We identify, promote, and create opportunities for Indigenous peoples to support and develop the well-being and self-sufficiency of the community. We support the preservation of traditional knowledge, advance respective cultural identities, and reflect evolving cultural expression helping the community heal from the traumas of colonization.
Our Core Initiatives
The Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts (ANDPVA) is Canada's oldest Indigenous arts service organization, providing support to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists. Our signature events and programming facilitate healing through the arts by creating safe spaces to learn and share in culturally appropriate ways.
THE WRITERS ROOM
The Writers Room series presents opportunities for emerging and established Indigenous writers’ readings of written, traditional and oral storytelling. Established performers include, Tantoo Cardinal and Cliff Cardinal, among others.
Talkbacks and Q&A sessions engage audiences and prompt conversations that deepen their understanding of the writer’s work. These discussions stimulate writers with new ideas and perspectives and foster deeper connections to their audiences.
Writers Room also offers storytelling, poetry and writing workshops hosted by writers such as Lee Maracle, Jace Martin, Wabs WhiteBird, Isaac Murdoch, Tantoo Cardinal and Duke Redbird.
We build community with the houseless by bringing the Writers Room performances to the park, workshops, and feasts.
CREATION & CLAN STORY WORKSHOPS
Creation and Clan Story workshops are storytelling circles that bring together Community Members, Elders, Artists, and Council Fire staff in a supportive environment. Partnered with Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, the Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts (ANDPVA) collaborates on projects like the story workshops that restore identity to Indigenous peoples.
Cultural genocide ensured that stories were not passed down from generation to generation. Based on the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples, Creation and Clan Story workshops become a healing circle for community members facing trauma.
Creation and Clan Story Workshops Sharing Circles range from 12 session series featuring Medicine Wheel Teachings to create personal safety plans to sessions around matriarch rights, banner, breastplate and rattle making for cultural expression to Red Dress Pin-Making to commemorate Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and LGBTQ2S. The houseless are welcomed at all Workshops hosted in parks.
RED REVUE
Created as a COVID-19 Emergency Support Program for artist relief, ANDPVA sponsored up to 40 artists who were able to showcase their artwork for sales. ANDPVA drove additional awareness of artists’ participation and their work by sharing artists profiles and photos with ANDPVA’s Facebook and Instagram Community comprised of 2,186 followers.
The pop-up’s success exceeded expectations attracting shoppers from all over Ontario and some international visitors as well. This success enabled ANDPVA to extend sponsorship to June 30, 2022. 100% of sales went to the artist.
INDIGENOUS ART MARKET
Created as a COVID-19 Emergency Support Program for artist relief, ANDPVA sponsored up to 40 artists who were able to showcase their artwork for sales. ANDPVA drove additional awareness of artists’ participation and their work by sharing artists profiles and photos with ANDPVA’s Facebook and Instagram Community comprised of 2,186 followers.
The pop-up’s success exceeded expectations attracting shoppers from all over Ontario and some international visitors as well. This success enabled ANDPVA to extend sponsorship to June 30, 2022. 100% of sales went to the artist.
COLLABORATIONS
Thank you to our collaborative partners. Together we are facilitating healing through the arts and fostering community.
2021 Indigenous Legacy Gathering
ANDPVA is proud to be a partner of the 2021 Indigenous Legacy Gathering. Undertaken by Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre (TCFNCC), in collaboration with the City of Toronto, the Indigenous Legacy Gathering showcases and celebrates the diversity of Indigenous Peoples’ cultures, traditions and languages through workshops, presentations, stories, teachings, dance, film and music. ANDPVA programming includes artists, storytellers and workshops.
ROM After Dark
As a program partner, ANDPVA curated Indigenous programming for ROM After Dark (RAD) for eight years. Indigenous storytellers, comedians, award-winning musicians, and artists present themes ranging from the teachings & traditions of the Grandmother Moon to the creative expressions of belonging to the Sisterhood. Guest performances include Sage Paul, an award-winning artist, designer and recognized leader of Indigenous fashion and textiles, DJ Ariel, stand-up comedy team Manifest Destiny’s Child, a collective of Indigenous women sharing their humble and humorous perspectives of getting by in a colonial world and live hoop dance featuring Lisa Odjig, who is the first woman in history to win the title of World Champion Hoop Dancer.
Indian Residential School Survivors (IRRS) Legacy Celebration
ANDPVA sponsorship and sharing circles support this celebration annually 30th to honour residential school survivors and their families. Recognition of Indigenous cultural resiliency, and diversity helps restore identity.
Toronto Council Fire Feast
Luminato Festival
Luminato Festival is an international arts festival dedicated to performance, media and visual arts that cuts across traditional art-form boundaries.
In 2021 ANDPVA sponsored the exhibit Built On Genocide by multidisciplinary artist Jay Soule/CHIPPEWAR. The large-scale installation reflects the events and policies throughout Canada’s history that have deliberately undermined and destroyed Indigenous livelihoods.
The work is influenced by the mass genocide of the buffalo because of the colonial railway expansion. The buffalo decimation is an underacknowledged but foundational aspect of “Canadian” history, with consequences that persist today.
Built on Genocide addresses the direct correlation between the genocide of the buffalo and the genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada.
In 2022 ANDPVA sponsored the festival opening with Juno-nominated and Polaris long-listed Iskwē and her beautiful concert acākosīk (the stars). The songs on acākosīk and The Stars are meant to raise awareness of systemic abuses and societal opinions and the way we’ve been perceived and treated, but also to celebrate our culture and help bridge that gap – to help us find empathy and common ground and connect the way we’re supposed to as people, regardless of race or religion or background,” she shares. “A lot of these issues, while they stem from my experiences and those of my people, are really universally human issues.”
The Communities We Serve
Indigenous Artists, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, Survivors, and the Houseless Most of our First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists identify as Elders, Knowledge Keepers, Indian Residential School Survivors, Intergenerational Survivors, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQ+ relatives and friends, Indigenous Human Trafficking Survivors, Children's Aid Survivors, 60's Scoop Survivors, Starlight Tour Survivors, Two-Spirit, unemployed, under-employed, single parents, and the houseless. ANDPVA’s programs enable Indigenous peoples to see and hear their stories, songs, languages, and cultures reflected, thereby relieving the feeling of being alone. The violence and racism of European contact disrupted strong, stable Indigenous communities. AEKS help participants recognize their inner strength and resilience. AEKS focus on the hopes for their future and not as being defined by their trauma. ANDPVA gives voices to the voiceless and creates safe spaces for Indian Residential School Survivors to tell their stories. We build community with the houseless by bringing art to the parks through the Writers Room performances, workshops, and feasts. LEARN MORE
Our Measurable Impact
ANDPVA’s programs enable Indigenous peoples to see and hear their stories, songs, languages, and cultures reflected, thereby relieving the feeling of being alone. The violence and racism of European contact disrupted strong, stable Indigenous communities. AEKS help participants recognize their inner strength and resilience. AEKS focus on the hopes for their future and not as being defined by their trauma. LEARN MORE
WRITERS ROOM
The Writers Room series presents opportunities for emerging and established Indigenous writers’
Established performers include, Tantoo Cardinal and Cliff Cardinal, among others. Talkbacks and Q&A sessions engage audiences and prompt conversations that deepen their understanding of the writer’s work. These discussions stimulate writers with new ideas and perspectives and foster deeper connections to their audiences.
LEARN MORECreation and Clan Story Workshops
Bringing together Community Members, Elders, Artists
Creation and Clan Story workshops are storytelling circles that bring together Community Members, Elders, Artists, and Council Fire staff in a supportive environment. Partnered with Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, the Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts (ANDPVA) collaborates on projects like the story workshops that restore identity to Indigenous peoples. Cultural genocide ensured that stories were not passed down from generation to generation. Based on the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples, Creation and Clan Story workshops become a healing circle for community members facing trauma. Creation and Clan Story Workshops Sharing Circles range from 12 session series featuring Medicine Wheel Teachings to create personal safety plans to sessions around matriarch rights, banner, breastplate and rattle making for cultural expression to Red Dress Pin-Making to commemorate Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and LGBTQ2S. The houseless are welcomed at all Workshops hosted in parks.
LEARN MOREThe Red Review
Red Revue is a live performing arts presentation series for established and emerging Indigenous artists
The series features a headline performer with a special guest and open mic slots for emerging artists to perform in front of a live audience. Emerging artists learn from those more experienced, experiment creatively and improve their performance skills. First presented in 2011, the Red Revue presents a vast array of Indigenous artists throughout Toronto to Indigenous audiences in various venues like the Royal Ontario Museum, Rivoli, Hard Rock Café, Horseshoe Tavern, Tranzac Club, The Sister, Monarch Tavern, Melody Bar, and Blnd Tger. Established participating performers are Susan Aglukark, TheRa11n, Shawnee, Classic Roots. Veronica Johnny, Stephanie Pangowish, Red Rhythm & Blues, Rosary Spence, Logan Staats, Digging Roots, Lacey Hill and The Bad Guys, Kristi Lane Sinclair, Cliff Cardinal and The Skylarks, The Ollivanders hosted by Andre Morriseau, Derek Miller, Missy Knott, Cheri Maracle and Niiko Soul, and Jace Martin and the Pace.
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