isi-pkiskwwin-ayapihkssak (Speaking the Language of Spiders)

Additional Information

The Public Port is here and to celebrate we are launching isi-pîkiskwêwin-ayapihkêsîsak (Speaking the Language of Spiders), a web site that consists of an interactive screenplay and multi-media storyboard. The underlying theme of the screenplay is based on an examination of the differences in world view that occur between cultures structured by First Nations languages and those structured by English language. Through the use of poetic, fragmentary, highly visual and intuitive modes of expression this project brings into play the ways First Nations historic cultural paradigms, and ancestral and animistic spiritual forces operate in a very real manner in contemporary First Nations culture. Isi-pîkiskwêwin-ayapihkêsîsak concentrates on the experiences of people who have been consigned to the fringes of urban streetlife and their sources of joy, grief and intense humanity. This project has been developed through the collaborative influence and creative participation of the following artists: Lynn Acoose, Cheryl L Hirondelle, Joseph Naytowhow, Greg Daniels, Elvina Piapot, Sheila Urbanoski, Sylvain Carette, Mark Schmidt, Russell Wallace and Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew. Important contributions were also made by Richard Agecoutay and Anthony Deiter.