and the Indigenous nations of the circumpolar region.
The goal of the summit is to “strengthen arts and culture in the North and develop circumpolar co-operation to stimulate collaboration in arts and creative industries,” as stated in a press release.
Presenting partners included the Yukon Arts Centre, Yukon First Nations Culture and Tourism Association and Adäka Cultural Festival.
This was the third summit to take place. The first one was hosted by Norway in 2017 and the second by Finland in 2019.
The 2022 summit connected participants across the North with a program focused on artist-driven exchanges and Indigenous voices. It ran from June 27 to 29 and featured performances, panels and presentations from over 300 artists, cultural leaders and policy makers.
The performance art component of the summit took place on Tuesday evening from 7 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. It was called Nuiharuq — meaning “visible from a distance” — and was curated by Reneltta Arluk, an Inuvialuk/Gwich’in/Denesuline/Cree artistic director with ancestral roots connected to Alaska, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
A variety of storytelling, dance, music, puppetry and poetry took place in three different venues, two outdoors and one indoors. Audience members were guided in between sets from location to location by a school of big fish puppets, created and performed by the Nakai Theatre Ensemble.
A delegate pass was required to attend.
Contact Magan Carty at magan.carty@yukon-news.com