Performing Embodied Oralities II- Participants/participantes

Warren Cariou is a Métis scholar and artist from Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, and he teaches Indigenous Literatures and oral cultures at the University of Manitoba.  His scholarly work focuses mainly on the Métis and Cree oral traditions and of Western Canada's boreal region, while his photography and filmmaking has dealt mainly with the effects of oil development on Indigenous communities.  His fiction, poetry and memoir writing is deeply influenced by the oral traditions of his home community.  He is a Canada Research Chair and Director of the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at the University of Manitoba.  Website: www.warrencariou.com.

Alejandra Gaviria.  Realizadora audiovisual empírica. Historiadora de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Magister en Prácticas y políticas para el desarrollo social de la Universidad de Altos Estudios de Ginebra-Suiza. Fundadora del movimiento H.I.J.O.S (Hijas e Hijos por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio) a través del cual desde el año 2006, desarrollamos iniciativas de defensa de los derechos humanos, derechos de las víctimas, la memoria histórica y la verdad. Desde el 2009 hago parte del equipo de trabajo que se dio a la labor de construir el Centro del Memoria, Paz y Reconciliación. Actualmente me despeño como Coordinadora del Área Acción Comunicativa, Cultural, Arte y Espacio Público. Desde allí, mi trabajo se ha centrado en el desarrollo y uso de prácticas artísticas y herramientas audiovisuales para la investigación y acción social, en temas centrales como son el conflicto armado, los derechos humanos, las víctimas y la memoria.  Proyectos en los que participo: www.centromemoria.gov.co  ***                                                www.hijosbogota.org  ***   http://centromemoria.gov.co/cartografias-de-la-memoria/.

Aimee Louw is a writer, activist, radio host and media-based researcher currently living in Montreal, Quebec, unceded Mohawk territory. Her media practice spans topics of accessibility, sexuality, feminism, and anti-colonialism through the multimedia Underwater City Project, sex-education blog and video series, ACSEXE+, and through publication in print media and radio.  Website:  http://aimeelouw.com/.  Blog:  http://underwatercityproject.tumblr.com/

Doris Jacanamijoy Mutumbajoy (Waira Nina) was born in Yurayaco, Caqueta, Colombia where she grew up in the ambiwaska traditional ceremonies guided by both her maternal and paternal grandfathers taitas. Her spiritual and artistic inspirations come from the sounds of the river, the forest and ceremonial nights.  She carries deep knowledge of traditional musical instruments such as the cascabel, the quena and the dulzaina and loves creating sound choreographies which draw from Inga culture.  She has written Life is but a Vision, a book of stories which will be published in Spanish, English and Ingana in the coming year. She has created experimental sound art pieces for the Amazon Intercultural Radios Network and has participated in artistic residencies and sound laboratories such as in Iquitos, Peru. For the last thirteen years and under the guidance of the taitas and the mamas, Waira has been guiding the creation, direction and coordination of all political processes and policies in regards to culture, arts and ethics for her people, the Inga nation. 

Émilie Monnet founded the multimedia project ONISHKA in 2011 to herald performance-based work, created from unique collaborations between artists of different cultures and disciplines. Her work experiments and creates from a place where languages, imagination and memory intersect; telling stories with theatre and media art forms that weave the symbolic realms of dreams and mythology–both personal and collective. Her artistic engagement is inspired by years of social activism with indigenous organizations in Canada and Latin America as well as community art projects with incarcerated women and Aboriginal youth. Emilie is part Anishnaabe and French, and lives in Montreal.  Website:  http://onishka.org/en/  

Juliane Okot Bitek is a poet and a PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia. She thinks and writes about memory, homeland and exile. Her book of poetry 100 Days (University of Alberta Press) is forthcoming early 2016.  She is very happy to be here.  Website:  julianeokotbitek.com. 

Dot Tuer is a writer, curator and cultural historian based in Toronto, Canada and Corrientes, Argentina. She is Professor of Visual and Critical Studies at OCAD University and has published extensively on Canadian and Latin American art from a decolonial and cross-cultural perspective, with a specific focus in performance, photography, and new media. She also researches and writes on the history of Indigenous-European relations and mestizaje in colonial Río de la Plata (present-day Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay). Tuer is the author of Mining the Media Archive (2006) and of numerous museum catalogue, book anthology, and journal essays. Her most recent curatorial project was a retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario on the art and revolutionary politics of Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera (Frida and Diego: Passion, Politics, and Painting, 2012-13). Tuer’s present writing and collaborative projects address the relationship of social memory and witnessing to political agency and decolonization. Recent publications that relate to the workshop thematic - “Towards the Darkness (and the Light): Reflections on an ESMA Photograph” and “Transculturality and the Colonial Legacy of Popular Belief in North-East Argentina,” – can be found at http://ocad.academia.edu/DotTuer.