Heart Circle

Produced by The Fox Queen in partnership with The Port Hardy Museum.

A live blending of storytelling, personal experience, and performance art.

Join us in person this Sept 19, 2024 for the public feast and community artistic responses to the Messages on Doors rock painting workshop in honour of The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Messages on Doors is a community engagement workshop and live art presentation where members of the Vancouver Island public generate a shared legacy of hand-made works of art through a free artist directed creative process.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Indigenous and non-Indigenous community participants work together to create messages of love shared as a live celebration performance on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw, Quastino & Kwakiutl peoples.

The Big Ideas

• We are responsible to take action against the Historical and Present day dark messages of hate towards Indigenous peoples.

• In these times of Reconciliation, we need to connect more.

Values: Love. Truth. Listening. Survival. Joy.

The Fox Queen Indigenous Collaborator — Tsatassaya White

Tsatassaya White, B.A. is a curator, event planner and community mobilizer. She is a member of the Snuneymuxw First Nation (Coast Salish) and also of Earthquake House of the Hamilton family of Hupacasath (Nuu-chah-nulth Nations). She carries cultural knowledge, roots her work in traditional protocols and has a vast network of community connections. Recently, Tsatassaya curated “Qwuyulush utl’ Swyalana” a day of Indigenous dance at InFrinGinG Dance Festival (July 2019) at Maffeo Sutton Park, produced and directed “huulth-huultha 2020” a dance film in response to the pandemic, and curated the inaugural Sum̓sháthut (Sun) Festival, an on-line Indigenous cultural festival, and co-produced with Nanaimo’s Crimson Coast Dance Society. 

Artistic Lead — The Fox Queen

Progressive Theatre Collective, The Fox Queen (FQ) was formed during the early days of Covid 19, due to a strong desire to connect, inquire, dismantle, (re)align artistic practices, and forge new decolonized ways of theatre making and creation. The Fox Queen is creative collaborators Tamara McCarthy and Dave Mott.  These two white artists of settler descent have over 40 years of combined theatre creation, direction, performance, physical training, devising, leadership, independent producing, mentorship, presentation and teaching in the arts sector.  The Fox Queen ethos rests solidly inside the founding shared values of Humour, Love, Communication, Listening, Respect, Healing, Song, and Collaboration. Tamara and Dave are focused on Community, Responsibility, Survival, Anti-Racist Practice and the Present Moment. Our values lead and define us.  FQ exists in the present moment, self reflecting and focusing on the heartbeats around us; we are flexible, continually responding to the evolving needs of the people on our teams and the communities with whom we engage.

Heart Circle Core Artist

Heart Circle Producer - Minah Lee

Minah is a multidisciplinary artist and arts producer based in traditional and ancestral Snuneymuxw and Snaw-naw-as territories. She was born and raised in South Korea and first moved to unceded Coast Salish territories on the mainland in 2007. Minah initially joined Messages on Doors as a core artist, one of the founding duo of an art collective Art Action Earwig for the MOD: Quw’utsun in 2023. Meanwhile she was also excited to take the role of an assistant producer for the project, deepening her relationship with broader communities on Vancouver Island. She feels very grateful to be able to learn more about the history, creativity, and spirituality of the communities she has been meeting and collaborating with.

The Community Participants

Everyone is welcome to attend from the Port Hardy region, Kwakiutl, Quatsino and Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw First Nations.

The Fox Queen, in partnership with The Port Hardy Museum, will lead a FREE family friendly rock painting and button making workshop to explore the Messages on Doors’ Big Ideas. Core Artist Tim Alfred will present a newly carved bent box to hold the energy of the rocks.

All are welcome to participate how they are able.

The Team

Produced by The Fox Queen

Associate Production by Minah Lee and Brie Watson

Port Hardy Museum Support from Robin Folvik

Event Details

Public Celebration and Feast - September 18, 2024

Port Hardy Visitor Centre (Carrot Park)

7250 Market St, Port Hardy, BC V0N 2P0

Complimentary food and soft drinks will be served starting at 6:00pm until resources run out.

More info on the celebration and feast go to the facebook event.

EVENT TIMELINE

Protocol Welcome & Prayer

Dinner

Core Artist Tim Alfred Carving Presentation

Community Heart Circle Workshop: Rock Painting and Button Making

Final Thoughts

This is a free event. Donations gladly accepted.

Do you have barriers to access Messages on Doors?

Please contact us to discuss with The Fox Queen if our team are able to meet them.

Port Hardy Visitor Centre - 7250 Market St, Port Hardy, BC V0N 2P0