ᓇᑦᑎᐅᑉ ᐱᓯᙵ//Oran an Roin
Co-created with Artcirq, the Igloolik, Nunavut based circus and performing arts collective, ᓇᑦᑎᐅᑉ ᐱᓯᙵ//Oran an Roin is our newest creation. Set around Naujaruluk, an area near Igloolik, it follows the story of a selkie, a seal woman from Scottish folklore, who has lost her seal skin and become disconnected from who she is. For Maya, selkie stories have always made her feel at home, and this connection to seals and the ocean both in her Scottish heritage and living in Igloolik has been welcoming and grounding. Incorporating elements of the casts’ shared Scottish history that coexist alongside their own traditions, this is a show about seals, the spirit world, transformation, and our connection to the land and to each other. It is a journey of slipping our skins back on and reconnecting with who we are.
Wareniki
Wareniki is a contemporary circus, theatre, and dance exploration of the importance of cooking, community, and knowledge sharing, particularly in the context of Mennonite-Canadian women. The process of making wareniki (a mennonite cottage cheese pierogi), and the stories that come with it, are an embodied means of sharing knowledge and creating community within the gendered-political space of the kitchen. This work explores Maya´s heritage as a descendant of eight generations of Mennonite women in Canada, the way the process of cooking shapes our lives, and the impact of immigration and settlership on these processes. Maya wrote, directed, and produced Wareniki and collaboratively choreographed it with the five other brilliant women who were a part of this production.
Magic Lake Lantern Festival:
Stilt Walking Director
The Magic Lake Lantern Festival, run by Three on the Tree Productions Society, is an annual community arts festival that celebrates rebirth, renewal, and the return of light every New Years on Pender Island, BC. For many years Maya has directed the stilt walking component of the festival.