Events

On left side, photograph of Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa performing at Rochester Arts Center. On right side, "Chazen Illustration" by Nipinet Landsem

4Ground: Throat Singing with Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa

Sunday, July 31, 2022
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Hilltop Classroom, Belwin Education Site

Free Event

Editorial Update (Jan. 4, 2023): Since hosting this event, it has come to our attention that Kay LeClaire, one of the artists in Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa, made false claims regarding their heritage. We apologize for the harm that giving LeClaire a platform has caused. Our hearts especially go out to their friends and collaborators, who are navigating an incredibly difficult situation as this information has come to light.

Original Event Description:
Belwin Conservancy welcomes Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa (nibiiwakamigkwe & Anastasia Adams) for ayaga//babaami-ayaa (to travel around), a series of land-based performances incorporating original compositions of Pic-eine’rkin throat-singing, textile, storytelling, and visual symbols across the Midwest.  Throat-singing artistic duo Taiquaa//Ambe Omaa brings this performance from Rochester to Afton to Fargo in a northwest direction as a subversion of Manifest Destiny that pushed Natives past the Mississippi and beyond. It further mirrors the journey inland of Anishinaabeg from wabanaki/east coast to find the-food-that-grows-on-the-water - manoomin/wild rice - and westward Yup’ik migration from Alaska to Siberia.

Keeping with these generational traditions, artists will bring only what they can carry or pull along travois for each installation. Artists will work with site organizers and Mdewakanton Dakhóta and Wahpekute Dakhóta community members to understand the colonial and Indigenous lifeways of each site, and plan their bundles accordingly: bringing what they need to survive and thrive from the land - furs for ceremony, food and medicine baskets, bedrolls, sewing and trapping supplies, bagamaagan for protection, and seeds - to create a temporary living space at each site.

After making camp, artists will engage in an original throat singing performance with sounds inspired from regional life both in appreciation of the site and acknowledging the art form’s survival origins as many Native communities were forced to make camp and wait for government rations that would often never come, a genocide by attrition like Minnesota’s Sandy Lake Tragedy. Songs will feature collaborative composition and audience participation. Artists will then break camp, leaving the scrim and frame as a gentle reminder of presence.

_{Major support for 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial provided by the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Fund at the St. Paul and Minneapolis Foundation, Blandin Foundation, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Arts Midwest, Fred C. and Katherine B. Andersen Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Additional support provided by International Sculpture Center, ArtTable, and Sculpture Milwaukee. 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial is a program of Franconia Sculpture Park.}

_{The installation and opening of “Roaming Stone” is made possible in part by support from the St. Croix Valley Foundation.}