Rubrik: Rooted and Rising: Queer Resilience Across the Circumpolar North

Beskrivning:
Picking up the baton from “Queer in the North: Art, Community, and Collaboration” at the 2022 Arctic Arts Summit in Whitehorse, this session convenes queer artists and arts professionals from across the circumpolar region to take stock of where our communities stand today. Facilitated by Ulricha Johnson, the conversation will map the current landscape, strengthen circumpolar networks, and establish an affinity space where queer perspectives can be elevated across multiple levels of the arts sector. The session is organized by the Swedish Performing Arts Coalition (Scensverige), home of the Proud Performing Arts network. Allies are welcome.

Moderator: Timimie Märak

Timimie puts just as much in between the lines they write as in the words they choose to share. Like them, their poetry is a combination of deep roots and conections, read at a big city pace.

Participants:

Birte Olsen
Kim Rehnman
Siku Rojas
Drew Michael
Glenn Gear

Birte Olsen, 30, (they/them), is from Sisimiut, Kalaallit Nunaat. Growing up queer in a small community has given them a critical perspective on their surroundings and fueled a deep exploration of identity and belonging.

Now based in Nuuk, Birte crafts poetry in Kalaallisut, weaving words into a tapestry of self-reflection and introspection. Their work not only mirrors their own journey but also invites readers to embark on their own paths of interpretation and understanding.

With their work as a musiccoordinator, Birte values and highly working for inclution both for women and Queer artist in the music scene in Greenland.

Glenn Gear is an Indigiqueer filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist of mixed Inuit heritage living in Montréal. He is originally from Corner Brook Newfoundland and has family throughout Labrador and Nunatsiavut, Canada. His research-creation practice is shaped by Inuit ways of learning and knowing, through a hands-on and tactile approach using animation, photography, painting, sound, bead work, and traditional materials such as sealskin. He currently teaches at Queens University in the Film & Media Department and continues to facilitate low-budget, DIY animation workshops with Indigenous youth. His films have screened throughout Canada and around the world.

Drew Michael (Yup’ik and Inupiaq) and his twin brother were born in Bethel, Alaska in 1984. Drew, his three sisters and brother grew up in Eagle River, Alaska and currently live in Anchorage, Alaska.  

Drew started carving at age 13, learning from archeologist Bob Shaw and printmaker Joe Senungetuk at the University of Anchorage Alaska.  Years later he was influenced by contemporary Athabascan mask-maker, Kathleen Carlo, Inupiaq carver Lawrence Ahvakana,  Alutiiq mask carver Perry Eaton and Sugpiaq painter Alvin Eli Amason.  

Mask making for Drew has been a process of learning about transformation and seeing the spirits of the world around in the animals, land, weather, and sea.  His knowledge has taught him about his own history and the importance of mask making as a Yupik/Inupiaq and Polish man. 

In 2016 he went to Quinhagak, Alaska to be part of an archeological dig at the Nanalliq site, where a mask revealed itself to him and the moment solidified the energy masks carry and the people who created them.  

His work has expanded into community development through teaching mask making, creating community spaces, and developing opportunities for stories to be shared about how to live as a real human being and ways of connecting to the world around while honoring the spirits.  

Ulricha Johnson is the Managing Director of the non-profit professional members organisation SPAC- Swedish Performing Arts Coalition (Scensverige), founder of the Swedish national LGBTQI+ platform Stolt Scenkonst, as well as the global LGBTQIA2+ network Proud Performing Arts. Last year at SPAC´s Swedish Performing Arts Biennale that took place in Östersund/Staare a collaboration started with Viermie K and Gaaltije Saemien Museume. SPAC is the Swedish Center of International Theatre Institute, founded by UNESCO, and works with networks, international exchanges and promotes Swedish performing arts. 

Siku Rojas is a non-binary multidisciplinary artist living in Iqaluit Nunavut with family ties to Igloolik and Peguche Ecuador. They are currently volunteering as a co-lead for the Nunavut Pride Society that is in the beginning stages of organizing.