Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
In April 2024, the Academy of Theatre and Dance is honoured to be hosting Leanne Betasamosake Simpson as Artist in Residence. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, musician, academic and activist who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work breaks open the intersections between politics, story and song—bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity. She is a status member of Alderville First Nation in Ontario, Canada.
The Artist in Residency with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson addresses the need to bring indigenous knowledge and perspectives into the education, research programme and wider research culture of the ATD particularly as it relates to questions of the relationship between the arts, regeneration, decolonization and our relationships to land, water and nonhuman beings.
In terms of innovation, indigenous perspectives remain underrepresented in the arts and mainstream climate and social justice debates in the Netherlands. Students, teachers, and professionals in the Dutch context are in the process of understanding how to relate to these perspectives – beyond appropriation and extraction – and how to learn from them in and through their arts practices. Students, teachers and professionals do not have frequent or direct access to indigenous artists in order to enter into dialogue with their work and perspectives. HBO and Universities are both concerned with the decolonization of the arts and art education but rarely have contexts to come together to address this important issue.
This AIR programme attempts to address this need through a public programme where students, teachers and professionals can come together – across disciplines and institutions – in order to learn together about how indigenous knowledges offer alternative, non-extractive practices of relating to land, water and nonhuman beings.
Reciprocity
The programme particularly responds to this need as articulated by the Masters Creative Producing which is looking to the concept of ‘reciprocity’ as a central idea relevant to the profession of creative producing. The AIR program is embedded in the plans for the Spring semester where the Masters students will focus not only on the human community but also on reciprocity in the non-human world - where the world of plants and fungi provide inspiration for considerations about possible new forms of organisation.
The program is also highly relevant to the ATD Lectorate’s ongoing project Climate Imaginaries and forms part of its ‘artistic research studio’ which focusses on global South and indigenous perspectives on arts and climate justice. The AIR with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is programmed to take place during the Climate Imaginaries Festival and provides a fundamental contribution to sharing knowledge around indigenous perspectives on land and water. Leanne’s work – through poetry, film, song and scholarship – has deep ties to the themes of our research: social justice, regeneration and ecological grief.
Public Events
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s own practice is inspiring in its formal plurality: spanning writing (poetry, fiction and scholarship), music, film making and activism.
The AIR program aims to showcase this diversity through a public program in which Leanne will contribute through talks, workshops, film screening, an exhibition, poetry readings and a concert. Leanne’s own contributions are then interwoven with those of collaborators contributing to the wider Climate Imaginaries Festival including through exhibitions, practical workshops and performative walks.
The residency is organised around 5 public events in the period from 14 – 25 April:
Land as Pedagogy – public lecture by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on Sunday 14th April, 11am-1pm @ Adyen
Registration Land as Pedagogy.
Indigenous Artists in Europe: A Roundtable - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson in dialogue with guest indigenous artists Jenni Laiti, sata taas collective and Victor Bottenbley, moderated by Chihiro Geuzebroek on Wednesday 17th April, 5-7pm @ UvA Theatre
Registration Indegenous Artist in Europe: A Roundtable
Theory of Water - public lecture by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson as part of Studio Encounters on Water #2 on Tuesday 23rd April, 12-17pm @Perdu
Registration Theory of Water
A Blow To the Snake Here - A conversation around indigenous and Palestinian struggle. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson in dialogue with guests Samah Hijawi and Yazan Khalili moderated by Sara Giannini, Wednesday 24th April, 6-8pm @Framer Framed in collaboration with UvA teach-in
Registration: link to come
Theory of Ice - a concert by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson hosted by Chihiro Geuzebroek on Thursday 25th April, 8.30-10.30pm, @Tolhuistuin.
Tickets Theory of Ice.
Detailed information about the events and the programme can be found at Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.
Biography
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, musician, academic and activist who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work breaks open the intersections between politics, story and song—bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity. She is a status member of Alderville First Nation in Ontario, Canada.
Leanne is the author of eight previous books, including As We Have Always Done (2017) and Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back. Her novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies, which was short-listed for the Dublin Literary Prize and the Governor General’s prize for fiction. Her latest project in collaboration with Robyn Maynard, Rehearsals for Living was short-listed for the Governor Generals prize for non-fiction and is a national best seller. Leanne’s album Theory of Ice was short- listed for the Polaris Prize and she was the recipient of the Prism Prize’s Willie Dunn award for innovation in video production.
Working for two decades as an independent scholar using Nishnaabeg intellectual practices, Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities nationally andinternationally and has twenty years experience with Indigenous land based education. She holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba.
Led by the ATD Lectorate as part of the AHK AiR program, the residency with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is organised in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam, the Climate Imaginaries at Sea coalition, ARIAS, Lectorate Social Justice and Diversity in the Arts, MA Creative Producing, Framer Framed, Aralez, Arts in Resistance, Tolhuistuin and the ATD Sustainability Platform