OHAKWARONT 2025
May 19 to 23 2025
Ohakwaront Returns for a Fourth Year.
This year, our inaugural guest curator, Ivanie Aubin-Malo, is passing the torch to Nicole Jacobs, who joins the CCOV as guest curator. They will work collaboratively to support this creative moment and ensure a smooth transition into what is coming next.
Our focus this year is upon fostering the development of multidisciplinary collaborations among Indigenous artists. During this week-long residency, dance artists will be paired with collaborators from other disciplines, with the intention of deepening the connections and expanding the reach of their artistic practices.
With Simik Komaksiutiksak, Kyana Lyne and Victoria May and their guests artists.
👉 A residency showing is scheduled for Friday, May 23, 2025, at 2:00 PM at Lab2M (Théâtre Aux Écuries) – 7285 Chabot Street.
This residency is supported by the Caisse de la Culture. 
OHAKWARONT THE GENESIS
In 2019, in an effort to further support Indigenous artists, the CCOV initiated a consultation with Soleil Launière, Emilie Monet and Lara Kramer. Out of these discussions came the decision that the CCOV will now dedicate resources to organize an annual event that would celebrate the artistic creativity of the urban Aboriginal dance community.
Following this, in 2020, Ivanie Aubin-Malo agreed to collaborate with the CCOV to follow through with this consultation and imagine the contours that this annual event could take. Finally, in 2021, thanks to MAQAHATINE*, one of their initiatives, the first seeds of OHAKWARONT were planted. Indeed, MAQAHATINE invited Aboriginal dancers to get together, meet and bond behind closed doors. And it is during these moments of sharing that they expressed the wish to strengthen their new
relationships in the future by integrating a creative process. It is in response to this desire that OHAKWARONT was born!
By highlighting Indigenous artists in the field of dance, the Ohakwaront project supports their career development by fostering the continuity and evolution of Indigenous artistic practices and by valuing their cultures.
*Made possible thanks to the resources of Tangente and L’Agora de la danse.
Why the word OHAKWARONT?
Message from Ivanie Aubin-Malo
“Ohakwaront means Heron in Kanien’keha and has its roots in a thought process enriched by the invaluable support of Kevin Deer, Kanien’keha:ka Elder, Lucy Fandel and Catherine Boivin.
To find a name for this event, I was immediately inspired by this place located in the third basement of Place des Arts. There, creation is born, almost in secret, under the surface of the earth and I quickly drew a parallel with the idea of a seed: seeds of artistic inspiration that take root to grow and flourish.
To me, this image resonates just as much with the urban Aboriginal dance community. It operates almost secretly, in the bowels of the earth where everything, while rooted in the shadows, grows towards the sun.
With these evocations in mind, I had an initial inspiring conversation with Kevin Deer. I then related it to Lucy Fandel, who immediately saw the symbolism in it and translated it into a drawing of a growing seed.
During our second conversation with Kevin, I shared Lucy’s drawing with him and he saw the silhouette of the heron.
Kevin Deer, at my side throughout this research process, enquired about the symbolic meaning of the Heron and this is what he found:
The Heron asks us to follow our intuition and to begin the journey toward self-actualization.
The Heron suggests that we continue to develop the skills that lead us to greater inner strength.
It also shows us the importance of being in relation with the greater whole, also demonstrating the importance of being in its relevance, on our own path…
At that very moment, we knew we had found our name, which translates to Ohakwaront in Kanien’keha.
A huge thanks to Catherine Boivin for honouring every step of this story in the logo.”
Illustration : Catherine Boivin