Skip to content

Debajehmujig Storytellers from Canada

Debajehmujig Storytellers from Canada

Debajehmujig Storytellers is an Aboriginal arts collective based at the Wikwemikong unceded Indian reserve on Manitoulin Island, Canada. They are returning to ICAF for a second time, because unlike in 2011 where they performed on the main stage of Zuidplein Theatre, they wanted to work differently this time. In the week prior to the 2014 festival, they will roam through the streets of Rotterdam. Even earlier than that, they established contact with local community activists and volunteers in Rotterdam, who during the pre-festival roaming residency served as their guide. Wearing traditional tribal costumes, they engaged with passers-by to gather local stories and storytellers, which they incorporate in daily updated versions of their ‘Global Savages’ performance. In this way, an already 18,000-year-old story receives continuously new input from one of the world’s largest port cities. You will be brought to a site of Debajehmujig’s choosing, somewhere in the city, where around a warm fire you will hear old stories mixed with contemporary local tales.