VOICES IN CIRCLE
With: Tanya Tagaq, the Victoria Symphony and the Emily Carr String Quartet
Where: Farquhar Auditorium, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Rd.
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Tickets: $48-$68 from or 250-721-8480
Nunavut artist Tanya Tagaq kicks off an Indigenous arts and culture series at the University of Victoria tonight, bringing to a close a three-year dream for organizers.
Tagaq, a Polaris Music Prize and Juno Award winner and member of the Order of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, will perform alongside the Victoria Symphony and the Emily Carr String Quartet at the university’s Farquhar Auditorium. The performance is part of Voices in Circle: Amplifying Indigenous Cultural Voices, an innovative series now in its third year at UVic.
“Tanya was one of the artists who came up at our very, very first meeting” three years ago, said auditorium director Ian Case. “She was the highest artist on the list of the ones we wanted to bring to Victoria.”
Voices in Circle runs for the better part of a year, primarily at UVic. In previous years, the series — which is curated and programmed by a group of Indigenous academics and artists — has booked numerous acclaimed acts, including Jeremy Dutcher, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Sebastian Gaskin and Piqsiq.
The upcoming edition includes a performance of playwright Cliff Cardinal’s The Land Acknowledgement or As You Like It (Oct. 10-12 at the Metro Studio), spoken word artist Shane Koyczan (Feb. 26, Farquhar Auditorium), Mongolian supergroup Anda Union (March 1, Farquhar Auditorium), and roots duo Sechile Sedare (April 25, Farquhar Auditorium).
It’s an important series for the university, one which was supported previously by federal funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and provincially through the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Arts Council.
UVic did not receive the same grants from the province this year, which could put the future of Voices in Circle in jeopardy, Case said.
“We were really taken by surprise when the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Arts Council decided not to fund the series this year,” he said.
“They funded it the first two years, so that has left us with a significant financial barrier to completing this season.”
As per the terms of the grant proposal and schedule of disbursement, Case said he will not learn until October why Voices in Circle’s application was not successful.
But the long-term impact could be significant, he said. “If the province won’t fund this kind of work, this work can’t happen. That’s just the reality.”
In the short term, Case is focused on what is expected to be a successful appearance by Tagaq, who lives in Toronto but was raised in Ikaluktutiak, near the Nunavut hamlet of Cambridge Bay.
Tagaq has been wonderful to work with, and generous with her time, Case said. In addition to a private afternoon meeting today with members of UVic’s school of music, Tagaq will also include a moderated discussion as part of her evening performance alongside collaborators in the Emily Carr String Quartet and the Victoria Symphony.
Known to many for her Inuk throat-singing, Tagaq is also an actor, activist and author (she released her first children’s book, It Bears Repeating, in August.) She will be signing copies of the book in the lobby after her performance — one of the many novel aspects that make Voices in Circle so valuable, Case said.
The series welcomes artists to town for once-in-a-lifetime events, on their own terms.
“The really remarkable and wonderful things about Voices in Circle is that it has brought Indigenous audiences to campus to participate in both the performances and the engagement activities we do,” he said.
“It broadens horizons and shares knowledge. It hits so many of the marks that we want to hit.”
