"Planet IndigenUS shatters stereotypes of Native art"

Want to be a part of the largest living wampum belt? That is a question being asked by the Woodland Cultural Centre and the Planet IndigenUS festival that will start this weekend.

The festival opens up on August 14 and 15 and will continue until August 23, the majority of events will be held on the weekends.

One activity that visitors will have a chance to participate in is becoming part of the largest living wampum belt. If participants arrive at the festival by 2 o'clock on August 21 they can be in the aerial photo.

The people will be arranged on the ground to stand and form a large wampum belt. Daniel Dancer, conceptual artist, will then take an aerial photograph of the participants.

The Woodland Cultural Centre (WCC) is providing free transportation to the festival at the Toronto Harbourfront. Buses will leave the WCC at 4pm on Friday August 14th, 1 on Saturday 15th and 11 am on August 23. Travelers will also be returned to the WCC the same day.

Janice Monture, Artistic Director for Planet IndigenUs, said that they were hoping for close to 80,000 visitors each weekend.

"The majority of the events happen on the weekend. The location is on the beautiful harbourfront of lake Ontario so it's already a tourist attraction," said Monture. "On average the harborfront centre sees about 20-40 thousand people a weekend so we are hoping to have maybe 40-80 thousand people attending the festival."

She said that she hoped visitors would leave with a new view on First Nations art.

"I think what we want people to take away from the event is that we want to shatter the stereotype of First Nations art and culture. We want to show people that our culture is still very much thriving and adapted and totally gone in to the contemporary art," said Monture.

"We still have a lot of traditional artists being shown in the festival but we also wanted to show the contributions that indigenous artists from all over the world are making to hear our voices and see our art."

The WCC's participation isn't just limited to co-producer; they will also have an area set up at the festival.

"They (WCC) have programming particularly on the weekends on Sunday August 16, then Saturday August 22," said Monture. "They have a number of art workshops and on Wednesday evening they are doing a film program that starts at 7 o'clock."

Other events and displays taking place at the festival are music, visual arts, dance, craft design, theater, film and performances, workshops and hands-on artistic/community collaboration projects.

The first weekend's focus will be 'Inspired by the World' and the second, 'Giving to the World.'

The curatorial statement sums up the purpose and goals of event organizers.

"We are all from "somewhere" - a place on this earth where we trace our ancestors. Indigenous people trace ancestry back through time immemorial to places of origin; places where they are rooted; and places that brought forth a unique culture, language, spiritual framework and environment. Planet IndigenUS will explore Indigenous cultures through its artists. These original cultures have survived and adapted to the contemporary world but retain the original connections to places from where they originated. Though visual art, film, video, theatre, dance, music, storytelling, textile arts, circus, and many more forms, Planet IndigenUS ignites your imagination and challenges your thinking. Using the lens of identity and the ideas of contact and beyond and continuity, Indigenous artists from across the globe share the innovations of their creativity. Long gone are the notions of being "frozen in time." Indigenous artists are drawing on their histories to shatter stereotypes and assert the power of their voices."

For more information visit www.harbourfrontcentre.com