PERFORMANCE TIMES
In Season
5.30pm, 7.30pm, Thu 8 May
5.30pm, 7.30pm, Fri 9 May
12pm, 3pm, 5pm, Sat 10 May
The Seventh Fire
LISA COOKE RAVENSBERGEN, OJIBWE / SWAMPY CREE
8–10 MAY
TOWER
Australian Premiere
A somatic link to ancestral realms, The Seventh Fire is an immersive performance that interweaves traditional, oral Anishinaabe stories and societal roles, evoking ceremony in the everyday.
The Seventh Fire is an immersive audio performance created by Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen that interweaves traditional, oral Anishinaabe stories and societal roles as a way to evoke ceremony in the everyday.
The sound and the story are the somatic links to ancestral realms. The story takes place in the present, past, and future; above and below the earth. It follows disconnected sisters Daanis and Nimise, who reconnect on their ancestral territory. Their journey interweaves with that of Nokomis, their grandmother who raised them, as she lights her fires in the Spirit World.
The Seventh Fire is dedicated to Lisa's beautiful mother, Eileen Deborah Cooke and to all who mother us.
Image credit: Christine Quintana
PRODUCED BY NEWORLD THEATRE
CREATOR, LODGE HELPER & VOCAL PERFORMANCE
LISA COOKE RAVENSBERGEN (SHE / HER / IKWE), OJIBWE / SWAMPY CREE
SOUND DESIGN
MISHELLE CUTTLER
ASSOCIATE SOUND DESIGN
DEBBIE COURCHENE, ANISHINAABE
COLLABORATING DRAMATURGY
LAURA MCLEAN
CHRISTINE QUINTANA
VOCAL PERFORMANCE
MARGO KANE, CREE-SAULTEAUX MÉTIS
TASHA FAYE EVANS, COAST SALISH / WELSH / JEWISH
ADDITIONAL VOCALS
RENAE MORRISEAU, CREE-SAULTEAUX
KAITLYN YOTT, COAST TSIMSHIAN
LANGUAGE ADVISOR
CHIIKISHKIY – WALTER COOKE, OJIBWE-SWAMPY CREE
LANGUAGE ADVISOR
MISHIIKENH – VERN ALTIMAN, OJIBWE
TOUR MANAGER
CHRISTINE QUINTANA
Presented by YIRRAMBOI and Native Earth Performing Arts (Canada), in association with Malthouse Theatre.
Originally produced by Delinquent Theatre with Full Circle: First Nations Performance (Talking Stick Festival), PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Thanks to Playwrights’ Theatre Centre (and Associates Program), Native Earth Performing Arts (Weesageechak Festival), Ruby Slippers Theatre (Advance Theatre), Theatre Replacement and Company 605 (PushOFF 2021: Speculative Futures), Pacific Theatre, Lobe Residency Program; and to the funding bodies who supported this work: Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, and Vancity.
Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous performing arts company. Currently, in its 42nd year, NEPA are dedicated to developing, producing, and presenting professional artistic expressions of the Indigenous experience in Canada.
https://www.nativeearth.ca
PARTNERS
EVENT & TICKETING DETAILS
TICKETS
BlakTix are discounted tickets reserved for global First Nations communities. YIRRAMBOI Fan tickets are for those who want to actively invest in growth of the First Nations arts sector and support First Nations creatives.
DURATION
90 minutes (no interval)
LOCATION
CONTENT NOTES
Low light and sustained sound that is sometimes loud.
This work touches on the Sixties Scoop* and Residential School** survivors.
*Between approximately 1951 and 1984, an estimated 20,000 or more First Nations, Métis and Inuit infants and children were taken or ‘scooped up’ without the consent of their families, placed in the child welfare system and placed for adoption in mostly non-Indigenous households. This mass removal of Indigenous children from their homes, supported by a series of government policies, became known as the ‘Sixties Scoop’.
**Between the late 1800s and 1996, the Government of Canada and church organisations operated the Indian Residential School System. An estimated 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were removed from their families, homes, languages, and lands. A part of official Canadian policy, the residential school system aimed at the complete assimilation of Indigenous people.
Indian Residential School Histories and Dialogue Centre, University of British Columbia.
Audiences are asked to leave their belongings in the designated space and remove their shoes before entering the space, where they’re free to stand, sit, lie down or move around.
This is a phone-free experience, please leave your devices with your belongings in the designated space.
We kindly ask that you do not leave once you have arrived in the space.
Performances will begin promptly at their set times. Latecomers will not be permitted.
ACCESSIBILITY
Transcripts available on request. Please email yirramboi@melbourne.vic.gov.au.
Sensory space available.
Please visit our access page for information about accessibility services.