Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series with Margo Kane: Journey to Indigenize

Date: Wed, Jan 21, 2026 @ 7:00 PM

Location Max Bell Auditorium

Optional Smudge at 6:45 PM

Can’t make it in person? The talk will be live-streamed so you can watch from anywhere. Please register to receive the webinar link.

This event is free and all are welcome.

Age Restrictions

Ages 14 and Over

Margo Kane, photo by Kristine Cofsky Photography.

Join us for a conversation with Margo Kane (Cree–Saulteaux Métis), performing artist, cultural leader, and Founder and Artistic Managing Director of Full Circle: First Nations Performance.

Kane will describe her journey to Indigenize her artistic practice through her work before 1992, when she founded Full Circle: First Nations Performance to create opportunities and build space for Indigenous artists to develop, train, and share their work.

She will also reflect on how she reconnects with herself and her artistic practice through embodiment techniques that are central to all her performances. This includes works such as Moonlodge, Reflections in the Medicine Wheel, and Confessions of an Indian Cowboy.

Facilitated by Janine Windolph, Director of Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre, the session includes a presentation by Kane, followed by a discussion and a Q&A. This conversation will be live-streamed and recorded, with the recording shared following the event. Sessions may share experiences and ask difficult questions.

About the Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series

The Decolonizing the Narrative Conversation Series is a bi-monthly conversation session inviting leading Indigenous Art creators to discuss their practices and processes. The series engages an Indigenous lens across various art forms, including Literary Arts, Film and Media Arts, Digital Media, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts such as Theatre, Dance, and Music. These sessions offer a space to explore and deepen your understanding of how Indigenous artists use their disciplines as tools to decolonize artistic processes and creation.

Biography

Cree-Saulteaux Metis performing artist, Margo Kane is the Founder and Artistic Managing Director of Full Circle: First Nations Performance. With a career spanning over 50 years, she has made significant contributions as an actor, performing artist, and community cultural worker. Her commitment to sharing meaningful artistic performances with Indigenous peoples has been the driving force behind her extensive work, travels, and consultations with Indigenous communities throughout Canada and abroad. Kane’s celebrated one-woman production, Moonlodge, is regarded as an Indigenous Canadian classic. The show toured nationally and internationally for more than a decade, earning high praise from critics and audiences alike. During the inaugural Festival of the Dreaming in Australia, The Sydney Press lauded the performance, describing it as "in the top echelon of solo performance."

As a trailblazer in Indigenous Performing Arts, she developed and runs the annual Talking Stick Festival which celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2021 and numerous programs including Moccasin Trek: Arts on the Move!, Indian Acts and an Indigenous Producer’s Program in Vancouver. These initiatives have provided valuable opportunities for Indigenous artists and have fostered community engagement through the arts.

Margo Kane’s outstanding contributions to the performing arts have been recognized with several prestigious awards and honors including an International Citation of Merit from ISPA – International Society for the Performing Arts, an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of the Fraser Valley, the Order of Canada from the Governor-General, an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from SFU – Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC., and the National Arts Centre Award for Distinguished Contribution to Touring, Ottawa, ON, Canada.