Hand to Earth is a call to open ears: eluding genre, traversing continents and fusing ancient and contemporary. At its heart are Yolgnu manikay (song cycles), a 40,000+ year-old oral tradition from South East Arnhem Land, northern Australia. These songs exist to cross vast time and space, to continuously make the continuous – known as raki, the spirit that pulls all together, all performers all listeners. 

Hand to Earth developed during an Australia Art Orchestra (AAO) residency in the remote highlands of Tasmania. Yolgnu songman, Daniel Wilfred, and Korean vocalist, Sunny Kim, formed an effortless rapport; their combined vocal approaches expressing a deeply human commonality whilst also invoking raw elemental forces. Trumpeter and composer, Peter Knight draws upon his minimalist influence to create a bed of electronic atmospheres that meld beautifully with these contrasting voices. The combination of Aviva Endean and David Wilfred’s evocative sounds transport the listener to previously unimagined sonic plains. Together the ensemble wields these mystical elements with a masterful improvisational touch that AAO is famous for.

Photo by Sung Hyun Sohn

Brenna Corner is an international opera and theatre stage director working across the United States, Canada and Europe. She is also the Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Victoria, in British Columbia Canada.

Select directing projects include: Il Trovatore (Washington National Opera); Tenor Overboard (Glimmerglass Festival); H.M.S Pinafore (Vancouver Opera); Carmen (Des Moines Metro Opera); Don Giovanni (Seattle Opera); Hansel and Gretel (San Diego Opera & Vancouver Opera); La Bohème (Calgary Opera); Dead Man Walking (The Israeli Opera); La Bohème (The Dallas Opera); Noye’s Fludd & Scalia/Ginsburg (Glimmerglass Opera); Sweeney Todd (New Orleans Opera); Der fliegende Holländer (Cincinnati Opera & Houston Grand Opera); L’Elisir d’Amore (Vancouver Opera); Carmen (The Atlanta Opera); and Cendrillon & La Clemenza di Tito (Manitoba Underground Opera).

She was the founding Artistic Director of Manitoba Underground Opera, which produces a festival of new operatic experiences each August in Winnipeg. She has also worked as a dramatic coach for training programs including The Washington National Opera Cafritz Young Artist Program in Washington D.C.

Brenna made her directorial main stage debut in 2016 with a new production of Hansel and Gretel designed by the Old Trout Puppet Workshop for Vancouver Opera. This production has since toured North America, and was mostly recently produced for San Diego Opera as part of their 2019-20 season. She made her American directorial debut in February of 2017 with New Orleans Opera, creating a new production of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

During the COVID-19 pandemic she created new opera experiences through film including Don Giovanni for Seattle Opera, Carmen: Up-Close and Personal for Vancouver Opera, Dear Mom: a web series for Kentucky Opera and Green Envelopes for Manitoba Underground Opera.

Brenna was a member of the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program with Vancouver Opera and spent two years as the resident director for The Atlanta Opera Studio Artist Program. She is a certified member of Fight Directors Canada and has choreographed many fights for both opera and theatre.

She studied classical music at The University of Manitoba, and she has diplomas in theatre from Grant MacEwan College and The British American Drama Academy.

Jerry Ropson is an artist, writer, and arts organizer, raised in Pollards Point, a resettled Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) outport community. In acknowledging the settler and indigenous history of his community, he combines image, object, text, and narrative, to focus an artistic practice around site-specific installation and performative storytelling. Ropson is deeply interested in the politics of rural demise, ritualistic practices, and the language of fanaticism. He makes class-conscious work seeking non-traditional sites and outcomes. 

Ropson holds a BFA (2001) from Memorial University: Grenfell Campus, and an MFA (2009) in Studio Arts: Fibres and Material Practices, from Concordia University. Ropson was listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2016 and 2018. He has been awarded grants from The Canada Council for the Arts, The New Brunswick Art Board, The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and The Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council. He has participated in artist residencies at The Banff Centre, The Vermont Studio Center, The Atlantic Centre for the Arts, St. Michael’s Printshop, Fogo Island Arts, NSCAD University, and Union House Arts. 

Jerry divides his time between communities in rural Ktaqmkuk, and Siknikt-Mi'kma'ki (Tantramar, New Brunswick), where he leads studio courses at Mount Allison University.

David Garneau (Métis Nation of Saskatchewan) is a Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Regina. He is a descendant of Laurent and Eleanor Garneau (River Lot #7, Edmonton).  

He is a painter, curator and critical art writer who engages creative expressions of Indigenous contemporary ways of being. In 2023, he was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art: Outstanding Achievement and was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada. Garneau curated Kahwatsiretátie: The Contemporary Native Art Biennial (Montreal, 2020) with assistance from Faye Mullen and rudi aker; He co-curated, with Kathleen Ash Milby, Transformer: Native Art in Light and Sound, National Museum of the American Indian, New York (2017). With Tess Allas, he co-curated With Secrecy and Despatch, for the Campbelltown Art Centre, Sydney, Australia (2016). He and Michelle Lavallee curated and Moving Forward, Never Forgetting at the Mackenzie Art Gallery (2015). 

Garneau has given keynotes on mis/appropriation; re/conciliation; public art; museum displays; and Indigenous contemporary art. He presented, Dear John, a performance featuring the spirit of Louis Riel meeting with John A. Macdonald statues in Regina, Kingston, and Ottawa. David recently installed a large public artwork, the Tawatina Bridge paintings, in Edmonton. His still life paintings, Dark Chapters, curated by Arin Fay, will tour Canada in 2025

Liz Barron is a founding member of the Harbour Collective (harbourcollective.ca). Working within the Indigenous media and visual arts, Harbour Collective engages in research activities, artistic programming and service delivery for Indigenous filmmakers, media artists and visual artists. Harbour Collective has hosted four LAB series and is currently working on Indigenous artist rights working in artificial intelligence, along with commissioning five Indigenous artists to create augmented reality stories based on their traditional moon stories with a launch in Vienna in November 2024.

Barron has been in the arts for the last 30 years. She started her cultural career at Plug In ICA as their digital producer. During her time with Plug IN ICA, she met Louise Ogemah and Debra Prince who invited her to join them to create Urban Shaman, a contemporary Indigenous artist run centre, in Winnipeg. 

Barron’s connection to place is the homeland of the Metis. Her mother is from St. Francois Xavier, Manitoba and her father is from St. Francois Xavier/ Pigeon Lake, Manitoba. Her maternal grandparents are from St. Charles, Manitoba (Peltier / Pelletier) and Harperville, Manitoba (Miller). Her paternal grandparents are from St. Francois Xavier (Barron / Chalifoux). The Chalifoux were identified as Cree on the Canadian Census and claimed scrip. 

Barron is a member of the Manitoba Metis Federation and a member of the Catfish Local, Winnipeg.

Daphne Boyer is a Canadian visual artist of Métis descent. Born and raised in Saskatchewan, long-time resident of Québec, Daphne currently lives and works on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples of Victoria BC, where she is an active member of the Métis Nation of British Columbia. 

A graduate of McGill University (Plant Science), Daphne’s work lies at the intersection of art and science. Daphne combines plant material, porcupine quills, women’s traditional handwork and high-resolution digital tools to create art that celebrates her Indigenous heritage and honours plants and animals as kin. 

Daphne recently invented two innovative photo-based digital techniques that mirror the spectacular beading and quillwork her ancestors used to embellish clothing and gear. Like traditional Métis art forms, her techniques are meticulous, technically demanding and time-consuming art practices. 

Daphne has used these practices to create a large body of work that has been exhibited at numerous solo and group shows, including at the Remai Modern (Saskatoon), MAI (Montréal), Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina), Legacy Art Gallery (Victoria) and Art Windsor-Essex (Windsor). Her art is held in various public and private collections across the country. Daphne is passionate about community engagement; educational tours and art-making workshops form an integral part of her exhibitions

Marjorie Beaucage is a filmmaker, art-ivist and educator, a land and water protector. Born in Vassar, Manitoba, to a large Métis family, Marjorie’s life’s work has been about creating social change, working to give people the tools for creating possibilities and right relations. Marjorie’s goal has been to pass on the stories, knowledge and skills that will make a difference for the future. For Marjorie, story is medicine. 

As a Two-Spirit Métis Elder, Marjorie’s work is focused on giving voice to, and creating safe cultural spaces for, traditionally silenced or excluded groups. She is the Elder for OUT Saskatoon and the youth-led Chokecherry Studios in Saskatoon. She has created over 35 community based videos, including her recent harm reduction video portraits on reducing the harms of colonialism and Grandmother Moon Power. 

Her recent book, leave some for the birds - movements for justice is also part of her legacy for the future. Marjorie was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts 2024 Governor General Award For Media Arts for her work in creative documentary.

Raised Red River in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Jason Baerg is now a registered member of the Métis Nations of Ontario. He serves his community as an Indigenous activist, curator, educator, and interdisciplinary artist. Baerg graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from Rutgers University. Baerg teaches as the Assistant Professor in Indigenous Practices in Contemporary Painting and Media Art at OCAD University. Exemplifying their commitment to community, they co-founded The Shushkitew Collective and The Métis Artist Collective. Baerg has served as volunteer chair for organizations such as the Indigenous Curatorial Collective and the National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition. 

As a visual artist, they push digital interventions in drawing, painting, and new media installation. Select international solo exhibitions include Canada House in London, UK, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, and the Digital Dome at the Institute of the American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. They sat on numerous art juries and won awards through such facilitators as the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and The Toronto Arts Council. For more information about their practice, please visit JasonBaerg.ca.

Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace by multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings is, in a sense, a debut album. And yet, the album also serves as a reintroduction to the artist, a levitating, stunning work chock full of the lessons he’s learned over the course of his life and career. And perhaps, most importantly, it represents the spirit of exploration that the artist is most tapped into these days.

London-born, Hutchings spent much of his childhood in Barbados. Beginning at age nine, he studied the clarinet, playing in calypso bands while studying classical repertoire, often practicing over hip hop beats by artists such as Nas, as well as to the music native to Barbados. He imparted that at the time, “The idea of being a particular ‘type’ of musician who limited themselves by genre was totally alien to me and my peers, it was just about playing with skill and dedication, and whether music moved me or left me cold.”

Consequently, after studying clarinet at Guildhall School of Music from 2004-2008, he collaborated on a kaleidoscopic range of projects: recording and/or touring with Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics, Soweto Kinch, Floating Points and Courtney Pine amongst many other bands, as well as being a part of the London Improvisers Orchestra. He’s also composed pieces for the BBC Concert Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Ligeti Quartet, and performed the Copland Clarinet Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Britten Sinfonietta as well as the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra.

Over the course of the past decade, the lion’s share of his touring and recorded work has been with three bands: Sons of Kemet, The Comet is Coming and Shabaka and the Ancestors. “In these formations,” he shared, “I’ve been able to display a fundamental approach to creative practice in different contexts spanning Afro-Caribbean fusion, London dance music club culture and the rich South African jazz tradition – all within the freedom afforded by the legacy of the American ‘jazz’ tradition.” That approach reflects a mantra he absorbed early in his life.

Kalia Vandever is a Grammy Award Winning trombonist and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her approach to the trombone is distinctive and defined by her sonorous tone and lyrical improvisational voice. She leans into the challenges of the instrument and allows patience and melody guide her process.

In her compositional practice, Kalia draws from her love of songs and improvisation, creating a landscape of sounds that resonate in the body and hold the listener. She released her debut ensemble album, "In Bloom" in 2019 which has been described as "the rise of an exciting voice for the music" (Seton Hawkins, Hot House Jazz Magazine). Her sophomore album, Regrowth released in May, 2022 on New Amsterdam Records and "confirms her strengths as a composer and bandleader with a distinctly contemporary point of view." (Nate Chinen, WBGO Jazz) Her debut solo album,We Fell In Turn featuring her works for trombone, voice and electronics released on AKP Records in March, 2023.

Kalia received her Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies at the Juilliard School in 2017. She has toured and performed internationally with her quartet, performing at festivals such as the Winter Jazz Festival and BRIC Jazz Festival. She is also known for her work as a side-woman, performing with jazz artists including Joel Ross, Immanuel Wilkins, Fay Victor, to name a few. She has also performed with popular artists including Harry Styles, Lizzo, Japanese Breakfast, Moses Sumney, Jennifer Hudson, and Demi Lovato. She has appeared on Saturday Night Live twice, as well as Samantha Bee's Full Frontal.

Photo by Bao Ngo.