Nigamon/Tunai

Nigamon and Tunai – two words for “Song” in the language of the Anishinaabe, a people who live in Canada, and the Inga from Colombia. Connected to each other across continents through friendship and resistance, Émilie Monnet and Waira Nina create a poetic manifesto against extractivism and displacement. While in Canada mining and oil companies continue to proliferate, copper mining – also carried out by Canadian companies – is destroying entire habitats in the Colombian Amazon. In the fight against the devastation of their countries, Émilie Monnet and Waira Nina having been sharing their knowledge and strategies of resistance for more than twelve years. In Nigamon/Tunai, they develop a shared artistic practice from this and give the landscape a voice on stage. Copper becomes a resonant body: it represents invisible delivery chains, colonial continuities and makes global relationships audible. In a space filled with many voices, surrounded by trees and water, by song and music, this performance for the senses invites the audience to listen to the sound of copper and to each other – intense listening becomes an ecological practice.    

Émilie Monnet is a director, writer and actor. Her artistic practice is characterised by interdisciplinary and collaborative processes at the intersection of theatre, performance and media art. She founded ONISHKA (“waking up” in Anishinaabemowin) in 2011, a platform for artistic exchange between Indigenous artists from various disciplines. ONISHKA understands art as a catalyst for social change and as a means to make the realities and struggles of Indigenous communities visible.   

Waira Nina is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and cultural policy advisor of the Inga people from the Caquetá region in the Colombian Amazon. She is heir to traditional Ambiwaska ceremonies, which were taught to her by her grandparents, and possesses a wealth of rich knowledge, which contributed to the official recognition of the Inga territories. She is also the communications and cultural coordinator for the association Tandachiridu Inganokuna and provides advice on educational processes at Yachaikury School.