Christine Friday discusses “Firewater Thunderbird Rising” with SesayArts

Christine Friday, a Temagami First Nation-Anishinaabe Kwe dancer and choreographer, is bringing her multi-disciplinary, land-based contemporary dance show, Firewater Thunderbird Rising, to the stage at Aki Studio in Toronto from February 16-19, 2023. 

Friday is a proficient resilient Indigenous performer and storyteller. Deeply connected to the cultural wellness of her people, she works hard to maintain the cultural traditions and gifts of her Anishinaabek community. This stunning show, co-presented by Friday Creeations and Native Earth Performing Arts, explores themes of ancestry, dreams, blood memory, and the connection between the Anishinaabek way of life and the land. 

Firewater Thunderbird Rising, which received 2022 Dora Mavor Moore Awards nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Individual and Outstanding Original Choreography, opens with the documentary dance film, Path Without End. The film highlights Friday’s family taking back their power from Shingwauk Indian Residential School and speaking their truth on their traditional tribal family hunting territory.

Friday boasts more than 30 years of experience in the dance industry and received the 2018 K.M. Hunter Award for Dance. And she is not only a gifted performer: she is also the founder of Friday Creeations, a First Nations professional arts and community platform based on Bear Island Lake Temagami, where she also resides. The organization’s aim? To connect creativity, entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency to land, power and truth.

SesayArts had the pleasure of speaking with this dynamic choreographer, performer and leader about the themes of Firewater Thunderbird Rising, the reclamatory power of her documentary dance film Path Without End, and the transformative spirit of dance.

SM: What inspired you to pursue a career in dance and to establish Friday Creeations?

CF: I believe I was born into my family as a dancer to help move energy and uplift our people through healing. Dance has always been a way for me to learn and navigate myself through this world. I create dances about what I am experiencing in my life. As I have grown older in my life, it has become more of an Ancestral responsibility and rooted in the resurgence of myself, my family, our community and our Nation.  

SM: What would you like the audience to know about the themes of Firewater Thunderbird Rising? And what do you hope that the audience will take away from it (and ideally act on)?

CF: I would like the audience to know that there is a shift of consciousness happening, the awakening of our truth and connection to the land. We are removing fear and shame, standing strong in our own empowerment and ways of living, knowing and understanding. We are alive and protecting our way of living as Anishinaabe people.

SM: What would you like us, especially the young people in the audience, to know about Path Without End, the doc that will open the show?

B: Path Without End is a documentary dance film that witnesses the Friday family taking back their power from Shingwauk Indian Residential School and sharing their truth on their family’s Ancestral land. My message for young people is that it is very important to learn, and share your own story of who you are and where you come from.

SM: What was the developmental journey of creating the doc like? 

CF: The journey was a very intense process bringing forward stories that are connected to family. I was able to connect to a deeper understanding of self and my gifts within my family. I always wanted to create a film and since this, I have created five more short dance films. It took ten years from concept to realization to bring this vision forward.

SM: What aspect of performing the show excites you the most?

CF: For me performance is ceremonial, and the rooted approach that I take is created by offerings, receiving and releasing and acknowledging. I am always grateful to share my gifts and create a shift change in the world.

SM: What question do you wish I had asked you that I didn’t (and what is the answer)?

CF: If you could sum up your Firewater Thunderbird Rising into a sentence, what would it be?

“One Voice,One Truth,One Land”

Firewater Thunderbird Rising is on stage February 16-19, 2023 at Aki Studio. Reserve tickets on nativeearth.ca.

Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2023