list.co.uk/festival Lara Kramer | F E S T I VA L F E AT U R E S
H O M E T RU T H S
Spanning Edinburgh’s various festivals, Indigenous Contemporary Scene (ICS) present a month- long programme of Canadian performers aiming to highlight what it means to be indigenous today. Multi-disciplinary artist Lara Kramer, who takes up a residency at Summerhall as part of the venture, tells Deborah Chu how her works explore the past, present and future
‘T here’s just so much life that happened between the three pieces,’ marvels Lara Kramer. A multi-disciplinary artist of mixed Oji-Cree and settler heritage, Kramer is expressing a vestigial measure of surprise at the works she’s bringing to the Fringe this year: Native Girl Syndrome, a theatrical piece inspired by her grandmother, a survivor of Canada’s catastrophic residential school system; the performance- based installation This Time Will Be Different; and Miijin Ki, her most recent work, performed as a scratch night.
These works, despite their disparate styles, will run together as a chronological progression of past, present and future, staged at intervals through the month of August. Kramer had never intended them to be grouped in such a way, having made each at very different points in her career; but after some prodding from Indigenous Contemporary Scene’s artistic director Émilie Monnet, she can certainly see the connections now. ‘There’s this stripping back of these layers of time, to arrive at an unloading of intergenerational trauma and its to arrive at an unloading of intergenerational trauma and its effects,’ says Kramer, ‘before effects,’ says Kramer, ‘before coming into something that coming into something that is more about celebrating is more about celebrating the dignity of what my work the dignity of what my work is trying to hone into.’
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through through Though these layers are Though these layers are all interwoven interwoven all three works, the past makes three works, the past makes itself most explicitly explicitly itself most known in Native Girl Native Girl , which Kramer Syndrome, which Kramer fi rst created as a means of fi rst created as a means of trying to understand the trying to understand the cultural genocide that her cultural genocide that her grandmother had endured, grandmother had endured, and subsequent and subsequent struggles with addiction struggles with addiction and homelessness. and homelessness. ‘It’s about portraying ‘It’s about portraying the humanity of these the humanity of these women, of street culture,’ women, of street culture,’ she says. ‘I was trying to she says. ‘I was trying to claim its importance: this claim its importance: this is not a forgettable life.’ is not a forgettable life.’ But alongside the pain, But alongside the pain, there is also abundant there is also abundant humanity, ‘laughter and humanity, ‘laughter and ugliness and beauty – ugliness and beauty – all of it.’ In exploring all of it.’ In exploring what genocide looked what genocide looked and felt like in such and felt like in such terms, Kramer could terms, Kramer could greater contextualise greater contextualise her family’s historical her family’s historical trauma within trauma within colonialism’s legacy. colonialism’s legacy. ‘Here’s an opportunity ‘Here’s an opportunity
to present a reality that the public cannot look away from,’ she says. ‘It’s there, day to day, walking down the street. They have to go, “okay, there’s life, there’s vitality there.”’ Family remains an enduring focal point in This Time Will Be Different, her most contemporary challenge to Canada’s colonial history. Created in collaboration with Monnet, the piece emerged from their frustration with the government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which they felt ultimately stifl ed the very indigenous voices that the commission was meant to honour. Centred upon the emotional toll that the commission wreaks upon three generations of a family, This Time Will Be Different is an attempt to reclaim the indigenous community’s place at the centre of a pain that continues to reverberate through the years. ‘It’s not a joke when we talk about intergenerational trauma,’ she says. ‘We’re not just making actions and choices for our own personal selves. We’re acting as a bridge to the future generation and the past.’
For Kramer, it’s this eye to the future that is sorely missing from the Canadian government’s attempts at reconciliation, which currently the Canadian government’s attempts at reconciliation, which currently amount to little more than band-aid solutions and face-saving measures. amount to little more than band-aid solutions and face-saving measures. True reconciliation, she argues, would begin with the government honouring aboriginal with the government honouring aboriginal title to land; but unfortunately, she doesn’t title to land; but unfortunately, she doesn’t hold out much hope of that happening. ‘We’re hold out much hope of that happening. ‘We’re a colonist country, built upon the back of a colonist country, built upon the back of indigenous destruction,’ she says. ‘To rectify indigenous destruction,’ she says. ‘To rectify that would mean changing the very identity of that would mean changing the very identity of Canada.’ And yet, S T E F A N P E T E R S E N
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this doesn’t stop her from imagining better futures ahead. In imagining better futures ahead. In Miijin Ki, four performers explore the damage that colonial land ownership has done to the people colonial land ownership has done to the people and the land, but also of possible outcomes and the land, but also of possible outcomes wherein humans and nature can exist as one. wherein humans and nature can exist as one. ‘Performing it as an open lab can be seen as ‘Performing it as an open lab can be seen as a risk,’ she admits, ‘but there’s something a risk,’ she admits, ‘but there’s something really inviting in that. It’s a way of trying to really inviting in that. It’s a way of trying to break away from what’s expected of material.’ break away from what’s expected of material.’ Indeed, Miijin Ki’s clear focus on joy is a radical departure from what has become commonly departure from what has become commonly expected from indigenous narratives, and is a expected from indigenous narratives, and is a hopeful note she wishes to explore in her work hopeful note she wishes to explore in her work going forward. ‘I want to look at moments going forward. ‘I want to look at moments that we don’t usually see in the proposition of that we don’t usually see in the proposition of indigenous bodies on stage,’ Kramer says, ‘one indigenous bodies on stage,’ Kramer says, ‘one that plays with nuances of dignity, beauty and that plays with nuances of dignity, beauty and celebration.’
Native Girl Syndrome, Summerhall, 2–11 Aug (not 5 & 6), 4.20pm, £10 (£8). This Time Will Be Different, Summerhall, 13–18 Aug, 4pm, £10 (£8).
Miijin Ki, Summerhall, 20–24 Aug, 4pm, £10 (£8).
31 Jul–7 Aug 2019 THE LIST FESTIVAL 27