Witnesses to the Work

As a woman of mixed European and Métis descent, far from her territory, I have relished the opportunity to see how things are done differently by the people I’ve met who are Indigenous to the territory I currently live on. One of the most striking things has been the role of witness.

The first time I was present where witnesses were called forward was during a difficult time for a local arts group. There was a rift that needed healing. The healing event that was held for the community was a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, all taking part in a ceremony headed by a local Lekwungen leader. He called a number of people forward by name. Members of the board of directors went to each of them and gave them quarters, as a mark of the task and the acceptance of the task they were charged with. (I was told the quarter at one time was the cost of a blanket, and this tradition of the quarter being a meaningful offer of currency remains.) Those who were called forward and took the quarters were signalling their acceptance of their roles as witnesses to the ceremony to follow. Their duty was two-fold. One was to watch what happened and to report what they had witnessed at the end of the event. The second was that once they left this place, they would always be responsible to speak of what happened and to confirm that it had been done in a ‘good way’. After the healing ceremony was completed, one by one these witnesses stepped forward and offered a reflection on what they had seen. Each reflection, while individual, contributed to a felt sense of the whole event. Everyone could take comfort and relax in how the community cared for one another in a way that made them proud.

There is something so beautiful about consciously asking them to stand up and say what they saw. The witnesses are the record keepers from before our smart phones. This very human act of bearing witness to what we do and how we care for one another as we walk in this world, of holding each other accountable in the very best way, is what witnessing is to me, as I have experienced it.

With this in mind, I present the Hummingbird Advisory Council as people who gathered together to hold each other accountable for the original tour (pre-pandemic) and my collaborator, Ashley Daniel Foot. We are the ones who have gathered to bring this study guide forward for this time. We are the ones who can be asked today and at any time in the future to speak truth about the process we engaged in to bring this opera and study guide to the schools and world at large. We are urban Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, from many nations and countries. We were there. We saw. We heard. We walked this piece forward in a good way. We witnessed.

With gratitude,

—Rebecca Hass

Director of Engagement Programs and Partnerships, Pacific Opera Victoria

Robert Clifton

Liimiiuum Hala'ayt

Ama sah da txa’niis ‘nüüsm.

Liimiiuum Hala'ayt is two-spirit and of both Indigenous (Ts'msyen) and Settler (Norwegian) ancestors. They belong to the Gitga’at peoples and the La̱xsgiik (Eagle) clan. They walk in many worlds including the spirit world and they hold space for light, hope, possibility, and transformation. Their positive and personal cultural identity and knowledge have contributed to facilitating innovative and inclusive learning spaces in both K-12 and post-secondary education for 30 years. The other name they are known by is Robert Clifton, whose passion is in providing guidance and consultation, that facilitates and inspires systemic transformation throughout the K-12 and post-secondary education system and other professional bodies and institutions. Currently, they are a Director of Instruction – Indigenous Education for Coast Mountain School District #82.

“I have become and still am becoming who I was meant to be, grateful to matriarchs and knowledge holders who have upended my mind, heart, and spirit in a determined yet gentle way and stood me up to be brave, resilient, respectful, and honoured to be a leader of learning.

I am tongue and teeth, tickled by ancestors to story-weave in circle. Circles of knowing, circles of being, circles that wind their way UP in my mind, heart, and spirit, to inspire un-learning and re-learning as we un-wind and disentangle from structures and systems that diminish spirit.

I am a creative thought leader and generously share my gifts and knowledge so I empower and inspire others to learn, heal, and love themselves so they in turn can love and take care of each other. I activate traditional and ancestral ways of knowing, being, and doing to inspire others to become better humans, grounded in their positive personal and cultural identity.

I am a relative, cousin, Uncle/Aunt who lives with a huge heart and am in relation with All: human, more than human, Land/Place, Sea, Sky, Rock/Mountain, Winged/Four-Legged Creatures.

I am renewal, ceremony, holistic balancer of energies to activate a ceremonial fire where all are invited to be in relationship so we can collectively keep that fire lit for the next generations to come.”

Nekita Garcia-Gravel

Nekita was born in a small town in Quebec. She grew up in Vancouver on the traditional territories of Tseil-Waututh, Musqueam and Squamish but still maintains a close relationship with her Quebecois family.  Her ancestors come from the Quechua of Chuquibamba in Southern Peru as well as Spanish and French settlers from eastern Canada. She feels lucky to have a father that made sure she knew about her Indigenous roots growing up.

Nekita is an Indigenous Education Teacher for the Vancouver School board. She has a background in geography and spent some time living in a Cree community in the James Bay before becoming a teacher and this has greatly influenced her practice.

Rebecca Hass

Rebecca Hass (Nitaawe giizhigok/ singing sky woman) is a performer, arts administrator, writer and creative living coach who has been a grateful visitor on Lekwungen territory since 2005. A mixed blood woman (Metis, French, German, British) she is currently the Director of Engagement Programs and Partnerships for Pacific Opera and the winner of the Nada Ristich Change Maker Ruby from Opera Canada for 2022.

A graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University with an Honours Bachelor in Music and Voice Performance, she has enjoyed an over 30-year career as a mezzo soprano performing across Canada with almost every opera company and orchestra as a soloist and lead performer. She has also created several cabarets, one woman shows and toured them to various communities (Wine, Women and Song, Wanna Sing a Showtune) and appeared in the Toronto production of The Phantom of the Opera as a swing.

A radio broadcaster and documentary maker for CBC, she is currently the creator, host and producer of the podcast What’s Up with Opera. Rebecca is currently creating a multi-media theatrical piece “Manaadjia” - which means “to take care of our people in order to conserve them for a long time”. Her vision and practice on the land is evolving as a window to the ancestors and a reawakening of our connection to place.

Mary Jane Joe

Nk’xetko

Raised on the Joeyaska Indian Reserve near Merritt, BC. Mary Jane Joe is a member of the Ntle’kepmx Nation, one of the five Salish tribes in central B.C. She is a survivor of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

A trained teacher, Mary Jane Joe shares her knowledge and experience on First Nations history, residential school life and traditional culture as well as developing curriculum and lesson planning. She has experience working alongside artist educators in DareArts, RCM, Indigenousartists.ca, who go into classrooms in Vancouver schools to share history, traditional knowledge, story, song and dance with students of all ages. Mary Jane Joe has two grown children, three grandchildren and lives with her husband in his home community of Musqueam.

Shannon Leddy

Dr. Shannon Leddy is a card-carrying member of the Métis Nation of British Columbia and an associate professor of art education at the University of British Columbia, whose practice focuses on using transformative pedagogies in decolonizing and Indigenizing teacher education. Her PhD research at Simon Fraser University focused on inviting pre-service teachers into dialogue with contemporary Indigenous art as a mechanism of decolonization in order to help them become adept at delivering Indigenous education without reproducing colonial stereotypes. Before arriving at UBC, Shannon taught high school Art, Social Studies, and English. She is the Co-Chair of the Institute for Environmental Learning, and a Research Fellow with the Institute for Public Education/BC. Her book, Teaching where you are: weaving slow and Indigenous pedagogies, written with Dr. Lorrie Miller, is now available from the University of Toronto Press. She is also a mother and a Nehiyaw/Cree language learner as well as a Danish language learner.

Shelley Macdonald 

Shelley is an inter-disciplinary artist of Mi'kmaq, Eel River (Ugpi'Ganjig), NB and Scottish, British ancestry. She works in film, photography, theatre, and visual art. She is the co-founder of Artists Rendering Tales Collective Inc. and for over 25 years, Shelley has collaborated with Indigenous Artists, Elders and Educators to create meaningful experiences that focus on social justice issues to create systemic change.
Her approach to film-making and theatre is through the lens of collaborative creation and the Mi'kmaw world view of Two-Eyed seeing. 

Selected Film Credits include directing for the Fountain School (Dalhousie University) Creating and Learning in Mi’kma’ki that share ideas from the Fountain School community about how their artistic or research practice deepens their connection to living, creating, and learning in Mi’kma’ki. Nutuwiek? Can you hear us? with Mi’kmaw Water Protector Dorene Bernard. Pass the Drum that she co-created and directed for the Royal Conservatory of music which features Indigenous musicians telling stories of receiving their first drum. Water Provocation with Mohawk Artist, Alyssa M. General from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and Ntle’kepmx Elder Nk’xetko for the Royal Conservatory’s Learning Through the Arts.

Theatre credits include Surrounded by Owls, Western Canadian tour of The Gift, told through movement, dance, traditional drumming and singing with Coast Salish Artist Johnny Aitken. Co-directed and performed in the Ki'kwaju and the Birds staged reading for the Fountain School which is currently in development and will begin filming in 2024/2025 with Order of Canada Recipient and Inuk soprano Deantha Edmunds.

Leslie McGarry

Leslie McGarry is a member of the Kwagiulth First Nation, one of several bands within the Kwakwaka’ wakw territory, located on the northeast part of Vancouver Island and she is grateful for the generous hospitality of the Lekwungen People.

Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Leslie represents the 5th generation of her family to work in the field of Cultural Awareness, a legacy that began with her Great-Great Grandfather, George Hunt, who worked with anthropologist, Franz Boaz to record the cultural heritage and practices of the Kwakwaka’ wakw People. Leslie is also a Great- Granddaughter of the late Chief Mungo Martin and the eldest Granddaughter of the late Chief Henry Hunt, both of whom were internationally renowned artists as well as Master Carvers for the Royal BC Museum’s totem pole restoration project. The Royal BC Museum is also home to a replica of a Cedar Big House belonging to Chief Jonathan Hunt, Leslie’s paternal Great-Grandfather. Leslie’s Grandmother, the late Helen Hunt was a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Victoria Native Friendship Centre, where Leslie was employed for twenty-six years. Leslie’s mother, Shirley (Hunt) Ford is an artist in her own right and has created button blankets for international museums as well as the Royal BC Museum and many private collectors.

Anita Prest

Anita Prest is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Victoria, Canada. Guided by multi-First Nation, Métis, and non-Indigenous partners, she has engaged in four federally funded community-engaged studies to examine the embedding of local Indigenous knowledge, pedagogies, and worldviews in British Columbia’s public school music classes. Anita teaches undergraduate music education courses to both secondary music specialist and elementary generalist teacher candidates, plus graduate research methodology courses. She is a member of the MayDay Group Steering Committee, and co-Chair of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) Commission on Policy: Culture, Education, and Media. Anita is co-founder of the ISME Decolonizing and Indigenizing Music Education special interest group. Prior to her appointment at the University of Victoria, she taught K-12 music for 20 years in rural and metropolitan settings.

Bruce Sled

Bruce Sled (b. 1975) graduated from the UBC music program in 1998 where he studied music composition with Stephen Chatman. His opera, The Nightingale and the Rose, was performed by the UBC Opera Ensemble in 1998 in the Chan Center for the Performing Arts. His music has been performed across Canada, the United States, and in Europe. Local choirs that have performed his works include The UBC Singers, musica intima, Vancouver Cantata Singers, Chor Leoni, and the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Bruce continues to compose while teaching in North Vancouver.