Aanmitaagzi is back in New York for the Global Indigenous Theatre Festival taking place from October 30 – November 7, 2026 at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club as part of Spiderwoman Theater’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. The celebrations are being organized by Spiderwoman Theater in collaboration with La MaMa and Loose Change Productions. During the festival, we will be presenting a workshop on October 29th as well as a new performance, All My R(el)ations, which is part of the larger All My R(el)ations project. Full details can be found below.

WORKSHOP INFORMATION

Art in Community with Aanmitaagzi
La MaMa Community Arts Space (74A East 4th St, New York, NY)
October 29th from 3:00-5:30pm

This workshop is aimed at exploring, developing, and practicing cultural continuity through arts that draw from historic Indigenous, traditional, and contemporary arts practices. Participants will be introduced to Aanmitaagzi’s methodology of carrying forward indigenous knowledge through a community-engaged arts practice. Through movement and dance, theatre and visual arts, participants will explore the art of animating individual stories grounded in community.

Click here to RSVP for the workshop

SHOW INFORMATION

All My R(el)ations
The Downstairs at La MaMa (66 East 4th Street, New York, NY)
November 4 – 6 at 8:30 pm
Runtime: 45 minutes

All My R(el)ations (AMR) is a multi-year, multi-disciplinary project of gathering, reflecting, and dreaming. It explores the values of reciprocity, sharing, and relationality, and how to support healthy, thriving individuals within and through community. It looks at the ways communities have been negatively impacted and how we can recall, remember, and re-implement Indigenous knowledge and values in our everyday lives. It celebrates resourcefulness, creativity, care, and compassion for others in times of need. This project seeks to move the (el) from silent to vibrant, to move from all my rations to all my relations. It is a call for a return to good relations with all.

The All My R(el)ations performance and installation for the Global Indigenous Theatre Festival include stories and works from professional artists and community. It is built on a foundation of over three hundred story-telling luncheons with our elders, four summer intensives with our community’s youth, and numerous weekly workshops and intensives that have taken place over the last few years. Celebrating a return to community, this multi-disciplinary dance theatre project looks at who we are in the face of adversity and who we hope to be.

CREDITS

All My R(el)ations was created by Aanmitaagzi’s Lead Artists, Guest Artists, & Community

Director/Choreographic Lead
Penny Couchie

Co-creators/Performers
Sid Bobb
Penny Couchie
Ouske Couchie-Bobb
Imelda Villalon

Stage Manager/Lighting Designer
Jennifer Bolton

Installation/Set/Costume
Sherry Guppy

Production Assistants
Georgia Mianskum
North Sutherland-Spence
Autumn Hookimaw

Get Tickets

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Pre-registration is not required, but is appreciated if you plan on taking a turn at the mic.
Light refreshments will be served and all are welcome.

For more information, or to sign up for the open mic session, please contact Sid Bobb at (705) 474-2227 or aanmitaagzi@gmail.com.

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Biskane
Culminating performance for the 2026 Aanmitaagzi Summer Arts Program

August 20, 2026 at 7:00 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm)
Big Medicine Studio
161 Couchie Memorial Dr, Nipissing First Nation

Aanmitaagzi and the participants of the 2026 Aanmitaagzi Summer Arts Program are pleased to invite the public to Big Medicine Studio for Biskane (it ignites), the culminating performance for this year’s program. The artists and youth participants have been working hard since the beginning of July to develop and prepare for this presentation through singing, dancing, regalia making, storytelling, visual explorations, attending pow wows, participating in Spiderwoman Theater’s Block Party Pow Wow in Brooklyn, and engaging in other arts activities. The collaboratively created and performed work is an investigation and expression of indigenous dance and storytelling that has grown out of their experiences over the summer and the stories and knowledge they carry with them. The presentation is free to attend, and all are welcome.

Biskane is co-created and performed by:

Lead Artists – Sid Bobb, Katie Couchie, Penny Couchie, Sherry Guppy, Darren Nakogee, with Special Guests Olivia Shortt and Animikiikwe Couchie-Waukey

Program Participants – Albany Benson, Harvey Campeau, Ouske Couchie-Bobb, Lukas Driedger, Janiah Etherington, Autumn Hookimaw, Mya Katt, Waseskwan Linklater, William McGrath, Georgia Mianskum, Tayton Mianskum, Malia Mizzi, Zaidyn Mizzi, Niibin Nakogee, Finnegan Rice, Lance Sarazin, North Spence, Nate Thomas, and Jodan Wesley.

Guest Facilitators – Dan Commanda, Eva Couchie, and Clayton Windatt

What is the Aanmitaagzi Summer Arts Program?

The Aanmitaagzi Summer Arts Program (ASAP) is an annual 8-week intensive in indigenous performing, visual, and traditional arts. Now in its nineteenth year, the program gives indigenous youth the opportunity to learn, share, express and create alongside Aanmitaagzi’s professional multi-disciplinary arts team, guest artists, and community-members in a collaborative, inter-generational, and welcoming space.

How can I get more information?

For more information, please call (705) 474-2227 or email aanmitaagzi@gmail.com.

Aanmitaagzi wishes to thank the Government of Canada through the Canada Council for the Arts and the Canada Summer Jobs Program, the Ontario Government through the Ontario Arts Council, Mushkegowuk Employment & Training Services, Moose Cree Training & Employment Unit, the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre’s Apatisiwin Program, and the Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference for generously supporting the 2026 Summer Arts Program.

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Aanmitaagzi is very excited to be invited to participate in Spiderwoman Theater’s Block  Party Pow Wow taking place on DeGraw St in Brooklyn on August 15, 2026.

The first of several festivities honouring Spiderwoman Theater’s 50th Anniversary, the Block Party will be an afternoon of art, culture, heritage, and neighbourhood unity curated by Josephine Tarrant.

Spiderwoman Theater’s founders, the Miguel sisters, chose DeGraw Street between Court and Smith Streets to honour the vibrant Native community that called Boerum Hill, Red Hook, and Cobble Hill home in the 1930s through the ’50s, including Mohawks from Kahnewake and the Western tribes. In addition to their anniversary milestone, they’ll also be celebrating Spiderwoman Theater co-founder Gloria Miguel’s 100th birthday!

Spiderwoman is excited to host Indigenous artists like Aanmitaagzi, the SilverCloud Singers, and MC Louis Mofsie of the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers. They will also have neighbourhood vendors, speakers, and excerpts of Spiderwoman’s work including Muriel Tarrant’s ‘Tipi Tales from the Stoop’.

This event is free to the public, no reservations required!

Please visit Spiderwoman Theater’s website or Facebook page for more information.

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On August 11, 2026 from 6:30 – 8:00 pm, Aanmitaagzi Story Makers presented First Draft as part of ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival’s 2026 Duality program.

First Draft was a series of works-in-progress presentations by Aanmitaagzi Story Makers and the youth participants of their 2026 Summer Arts Program. Ranging from storytelling, spoken word, and singing to dance, shadow theatre, and improv, this informal night of sharing brought folks together for creativity, connection, and community. Artists from the Fringe festival were also invited to share a little about their shows, taking place at the Capitol Centre from August 12th – 16th.

Many thanks to everyone that came out to the event, and to the ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival for programming and supporting this presentation.

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2026 SUMMER EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Aanmitaagzi is currently seeking applicants aged 15 – 30 for it’s 2026 Summer Arts Program. The deadline to apply is June 30, 2026. Full details can be found below.

Job title: Community Arts Intern
Length of contract: 8 weeks
Hours per week: 35
Hourly wage: $20.00
Start date: July 6, 2026
Location: Big Medicine Studio – 161 Couchie Memorial Dr., North Bay, ON
Deadline to apply: June 30, 2026

Background:

Aanmitaagzi is an Indigenous multi-disciplinary artist-run company based in Nipissing First Nation. Linked to provincial, national, and international networks, Aanmitaagzi is committed to fostering a vibrant arts community through community-engaged projects that promote well-being, strengthen relationships with the land, and incorporate intergenerational approaches and methodologies. Aanmitaagzi combines art making, education, professional development & social activism through contemporary and customary arts, nurturing historic Indigenous arts practices and exploring how these practices can be carried forward in a meaningful contemporary context.

Every year, we run an annual summer arts program that gives Indigenous youth the opportunity to learn from and work with respected Indigenous arts professionals and Elders. This year’s Summer Arts Program (ASAP) will take place from July 6 – August 28, 2026. Over the eight weeks of the program, Aanmitaagzi’s lead artists and invited guest artists will work with the youth participants, providing training in areas such as storytelling and creation, acting, dancing, movement, voice, singing, drumming, visual and installation art, as well as customary Indigenous arts practices and cultural teachings. Through artmaking and ensemble building, the youth and artists will collaboratively create a performance work that incorporates elements of dance/theatre as well as arts installations for public presentation, and engages with Aanmitaagzi’s current arts initiative, All My R(el)ations.

Tasks and responsibilities:

The Community Arts Interns will receive on the job training in a variety of artistic disciplines such as traditional and non-traditional storytelling, acting, theatre, dance, voice, puppetry, visual art, installation art, and customary Indigenous arts practices. They will further develop their communications and interpersonal skills and learn the fundamental aspects of event planning and delivery, production management, and outreach and marketing. They will also participate in the creation and delivery of workshops, events, activities, and presentations that will be open to the public.

Specific duties will include:

• Working with Aanmitaagzi staff, guest artists, and community members under the supervision of the Co-Artistic Directors
• Working with and receiving mentorship from arts professionals, Elders, and cultural knowledge keepers in a variety of disciplines
• Working collaboratively to create work for public presentation
• Participating in other arts events, festivals, and community engagement activities the organization engages in
• Communicating with community members, Elders, and peers for the purposes of coordination and outreach
• Supporting services to community members and facilitating engagement between youth and Elders
• Promoting, supporting, and helping to coordinate the organization’s events and activities

In addition, the youth will be responsible for helping to maintain a safe and organized workspace, following established schedules, completing assigned tasks in a timely fashion, and fostering a positive, creative, and respectful work environment.

Eligibility:

These positions are funded through federal employment programs. To be eligible for employment, youth must:

• be between 15 and 30 years of age at the start of the employment
• be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person to whom refugee protection has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for the duration of the employment
• have a valid Social Insurance Number at the start of employment and be legally entitled to work in Canada in accordance with relevant provincial or territorial legislation and regulations
• be fluent in English

Ideal candidates:

The ideal candidates for this job position are full-time secondary or post-secondary Indigenous youth pursuing a career in the arts (e.g. dance, theatre, fine arts, etc.) or Indigenous studies, however candidates pursuing careers in related fields (e.g. arts administration, health & wellness programs, social work, etc.) will also be considered. Please note that youth not currently in school will also be considered.

Application Process:

Interested applicants are asked to send their resumes and a brief cover letter explaining why they are interested in participating in our summer arts program to aanmitaagzi@gmail.com by June 30, 2026. Only applicants selected for interview will be contacted.

For more information, please contact Sid Bobb, Co-Artistic Director, by phone at (705) 474-2227 or by email at aanmitaagzi@gmail.com.

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I Love the Moon, the Grass and the Stars

May 19, 2026 at 4:00 pm COT (UTC-5)

I Love the Moon, the Grass and the Stars is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary work inspired by CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories, which is also being presented at this year’s festival. The work moves between pow wow dance, storytelling, spoken word/poetry, and song. Sid Bobb (Sto:lo/People of the River) and Ouske Couchie-Bobb (Sto:lo/Nipissing Anishinaabe), father and son, will share the stories they carry and that a carry them: their regalia, dance, and traditional creation stories. They will share their relationship with CONVERSATIONS. Their dance gives thanks to the traditional lands they dance on, the breath of life, and expresses their commitment to women and the future.

Credits:

Performed by: Sid Bobb (Dancer/Storyteller) & Ouske Couchie-Bobb (Dancer/ Storyteller)

White Grass Dance Regalia: Ouske Couchie-Bobb (Designer), Tracey Larochelle (Textile Art), Penny Couchie (Textile Art), Phil Gray (Visual Art), Tom Barker (Dancing Stick)

Blue Grass Dance Regalia: Sid Bobb (Designer, Feather Fan, Textile Art), Penny Couchie (Assistant Designer & Textile Art), Tracey Larochelle (Textile Art), Beverley Myran (Beadwork), Samantha Mianskum (Beadwork), Tom Barker (Dancing Stick)

Men’s Traditional Regalia: Tracey Larochelle (Textile Art), Dan Commanda (Feather Fan, Bone Breastplate), Tim McGregor (Feather Bustle)

This work is presented with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

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CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories

May 21, 2026 at 6:00 pm COT (UTC-5)

Aanmitaagzi Story Makers and Vanguardia Dance Projects are excited to present CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories as part of the Festival de Teatro Alternativo (Festa) taking place in Bogotá, Colombia from May 15 through May 23, 2026. Festa is a biennial festival of alternative theatre works that has been taking place in Bogotá since 1990. It is a platform for contemporary Colombian theatre that showcases multi-cultural works by regional and national groups alongside those by international companies.This year’s festival features over 85 performances across 25 venues including 80 theatre, dance, and performance art works.

CONVERSATIONS: Hidden Stories is a dialogue of bodies extended in various latitudes of the Americas. Starting from the investigation of “body and territory” by the Colombian-Canadian choreographer Olga Barrios, this work seeks a conversation between women through the Americas, seeking a South-North echo. Barrios’ research/creation explores the traces of Indigenous heritage that have been erased in her journey, as has happened with many people in various places in America and the planet. This work is based on the woman of many colours that she experiences in herself and with the many other voices in the world that seek connection with ideas of traces erased from history.

Production Credits

Director & Choreographer: Olga Barrios
Dancers & Text Creators: Norma Araiza, Olga Barrios, Penny Couchie, Animikiikwe Couchie-Waukey, Lilia León
Guest Dancer: Maria Lucia Llano
Composer & Sound Designer: Edgardo Moreno
Projection Artist: Alejandra Higuera and Olga Barrios
Stage Manager: Kelsey Ruhl
Costumes: Jennifer Kelly
Lighting Design: Trevor Schwellnus

Locations of work development: Big Medicine Studio (Nipissing First Nation), Arcadia Artists Co-op & National Ballet of Canada (Toronto)

This work is presented with support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

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Spring Workshop Series 2026

Aanmitaagzi is excited to announce a new series of workshops in April to get ready for this year’s pow wow season. The workshops will be led by Eva Couchie, who has decades of harvesting and making knowledge to share. We also have a lot of beautiful supplies, so come make with us!

15″ Hand Drum Making Workshop

Friday, April 10th or Saturday, April 11th
9:00am to 4:30pm
Cost: $200 including materials

Learn how to lace a hand drum using elk hides and hard wood frames. Materials will be provided.

Easy-Peasy Ribbon Skirts or Shirts

Friday, April 17th or Saturday, April 18th
9:00am to 4:30pm
Cost: $100 plus materials

Choose from various sizes, shapes and colours of pre-made skirts or shirts, or bring your own to work on. There will be an assortment of ribbon in different colours and widths, and satins in various colours for appliqué. There are sewing machines on site, but participants are free to bring their own.

Porcupine Quillwork on 4″ Birch Bark

Friday, April 24th or Saturday, April 25th
9:00am to 4:30pm
Cost: $125 including materials

Learn how to use traditionally harvested bark and quills to make medallions, basket tops, and accessories. Materials will be provided.

The workshops will take place at Big Medicine Studio, 161 Couchie Memorial Drive, North Bay, ON. There is a maximum of 10 spots for each workshop, so pay your registration fee early to save your seat! To register or for more information, please call or message Eva Couchie at (705) 237-8393 or ecouchie@gmail.com and include the day(s) you are available. The date for each workshop with most available participants will be the one chosen.

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Aanmitaagzi is very excited to present Conversations: Hidden Stories with Vanguardia Dance Projects as part of the Niimi’iwe Dance Double Bill at Native Earth Performing Arts this week! The show will run from February 5 – 8, 2026 at Aki Studio in Toronto, and will be accompanied by a workshop led by Vanguardia’s Co-Artistic Director Norma Papalotl Araiza at 11:00 am on Saturday. The other half of the Double Bill is Spine of the Mother by Raven Spirit Dance, and you can find out more about both productions below.

CONVERSATIONS: HIDDEN STORIES

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