Renae Morriseau
Matriarchs Uprising curator Olivia C. Davies sits down with Cree-Saulteaux creator Renae Morriseau to learn more about her current project, her view on the potential for new technology to advance our storytelling practices and hopes for the future.
Since the 80’s, Renae Morriseau (Nêhiyawi/Cree, Nahkawiniw/Saulteaux) has worked individually and collectively on Indigenous stories in music, theatre, film and television. Much of her work is about art created with, for and about the hopes of a good future for Indigenous people on their lands and in the cities of Turtle Island.
She has worked across Canada and internationally with her singing group, M’Girl. Renae's currently recording her songs in both traditional and contemporary sounds. Quest Out West, a documentary APTN series will debut its 4th season in May 2023. She directed 5 episodes on this Syilx/Okanagan food sovereignty show. She’ll be directing a new work by Rosanna Deerchild, The Secret To Good Tea, at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and right after, the late Taran Kootenayhoo’s White Noise at the Firehall Arts Centre this winter/spring 2023.
And lastly, she is writing her feature film about her families history of the St. Peter’s Reserve, which doesn’t exists today. She is conjuring story with this loss in the VR/XR world. Not so much about its pain, but about this land, never stolen in the first place. Through a theatrical XR journey with M’Girl music and family stories, Renae hopes to bring this story to life as a testament to narrative sovereignty within the Treaty One territory.