It’s impossible to avoid the smoked fish smell as you enter, and are offered a cushion or wooden stool as you find a spot to sit. The entirety of the space has been filled with green plants and trees, small ponds lined with lichen, copper designs hanging and standing, littering the studio and with a pronounced stone circle in the centre of the Studio venue.
Nigamon/Tunai is an ONISHKA production performed in several languages (Anishinaabemowin, Inga, French and Spanish) with a real focus on indigenous languages, as it immerses the audience in a contemporary artistic ritual from international collaborators Émilie Monnet and Waira Nina. Moved by land defence and social injustice, along with the resistance of extraction of copper from the land (and how it cleanses the water), Monnet and Nina have curated and written a moving and considered piece that gives space for the audience to feel with the pace of their movements and improvised bird song.
Nigamon and Tunai themselves mean both ‘song’ in each of the artists’ languages (Anishinaabemowin and Inga), as the show is a consistent performance of sound, with the clear water running through the copper mechanisms dotted about the venue. Meditative and with a deep connection to the natural spaces in which they inhabit, both indigenous artists offer a stunning multi-sensory experience for the audience. It is unearthed further by a post-show talk and Q&A session that sheds light on their relationship, their processes and their practice.
Wonderfully considered, highlighting the beauty of the land, sounds and how destruction can distort those sounds, Nigamon/Tunai is a unique and immersive contemporary piece I’d urge all to experience.
Words by Keira Brown
