Native Earth Performing Arts is proud to present Omaagomaan by Waawaate Fobister at Aki Studio from February 15-18, 2024. This dance piece choreographed and performed by multiple Dora Award winner Waawaate Fobister, and originally directed by the late Troy Emery Twigg, uses movement, sound, and storytelling to illustrate the fierce land defenders of Grassy Narrows in the face of ongoing logging and the lasting effects of mercury poisoning.

The Anishinaabe of Grassy Narrows are resilient. They are stitching their fractured landscapes back together from the impact of mercury poisoning. Waawaate Fobister embodies Omaagomaan, a two-spirit being, and a manifestation of the earth and man-made poisons that have seeped into the earth’s crust. A fierce shape-shifter inspired by Anishinaabeg worldview and cosmologies, Omaagomaan forces audiences to reckon with the ways the maanaadizi (ugly) and the onishishin (beautiful) collide.

Waawaate Fobister is an actor, dancer, playwright, choreographer, instructor, and a producer. A proud Anishnaabe from Grassy Narrows First Nation, Waawaate choreographed BentBoy by Herbie Barnes at Young Peoples’ Theatre, and performed Omaagomaan in Munich, Germany, and Peterborough, Ontario.

Waawaate is a recipient of multiple Dora Awards for Agokwe, Outstanding Actor at Humber College, and the Mark S. Bonham Centre Award from University of Toronto for their advocacy and public knowledge in sexual diversity. Waawaate also has many nominations including Ontario Premiers' Award, K.M Hunter Award, and Sterling Award in Edmonton. Waawaate has had numerous residencies as playwright and choreographer including Banff Centre for the Arts, Native Earth Performing Arts, Playwrights’ Theatre Centre, Playwrights Workshop Montreal, and Magnus Theatre. Waawaate coordinated Canada’s first ever 2SLGBTQ+ Council for an Indigenous governing body at Grand Council Treaty #3, and served for three seasons as a curator for Indigenous Programming at Kick & Push Festival in Kingston.

Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous theatre company. Currently in its 41st year, Native Earth is dedicated to creating, developing and producing professional artistic expressions of the Indigenous experience in Canada. Through stage productions (theatre, dance and multi-disciplinary art), script development, apprenticeships and internships, Native Earth seeks to fulfill a community of artistic visions. www.nativeearth.ca

Omaagomaan

February 15-17 at 7:30pm

February 18 at 2pm

Aki Studio, 585 Dundas Street East, #120

Tickets: Sliding Scale $30, $20, $10

Box Office: www.nativeearth.ca

Phone: (416) 531-1402

For Indigenous Group rates, email boxoffice@nativeearth.ca