Our Philosophy

Circadia Indigena was created as a gathering place where we can remember and create new images that restore oral traditions, performance aesthetics and visual arts forms. The collective supports indigenous artists to tell their stories through theatre, dance, film, music, electronic media, etc. – creating stories that merge cultural history with current voice, presenting dreams and images for the future.

The Circadia Indigena artistic plan will be based on the traditional circle or wheel. Each of its four directions will serve as an integral part of the artistic whole. We will strive continuously to build the cultural process into our work by bringing youth and Elders, Knowledge Keepers and artists together, by learning by doing, and by creating experiential learning experiences based in culture and indigenous creative process.

We are seeking to evolve Circadia Indigena’s administrative and production management, governance structures and programming approaches in the context of unfolding artistic and cultural relationships and responsibilities.  We believe our long-term strength and resiliency will come from our rootedness in this beautiful National Capital Region and the reciprocal investment with our surrounding First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities, artists, collective members, cultural and language workers, Elders and youth, along with our other community partnerships.