Full Circle: First Nations Performance congratulates Yves Sioui Durand, of the Huron-Wendat nation, recipient of The Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Category (theatre) – one of the most prestigious national prizes in the field awarding artists for their lifetime achievement and for their exceptional contribution to the performing arts in Canada. Yves Sioui Durand is the first Aboriginal artist to receive the award in the Theatre category, the sixth Aboriginal artist in Canada awarded in the Performing Arts category and the second Aboriginal artist from Quebec to be awarded a GGPAA. A prize both paying tribute to an outstanding achievement and recognizing the significance of contemporary Aboriginal Francophone dramaturgy in Canada.

Yves Sioui Durand, author, actor, director, and filmmaker is, with Catherine Joncas, co-founder of Ondinnok, the first Aboriginal francophone theatre company in Canada within which, since 1985, he created his work.

A theatre of research and creation, Ondinnok – a Huron word meaning: ‘a theatrical healing ritual that reveals the secret desire of the soul’ – has, since its founding, focussed its work on the distinctive mythologies and cosmologies of the Aboriginal peoples. From April 1st to June 22nd 2017, Ondinnok will present, on stages throughout Montreal, its Aboriginal Spring of Art THREE including multidisciplinary artistic programs and a ‘State of Affairs’ on the conditions of Aboriginal Arts in Quebec.