Sunday, November 29, 2026
Join us 10am-12pm for the drop-in showings of NEPA’s Animikiig Creators Unit.
And then return at 2:00 PM for a presentation of The 7 Fires: A New Musical by Dillan Meighan Chiblow, followed by the Voices of Aki Discussion.
The Animikiig Creators Unit (ACU) is a two-year development program for emerging Indigenous creators. The Animikiig Creators Unit offers Indigenous creators across Turtle Island and beyond who are early in craft and in the emerging stages of theatrical creation the opportunity to develop their craft through individualized development plans and resources under the guidance of professional mentors.
Drop-In Event
Animikiig Creators Unit Open Studio
SHYANNE DUQUETTE (CREATOR)
Shyanne Duquette is a mixed-Cree emerging multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Amiskwacî (Edmonton). A writer, director, actor, and facilitator, they create provocative theatre that confronts identity, belonging, and the things that unsettle us. Their work has been presented at Found Festival, SkirtsAfire, Edmonton Fringe, Nextfest, and Ignite, and they have participated in national development programs, including the ThisGen Fellowship with Whynot Theatre, Fresh AiR and Riser with Common Ground Arts, the Major Matt Mason Wildfire Developmental Unit, and the Tarragon Young Playwrights Unit.
Shyanne has collaborated with theatre companies across Turtle Island dedicated to pluralism, dismantling norms, and ethical relationships (not only interpersonally but with surrounding communities and the land itself). They also facilitate workshops and occasionally teach, cultivating dialogue and reflection through theatre, as they continue to develop bold, boundary-pushing work across Turtle Island, leaving audiences moved and slightly on edge.
IRMA VILLAFUERTE (2026 PROGRAM DIRECTOR)
Irma Villafuerte is a Tkaronto-based dance artist, choreographer, and educator, and the first-generation daughter of refugees from Nawat Territory, Kuskatan (El Salvador). A Dora-nominated artist, her work explores migration, historic memory, and Salvadorian identity, drawing from matrilineal histories and the emotional geographies of displacement.
She is the Program Director of Native Earth Performing Arts’ Animikiig Creators Unit, where she supports the development of emerging Indigenous artists through mentorship, creation, and professional practice. Villafuerte is also the co-founder of the Dora-nominated CinnaMoon Collective.
A finalist for the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award (2021), she has performed across the Americas, including at Fall for Dance North, Bienal de La Habana, and CounterPulse (San Francisco), and has collaborated with artists such as Kaha Dance Theatre, Victoria Mata, Sharon B. Moore, Karen Kaeja, and Alejandro Ronceria.
Her choreographic voice has been shaped through residencies with DanceMakers, Toronto Dance Theatre, and Aluna Theatre. Her recent works, including Xilopango and the dance film Siwat Piedra, trace emotional and ancestral landscapes shaped by displacement, resistance, and the persistence of memory.
7 strangers run into the woods. They have the birchbark scrolls from the 7 fire prophecy. We find out the tensions between Indigenous leaders and Government have been at an all time high. An Indigenous community found the ancient birch bark scrolls. When asked to reveal the teachings on the scrolls by the Government, Indigenous communities refused and, in retaliation, the Government outlawed all Indigenous ceremonies, languages, and more.
It is the day the outlawing comes into effect. The 7 strangers are in the woods to perform a ceremony, knowing that once they start, they will be found. They choose to start the ceremony anyway. As the lights fade, we see a birch bark scroll light itself on fire. As the fire burns, 7 lights shoot out from the scroll into different directions.
Many generations later.
7 new strangers run into this spot in the woods. We find out they were at a resistance gathering that was raided by police. These 7 strangers decide to stay hidden in the woods until it is safe to leave. While in the woods, some of them start having dreams. Some
share what little Indigenous knowledge has survived over the many years since the outlawing.
As time goes on, the 7 strangers start to piece together their dreams, teachings from each other and from the land. They realize that their meeting in the woods wasn’t “by chance”. The Ancestors have been communicating with them the entire time and want them to do a ceremony.
A story about strength, reclamation, relationships to land, each other, and our Ancestors.
Creator: Dillan Meighan Chiblow (Ojibwe)
Content Warning: Loud noises, Talk of colonial violence. Themes of Parents and kids being "taken"
Presentation
The 7 Fires: A New Musical
by Dillan Meighan Chiblow
Dillan Meighan Chiblow, Creator
Dillan is an Ojibwe storyteller from Garden River First Nation. He holds a Masters degree in Musical Theatre Performance from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Dillan was the Syd & Shirley Banks prize recipient (2020). They were nominated for a Dora award for Outstanding performance by an Individual for playing Hummingbird in Bentboy at YPT. They were apart of Native Earths 40 seeds, won the Aubrey and Marla Dan fund for new musicals, both for The 7 Fires, and won the National Center of New Musical (Theatre Aquarius) search for new Canadian Musicals.