ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Kevin Loring

Kevin is Nlaka’pamux from the Lytton First Nation in British Columbia, Kevin is an award-winning Actor, Playwright, Director and Producer. Kevin is a graduate of Studio 58,Theatre training program, and was a member of Margo Kane’s Full Circle: First Nations Performance Ensemble. His first published play, Where the Blood Mixes has received multiple productions and was nominated for numerous awards across the country winning three Jessie Richardson awards for theatre in Vancouver and the 2009 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. He was the Playwright in Residence at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in 2010, as well as an ensemble member of the National Arts Centre English Theatre Acting Company. He played Shakespeare’s villainous ‘Edmund’ in the National Arts Centre’s production of King Lear, featuring a cast of all Indigenous actors. In 2008 he co-wrote, co-produced and co-hosted the feature length Documentary, Canyon War: The Untold Story, which won top prizes at the Houston International Film and Video Festival and The New York Independent Film and Video Festival. In 2017 he became the first Artistic Director of Indigenous Theatre at the National Arts Centre of Canada in Ottawa. Savage Society received the award for “Significant Artistic Achievement: Outstanding Empowering and Uplifting of Indigenous Artists and Narratives” for the productions of White Noise by Taran Kootenhayoo and Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer. Recently he co-wrote Lytton: Climate Change, Colonialism and Life Before the Fire, published by Penguin Random House on sale now wherever you buy books.

MANAGING PRODUCER

Chelsea McPeake Carlson

chelsea@savagesociety.ca

Chelsea has worked in arts production and administration for over fifteen years managing and producing theatre and special events. For 11 years (until 2012) she worked in Administration and Production at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, most recently as Associate Producer. In 2010 she produced the five-city national tour of Kevin Loring’s Where the Blood Mixes and became General Manager of Savage Society that same year. Chelsea is the recipient of the 2019 John Hobday Award in Arts Management.

OPERATIONS MANAGER

Amy Wertz

amy@savagesociety.ca
Amy Wertz is a Saulteaux-Cree-Scottish woman originally from Saskatchewan and is a member of the Cowessess First Nation.As an arts administrator, she has worked with Métis dance company V’ni Dansi and national dance presentation company New Dance Horizons. Amy graduated with a Master’s degree in English Literature in 2007 having studied representations of the body as sacred space in the poetry of Métis poet, Gregory Scofield. During her time at university, she was coordinator of the First Nations University of Canada’s writing clinic, and she sat on various student committees. Amy lives on the ancestral unceded traditional territories of the Kwikwetlem, Musqueam, Squamish, Stó:lō and Tsleil-Wauthth First Nations (Port Moody) with her son, daughter, husband and dog. She enjoys yoga, jogging and organizing her neighbourhood book club.

ELDER IN RESIDENCE

Charon Spinks

Charon Moreen Spinks (nee Munroe) is a member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation located in the heart of the Fraser Canyon in Lytton, BC. Many a time Charon recalls the wonderful and carefree years she spent with her parents and grandparents. These traditional and cultural activities all came to a stop when she was taken away to the St. George’s residential school.
For the next 9 years with the help of her Nlaka’pamux friends, she found strength from the silent prayers her grandparents instilled in her mind, heart and soul. Although they rarely spoke these words out loud, it was through these prayers and the camaraderie created from secretly speaking Nlaka’pamxcin, Charon and her friends found a sense of peace and stability.
After leaving the residential school, Charon continued her education and focused on counselling children and young people.
Her work assisting teachers, principals and counsellors led her to become the Homeschool Coordinator in Lytton. She received her training at Douglas College in New Westminster and the University College of the Cariboo in Kamloops, BC. After Charon completed the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse program she focused on the healing journey of Residential School Survivors by presenting and teaching workshops for all ages in Contemporary and Cultural teachings. Charon continued her Community and Career work as a Senior Counsellor in a Family Treatment setting, as a Family Violence worker and is a founding member of the Interior Salish Friendship Centre.
She is a member in good standing with the Cariboo Friendship Society and works with the Provincial Regional Survivors Society and Residential Survivors Society. She continues to volunteer, teaching the Nlaka’pamxcin language to young students. She is blessed with 2 sons, two grandsons and five great-grandchildren.
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Artistic Associates

Quelemia Sparrow (Musqueam)

Tai Amy Grauman (Métis, Cree, Haudenosaunee)

Ronnie Dean Harris (Stō:lo/St’át'imc/Nlaka'pamux)

Kelsey Kanatan Wavey (Cree)

Darylina Powderface (Îyârhe Nakoda)

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Sherri Sadler

sherri@savagesociety.ca

Graphic Design and Website Management

Pablo Muñoz

pablo@savagesociety.ca

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Linda Gorrie