Go behind the scenes in Banff Centre's beautiful dance studios while witnessing the creative process of the participants and faculty of the Indigenous World Dance residency.

The three-week Indigenous World Dance residency brings together Indigenous dancers from around the world to deepen their artistic practice and connect in a supportive, collaborative environment.

Faculty members Peter Rockford Espiritu, Taane Mete, and Santee Smith will lead you from studio to studio as the dancers perform short but impactful choreographic excerpts.

In this Open Studios event, their time at Banff Centre—which has involved workshops, daily warm-ups, and one-on-one mentorship—culminates by inviting the public to view their works-in-progress.

Experience powerful Indigenous storytelling in an intimate environment.

This casual event features the faculty and participants from our three-week Story Sharing residency, which supports Indigenous storytellers in deepening their creative practice among a supportive, land-based, and peer-informed environment.

Join these artists in Banff Centre’s newest venue, CLVB ’33, to celebrate a new generation of Indigenous storytellers.

The sharing is hosted by faculty member January Rogers, a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer and media producer. She lives on her home territory of Six Nations of the Grand River, where she operates Ojistoh Publishing and Productions. Her video poem Ego of a Nation won best music video at the American Indian Film Festival 2020, and her audio work The Battle Within won best experimental audio at the imagineNative International Film + Media Festival in 2021.

Join us for a conversation with Catherine Blackburn, a multidisciplinary artist and jeweller who addresses Canada’s colonial past through personal narratives, mixed media, and fashion. Her work has been shown internationally, from galleries to fashion runways.  

A member of the English River First Nation, she has received a Governor General’s History Award and the Melissa Levin Emerging Artist Award. In 2019, she was longlisted for the prestigious Sobey Art Award.  

Facilitated by Janine Windolph, Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre, the session includes a presentation by Blackburn, followed by a discussion and a Q&A. This conversation will be live-streamed and recorded, with the recording shared following the event. Sessions may include sharing experiences and asking difficult questions.

About the Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series

The Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series is a bi-monthly conversation session inviting leading Indigenous Art creators to discuss their practices and processes. The series engages an Indigenous lens across various art forms, including Literary Arts, Film and Media Arts, Digital Media, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts such as Theatre, Dance, and Music. These sessions offer a space to explore and deepen your understanding of how Indigenous artists use their disciplines as tools to decolonize artistic processes and creation.

Join us for a conversation with Marina Alefosio, an Aotearoa-born Samoan spoken-word poet whose work bridges creative expression and community empowerment.  

Alefosio hails from the villages of Mulifanua, Leauva’a, Faleasiu, and Falefa in Samoa, and works across the Pacific at the intersection of arts, culture, and wellbeing.

Her practice spans spoken word, hip-hop, theatre, songwriting, and mentorship, centring Pasifika and Indigenous voices while exploring themes of identity, justice, and collective healing. Her creative journey began on local and international stages, including the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York (2012) and TEDx Auckland (2013). She has since performed at significant cultural events such as the Dawn Raids Apology Ceremony in Auckland (2021) and the Toronto Writers Festival (2021).

Marina’s contributions have been recognized through numerous poetry anthologies, residencies, and fellowships, including the Banff Centre (2019 and 2024), the Tautai Pacific Arts Trust Fale-ship Residency (2021), the Rhodes Poetry Retreat (2023), and the Creative New Zealand Creative Fellowship Fund (2024), which supported the publication of her debut book to siva inside a circle. Drawing on these experiences, she co-designed a spoken-word residency in Mulifanua, Samoa, with her father and tulafale, Savaiinaea Palenapa Alefosio, creating space for Oceania writers across disciplines. 

Facilitated by Janine Windolph, Director, Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre, the session includes a presentation by Alefosio, followed by a discussion and a Q&A. This conversation will be live-streamed and recorded, with the recording shared following the event. Sessions may include sharing experiences and asking difficult questions.

About the Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series

The Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series is a bi-monthly conversation session inviting leading Indigenous Art creators to discuss their practices and processes. The series engages an Indigenous lens across various art forms, including Literary Arts, Film and Media Arts, Digital Media, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts such as Theatre, Dance, and Music. These sessions offer a space to explore and deepen your understanding of how Indigenous artists use their disciplines as tools to decolonize artistic processes and creation.

In this talk, award-winning author and playwright Drew Hayden Taylor reflects on how a young boy from Curve Lake First Nation came to share Indigenous stories with audiences around the world.

Drawing on experiences across nearly two dozen countries, Taylor explores how humour functions within Indigenous storytelling as a tool for connection, insight, and perspective. He considers the changing landscape of First Nations literature and how humour can create space for dialogue, challenge expectations, and offer new ways to engage with contemporary Indigenous life and creativity.

Facilitated by Janine Windolph, Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre, the session includes a presentation by Taylor, followed by a discussion and a Q&A. This conversation will be live-streamed and recorded, with the recording shared following the event. Sessions may include sharing experiences and asking difficult questions.

About the Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series

The Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series is a bi-monthly conversation session inviting leading Indigenous Art creators to discuss their practices and processes. The series engages an Indigenous lens across various art forms, including Literary Arts, Film and Media Arts, Digital Media, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts such as Theatre, Dance, and Music. These sessions offer a space to explore and deepen your understanding of how Indigenous artists use their disciplines as tools to decolonize artistic processes and creation.

Join us for a conversation with Margo Kane (Cree–Saulteaux Métis), performing artist, cultural leader, and Founder and Artistic Managing Director of Full Circle: First Nations Performance.

Kane will describe her journey to Indigenize her artistic practice through her work before 1992, when she founded Full Circle: First Nations Performance to create opportunities and build space for Indigenous artists to develop, train, and share their work.

She will also reflect on how she reconnects with herself and her artistic practice through embodiment techniques that are central to all her performances. This includes works such as Moonlodge, Reflections in the Medicine Wheel, and Confessions of an Indian Cowboy.

Facilitated by Janine Windolph, Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre, the session includes a presentation by Kane, followed by a discussion and a Q&A. This conversation will be live-streamed and recorded, with the recording shared following the event. Sessions may share experiences and ask difficult questions.

About the Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series

The Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series is a bi-monthly conversation session inviting leading Indigenous Art creators to discuss their practices and processes. The series engages an Indigenous lens across various art forms, including Literary Arts, Film and Media Arts, Digital Media, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts such as Theatre, Dance, and Music. These sessions offer a space to explore and deepen your understanding of how Indigenous artists use their disciplines as tools to decolonize artistic processes and creation.

Join us for an engaging conversation with acclaimed filmmaker and producer Georgina Lightning, who will reflect on the power of media to inspire change, build economies, and shape political and social movements.

In this conversation, Georgina will explore how media can perpetuate harmful narratives, but also how it can serve as a force for empowerment, opportunity, and community strength. Drawing from her Hollywood experience and her work in Alberta, she will consider how investing in Indigenous filmmaking can create cultural, political, and economic impact, both locally and nationally.

Facilitated by Janine Windolph, Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre, the session includes a presentation by Georgina, followed by a discussion and a Q&A. This conversation will be live-streamed and will also be recorded and shared following the event. Sessions may share experiences and ask difficult questions.

About the Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series

The Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series is a bi-monthly conversation session inviting leading Indigenous Art creators to discuss their practices and processes. The series engages an Indigenous lens across various art forms, including Literary Arts, Film and Media Arts, Digital Media, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts such as Theatre, Dance, and Music. These sessions offer a space to explore and deepen your understanding of how Indigenous artists use their disciplines as tools to decolonize artistic processes and creation.

Join us for an insightful conversation with award-winning author and journalist Waubgeshig Rice as he explores the creative opportunities in adapting oral traditions into written form.

Passing stories down orally from generation to generation is a foundational cultural practice for people around the world. Today, writers capture, adapt, and document these spoken stories in diverse and evolving ways.

In this talk, Waub will reflect on how the oral stories of his Anishinaabe heritage inform his fiction writing. He will also share approaches for bringing oral traditions to the page, with a focus on dialogue, character development, and staying true to the spirit of spoken storytelling.

Facilitated by Janine Windolph, Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre, the session includes a presentation by Waub, followed by a discussion and a Q&A. This conversation will be live-streamed and will also be recorded and shared following the event. Sessions may share experiences and ask difficult questions.

About the Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series

The Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series is a bi-monthly conversation session inviting leading Indigenous Art creators to discuss their practices and processes. The series engages an Indigenous lens across various art forms, including Literary Arts, Film and Media Arts, Digital Media, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts such as Theatre, Dance, and Music. These sessions offer a space to explore and deepen your understanding of how Indigenous artists use their disciplines as tools to decolonize artistic processes and creation.