The Seventh Fire

Date

Thu 8 - Sat 10 May

Venue

The Uncle Jack Charles The Tower
Malthouse
113 Sturt Street, Southbank, VIC 3006

“The Seventh Fire is a piece that I will remember for a very long time, teleporting me to places, stories, and imagery that I never thought I’d be able to visit on my own–sometimes gently, sometimes intensely, sometimes both. You don’t want to miss this.” – Derek Chan, Artistic Director of Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre
Theatre
International
Australian Premiere

The Seventh Fire is an immersive performance created by Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen that interweaves traditional, oral Anishinaabe stories and societal roles, invoking ceremony in the everyday.

The sound and the story are the somatic links to ancestral realms. The story takes place in the present, past, and future; above and below the earth. It follows disconnected sisters Daanis and Nimise, who reconnect on their ancestral territory. Their journey interweaves with that of Nokomis, their grandmother who raised them, as she lights her fires in the Spirit World.

The Seventh Fire is dedicated to Lisa's beautiful mother, Eileen Deborah Cooke and to all who mother us.

Performance Details

Venue

The Uncle Jack Charles The Tower

Malthouse

113 Sturt Street, Southbank, VIC 3006


Dates & Times

Thu 8 May 5:30pm, 7:30pm Fri 9 May 5:30pm, 7:30pm Sat 10 May 12pm, 3pm, 5pm 90 mins, no interval


Tickets

Blaktix $20 General $45 YIRRAMBOI Fan $65 Ticketing & Accessibility enquiries Venue Phone: (03) 9685 5111 Venue Email:  boxoffice@malthousetheatre.com.au

Photography

,

Artist Information

Produced by

Neworld Theatre


Creator, Lodge Helper & Vocal Performance

Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen (she/her/ikwe), Ojibwe/Swampy Cree


Sound Design

Mishelle Cuttler


Associate Sound Design

Debbie Courchene, Anishinaabe


Collaborating Dramaturgy

Laura McLean and Christine Quintana


Vocal Performance

Margo Kane (she/her), Cree-Saulteaux Métis


Vocal Performace

Tasha Faye Evans, Coast Salish/Welsh/Jewish


Additional Vocals

Renae Morriseau, Cree-Saulteaux


Additional Vocals

Kaitlyn Yott, Coast Tsimshian


Language Advisor

Chiikishkiy - Walter Cooke, Ojibwe-Swampy Cree


Language Advisor

Mishiikenh - Vern Altiman, Ojibwe


Tour Manager

Christine Quintana


Artist Bio

Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen (she/her/ikwe) is honoured to be sharing this story with you on these sovereign lands. Lisa is a multi-hyphenate theatre artist and scholar based in unceded Coast Salish territory (colonially known as Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada). Her joyful practice is strengthened by her mama-heart as it encompasses a love of performance, new work, big thoughts, traditional culture, and activism. Lisa is an Associate Artist with Full Circle: First Nations Performance and founded the Maada’oonidiwag Canadian Anti-Racist Theatre Exchange, an IBPOC-centred resistance and anti-racist mobilization that focuses on disrupting the colonial project called ‘Canadian theatre. She raises her hands in thanks to her hosts here, to her Coast Salish relatives on whose land this work was born, and to Jay and their children for the gift of their love and support.

Audiences are asked to leave their belongings in the designated lobby and remove their shoes before entering the space, where they’re free to stand, sit, lie down or move around. We kindly ask that you do not leave once you have arrived in the space. This is a phone-free experience, please leave your devices with your belongings in the designated lobby.

  • Accessible Bathroom

  • Wheelchair Accessible

    Wheelchair Accessible

  • Transcripts available on request. Please email yirramboi@melbourne.vic.gov.au
  • Relaxed Space Available

Presented by YIRRAMBOI and Native Earth Performing Arts (Canada), in association with Malthouse Theatre.

Originally produced by Delinquent Theatre with Full Circle: First Nations Performance (Talking Stick Festival), PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Thanks to Playwrights’ Theatre Centre (and Associates Program), Native Earth Performing Arts (Weesageechak Festival), Ruby Slippers Theatre (Advance Theatre), Theatre Replacement and Company 605 (PushOFF 2021: Speculative Futures), Pacific Theatre, Lobe Residency Program; and to the funding bodies who supported this work: Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, and Vancity.


Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous performing arts company. Currently, in its 42nd year, NEPA are dedicated to developing, producing, and presenting professional artistic expressions of the Indigenous experience in Canada. https://www.nativeearth.ca/

Contains sustained sound that is sometimes loud, and low light. This work touches on the Sixties Scoop* and Residential School** survivors. Between approximately 1951 and 1984, an estimated 20,000 or more First Nations, Métis and Inuit infants and children were taken or ‘scooped up’ without the consent of their families, placed in the child welfare system and placed for adoption in mostly non-Indigenous households. This mass removal of Indigenous children from their homes, supported by a series of government policies, became known as the ‘Sixties Scoop’. **Between the late 1800s and 1996, the Government of Canada and church organizations operated the Indian Residential School System. An estimated 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were removed from their families, homes, languages, and lands. A part of official Canadian policy, the residential school system aimed at the complete assimilation of Indigenous people. Indian Residential School Histories and Dialogue Centre, University of British Columbia: https://irshdc.ubc.ca/learn/indian-residential-schools/

Partners