We’re excited to bring together three prolific storytellers Waubgeshig Rice, Louise Profeit-LeBlanc, and Jacqui du Toit to hear creation stories and folklore from their communities. This will be followed by a Q&A about how stories are passed down from elders to youth, what folklore tells us about a community, and why folklore is relevant to us today. The event is FREE, however we encourage you to donate if you can! 50% of ticket proceeds will go towards Six Nations land defenders. The event will take place through Facebook Live!
If you would like to sign up with a donation, you can register through Eventbrite.
Storytellers
Louise Profeit-LeBlanc has been committed to the cultural and artistic heritage of her people for over 30 years. This includes being cofounder of two seminal organizations of the Yukon: the Yukon International Storytelling Festival and the Society of Yukon Artists of Native Ancestry. Louise worked for several years as the Yukon Native Heritage advisor for the Yukon Government, recording traditional stories relative to Yukon geographical place names. She pays tribute to the many Elders she was privileged to work with for over a decade, ensuring these precious stories were captured for future generations.
Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist from Wasauksing First Nation on Georgian Bay. He has written three fiction titles, and his short stories and essays have been published in numerous anthologies. His most recent novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow, was published in 2018 and became a national bestseller. He spent the bulk of his journalism career at CBC, most recently as host of Up North, the afternoon radio program for northern Ontario. He lives in Sudbury with his wife and sons. Follow Waubgeshig on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Jacqui du Toit is a multi-award-winning international storyteller, actor, dancer and writer. In April of 2017 – after performances at the Origin Arts Community Centre and The Gladstone Theatre – Jacqui’s show The Hottentot Venus-Untold was produced by Counterpointe Player’s TACTICS Festival. Jacqui has performed with Ottawa Little Theatre, Rock the Arts children’s puppet company, the Niyamah Collective, and Ottawa StoryTellers. Jacqui has her degree in Theatre and Performance from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and is bilingual in English and Afrikaans. Jacqui is co-owner of The Origin Arts Community Centre, Creative Director and Storyteller at Generation 8 Performance and serves on the Board of Directors for GCTC (2017 – present). Follow Jacqui on Facebook and Instagram.
The Storytelling Evening is part of the ongoing project, Reth Aur Reghistan by two sisters Manahil and Nimra Bandukwala. Find out more about the project here.
An Evening of Storytelling is funded by The City of Ottawa, on the traditional unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin and Anishnabek people. Reth aur Reghistan works on the sacred territory of the Anishnabek, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently the Mississaugas of the Credit River. As a project that learns and shares stories from the indigenous communities in Sindh, Pakistan, we are equally committed to learning from the knowledge, stories and folklore from the various Indigenous Nations in what we now call Canada.