Ep. 63 - Never Whistle at the Northern Lights (Kiuryaq)

Gabrielle Martin chats with Dr. Reneltta Arluk, Alon Nashman and Rawdna Carita Eira about Kiuryaq, coming up at the 2026 PuSh Festival!

Show Notes

Gabrielle, Reneltta, Alon and Rawdna discuss: 

• What brought you together around the aurora borealis? How did the conversations and collaborations begin?
• Why should you never whistle at the northern lights?
• How does technology intertwine with theatre, concert and immersive projection as well as land-based knowledge?
• What is our relationship with the digital world?
• How does elemental, personal relationships form the core of this work?
• What thoughts of belonging surfaced in directing the key relationship?
• Across indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, this is both a creative and a political act. How did the process shape your understanding of shared sovereignty, reciprocity and kinship in the north?
• Did your relationship to the northern lights change during this process?

About Kiuryaq

The Northern Lights have always carried stories—frightening, spiritual, epic, and playful.

Kiuryaq is a circumpolar performance exploring our relationship with the Northern Lights—“kiuryaq” in Inuvialuktun—created through collaboration among Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists from Canada, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), and Sápmi (Norway).

At its centre are two siblings born in the North: one raised beneath the Aurora with their grandparents, the other adopted south and unaware of their origins. Through ancestral connection, choices are made that alter both their worlds.

Blending theatre, live music, and video design, Kiuryaq weaves northern stories into a landscape of light, memory, and cosmology. A performance of transformation and return, Kiuryaq is an invitation into the wisdom, warnings, and humour of the circumpolar region.

This one-night-only performance is preceded by an artist talk with co-creators Reneltta Arluk and Rawdna Carita Eira, and a reception hosted by the Royal Norwegian Embassy. Come early for complimentary refreshments and a conversation about the artistic practice and cultural worldviews informing this landmark circumpolar collaboration.

About Dr. Reneltta Arluk

Writer/Director/Producer. Reneltta is an Inuvialuk, Denesuline, Gwich’in, Cree mom from the Northwest Territories. She is founder of Akpik Theatre. Raised by her grandparents on the trap-line until school age, this nomadic environment gave Reneltta the skills to become the multi-disciplined artist she is now. For nearly two decades, Reneltta has taken part in or initiated the creation of Indigenous Theatre across Canada and overseas. Under Akpik Theatre, Reneltta has written, produced, and performed various works creating space for Indigenous led voices. Reneltta is the first Inuk and first Indigenous woman to graduate from the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting program and is the first Inuk and first Indigenous woman to direct at The Stratford Festival. There she was awarded the Tyrone Guthrie – Derek F. Mitchell Artistic Director’s Award for her direction of Governor Award winning playwright, Colleen Murphy’s The Breathing Hole. She also directed The Breathing Hole at Canada’s National Arts Centre. She co-directed award winning Messiah/Complex with Against the Grain Theatre, with soloists from every region of Canada, including many Indigenous performers singing in their language. In 2024, Reneltta received an Honourary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Alberta for her commitment to decolonial change.

About Alon Nashman

Writer/Producer. Alon is a performer, director, creator, and producer of theatre. Selected acting credits include: The Breathing Hole (National Arts Centre), Birds of a Kind, Hirsch (Stratford Festival), I send you this cadmium red (Art of Time Ensemble), Much Ado About Nothing, Forests, Scorched, Democracy, Remnants, Alias Godot (Tarragon Theatre), Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Botticelli in the Fire/Sunday in Sodom, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, THIS (Canadian Stage), The Wild Duck (Soulpepper), Hedda Gabler (Volcano/Buddies in Bad Times), If Jesus Met Nanabush (De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre), and Tales of Two Cities (Tafelmusik). Alon established Theaturtle in 1999 to create essential, ecstatic theatre that touches the earth and agitates the soul. With Theaturtle, Alon has been involved with the creation and touring of numerous theatre pieces, such as Adam Nashman’s The Song, Wajdi Mouawad’s Alphonse, Kafka and Son developed with Mark Cassidy of Threshold Theatre, and The Snow Queen, scored for string quartet and narrator by Patrick Cardy. Alon wrote the libretto for Charlotte: A Tri-coloured Play with Music which premiered at Toronto’s Luminato Festival and has toured to Taiwan, Israel and Europe, including the Czech National Opera.

About Rawdna Carita Eira

Writer/Cultural Envoy. Rawdna is a Sami/Norwegian writer and playwright, born in Elverum and raised in Brønnøysund. She writes in Norwegian and Northern Sami. As a playwright, Eira debuted with the monologue Elle muitalus / Elens historie in 2003, where she played the lead role. She has since written several plays for the Sami National Theater Beaivváš. In 2012, her play Guohcanuori šuvva / Sangen fra Rotsundet, was staged at Beaivváš Theater. The play was nominated for the Ibsen Prize. Eira now lives in Guovdageaidnu and works as a director at Beaivváš Sami National Theater. Eira is also a lyricist and vocalist in the band Circus Polaria with musicians Roger Ludvigsen and Kjetil Dalland. Eira has written the text in the Sami part of the opera Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin / Gállabártnit. In 2020, the opera was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for “Outstanding Opera Production” and was awarded the prize for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble”.

Land Acknowledgement

This conversation was recorded on the unceded, stolen and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver.

Reneltta joined the conversation from Ottawa, which is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence reaches back to time immemorial. Alon joined from Toronto, also known as Tkaronto, on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. Rawdna joined from Stockholm, Sweden, but usually resides in Sápmi, Sweden.

It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself.

Credits

PuSh Play is produced by Ben Charland and Tricia Knowles. Original music by Joseph Hirabayashi.

Show Transcript