Interested in addressing their own tenuous and complex relationship with claiming their mixed Indigenous, Two-Spirit heritage, Mikiki draws connection between the limited availability of local clay and access to traditional cultural knowledge.
For this project, Mikiki collaborated with a group of Two-Spirit Indigenous community members to process locally harvested clay into the decorated tiles on display here. This local clay was harvested from the Scarborough Bluffs in a workshop led by Titiesg Wîcinímintôwak Bluejays Dancing Together Collective. In the clay processing workshops there was an opportunity to talk about relationships to the land we are on, to clay and ceramics, to cultural knowledge, language and teachings – or lack thereof. These conversations were translated onto the tiles by the project collaborators, each telling a unique story. In this performance, the wet commercial clay dancefloor becomes an unstable ground for Mikiki to navigate with clay tiles acting as surrogates for the translated knowledge from the workshops. The performance, in another light, is a print making process, with the dancefloor acting as a container for stories and movement.

Mikiki’s performance is an interpretive reenactment of “Running the Goat”, a Newfoundland traditional dance originally performed as a four couple square dance. While most traditional group dances in Newfoundland and Labrador originated from Settler traditions, “Running the Goat” is unique in that it is the only traditional group dance originating from within settled Newfoundland community, that of Harbour Deep.