The Miikana Project is an Indigenous-led consulting collective blending cultural perspectives with innovative solutions to empower artists, creative leaders and not-for-profit organizations.
Our Vision is to decolonize and amplify Canadian art while building an inclusive, sustainable ecosystem rooted in cultural understanding. We aim to redefine how art, governance, and leadership intersect—empowering organizations to embrace equity, sustainability, and cultural awareness as the foundation for impactful and enduring progress.
Our annual mentorship and workshop initiative reinforces our dedication, supporting the next generation of leaders and creators while ensuring the industry's long-term vitality and innovation.
Through our consulting services in artistic practices, mentorship and cultural leadership, we cultivate spaces for transformative growth, enabling organizations to thrive through culturally enriched practices.
Our Process
- Build equitable and sustainable frameworks that promote cultural responsibility and inclusivity.
- Incorporate Indigenous knowledge systems and storytelling to reshape artistic and operational practices.
- Create learning, mentorship and workshop opportunities to foster decolonized artistic spaces.
- Navigate Truth and Reconciliation with custom actionable steps, fostering authentic leadership and accountability.
- Develop customized governance, leadership, and project strategies aligned with impactful organizational outcomes.
What We Offer:
Workshops
- Collaborations with artistic networks, co-producers, and artistic communities to drive innovation and storytelling.
- Opportunities for mentorship and research to promote learning and growth.
- Residencies and Mentorships designed to inspire emerging artists, amplify diverse voices, and build meaningful cultural connections.
Mentorship
- Leadership mentorship for directors, managers, and new team members in production roles.
- Assist in ensuring the successful completion of capital projects and season productions through administrative or production leadership.
- Specialized support for transitional leadership roles and project management.
Leadership Consulting
- Customized community-building strategies to assist in barriers and advance equity, diversity, accessibility, and inclusion.
- Expertise in strategic governance, eco-sustainability, and equitable facilitation.
- Board development and networking support to increase diversity and representation.
- By-law and safety policy creation and revisions to meet organizational needs.
Our services are designed to guide organizations and artists toward a future where creativity, leadership, and cultural awareness intersect with create lasting impact.
2025-2026 Season
Rooted in Return:
Back to the Fire
This season, The Miikana Project invites artists and communities to return to the fire — where story, teaching, and care come together. Through initiatives in mental health leadership and creative development, we gather to strengthen connection, culture, and community.
From our Mental Health Certification
Rooted in Return:
Back to the Fire
This season, The Miikana Project invites artists and communities to return to the fire — where story, teaching, and care come together. Through initiatives in mental health leadership and creative development, we gather to strengthen connection, culture, and community.
From our Mental Health Certification Workshop Series, to the continued creation of The Museum of the Lost and Found: Gaakaazootaadiwa, and a new writing residency, this season asks:
What happens when we return to the flame, not to rebuild what was lost, but to tend what still burns?
Mental Health Certification
WORKSHOPS
Vancouver
April 25–26, 2026
Nanaimo
June 6–7, 2026
Care starts with understanding. this 8-hour Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) workshop brings together arts and cultural sector professionals for accredited mental health training grounded in safety community-informed teaching practices. Designed specifically with creative industries i
WORKSHOPS
Vancouver
April 25–26, 2026
Nanaimo
June 6–7, 2026
Care starts with understanding. this 8-hour Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) workshop brings together arts and cultural sector professionals for accredited mental health training grounded in safety community-informed teaching practices. Designed specifically with creative industries in mind, the workshop supports participants in building the knowledge, confidence, and practical skills needed to respond to mental health challenges within their communities and workplaces.
Facilitated by Dagan Nish and produced in partnership with The Miikana Project, this training is accredited by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and leads to Mental Health First Aid certification valid for three years.
This workshop is ideal for theatre professionals, production managers, educators, and community workers who want to foster healthier creative environments and strengthen support systems within the arts sector.
Course Participants will:
- Increase their awareness and understanding of mental health
- Explore stigma, diagnostic labelling, and barriers to helping
- Build confidence in supporting someone experiencing distress
- Learn effective communication techniques for compassionate support
Space is limited to ensure an engaged and supportive learning environment.
Gaakaazootaadiwag: Museum of Lost and Found
Gaakaazootaadiwag: Museum of Lost and Found
INVITED SHOWCASE
Gateway Theatre, Richmond
July 3, 2026
A multi-year creative development journey exploring repatriation, memory, and sound as acts of restoration.
Over the past two years, The Miikana Project has been working closely with Anishinaabe composer, librettist, and interdisciplinary artist Olivia Shortt (they/them), nurturing the
INVITED SHOWCASE
Gateway Theatre, Richmond
July 3, 2026
A multi-year creative development journey exploring repatriation, memory, and sound as acts of restoration.
Over the past two years, The Miikana Project has been working closely with Anishinaabe composer, librettist, and interdisciplinary artist Olivia Shortt (they/them), nurturing the first phases of story and libretto development. This year, the project enters its next phase with music and libretto workshops, culminating in a site-responsive showcase for an invited audience.
The work invites us back to the fire — the place where story, teaching, and healing converge. Not to rebuild what was lost, but to tend what still burns.
Reimagining the museum as a site of cultural return and Indigenous resurgence, the performance guides audiences through a fictional museum of the world’s “lost and found.” Two soloists lead the journey, supported by a chamber ensemble and experimental soundscapes—raising questions about what we preserve, what we discard, and what must be returned.
Olivia Shortt is a noisemaker and storyteller from Nipissing First Nation, whose practice spans sound, performance, and embodied storytelling.
Grounded in a community-informed, Indigenous-led process, this work sits at the heart of our 2025–2026 season theme: What happens when we return to the flame?
Writing Workshop
Gaakaazootaadiwag: Museum of Lost and Found
RESIDENCY
Vancouver Island
November 9-20, 2026
This fall and winter, we tend the fire — creating space for story to grow with care, patience, and intention.
The Miikana Project is pleased to launch a two-week writing residency for one creative artist at our new home on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Open to authors, poets, playwrights,
RESIDENCY
Vancouver Island
November 9-20, 2026
This fall and winter, we tend the fire — creating space for story to grow with care, patience, and intention.
The Miikana Project is pleased to launch a two-week writing residency for one creative artist at our new home on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Open to authors, poets, playwrights, and writers working in creative literature, the residency offers dedicated time for writing alongside land-based learning, teachings with Indigenous leaders, and opportunities for council with host Nations. These experiences are intended to nourish the creative process and deepen relationships between story, land, and community.
Supported by the BC Arts Council, this inaugural residency reflects Miikana’s commitment to collaboration, research, and mentorship, creating opportunities that support emerging voices, strengthen cultural connections, and foster meaningful artistic growth.
Past Projects
Spanish Hour
Showcased at the Telus Studio in the Chan Centre, this is a modern queer adaptation of the one-act comédie musicale revolving around love, lovers, and a spouse's limited time at home. Based on the original by the same title, this re-imagining workshop of the 55 minute comedy operetta features an all-out team from of the Canadian queer community.
JP Raftery, Peter Tiefenbach, and Gordon Gerrard lead this workshop piece; with production design from Alia Hamer and lighting design by Mimi Abrahams. The 2024 cast included Spencer Britten, Simran Claire, Madison Craig, Andrew Love, and David Walsh.
Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council, the Miikana Project provided production consultation and a technical director mentorship for the showcase.
Vancouver, BC
July 26-27, 2024.
Training the Eye
Using a toolkit of design elements anchored in light and pigment-vision color theory, emerging and established designers of all disciplines develop solutions through lighting various scenarios of inclusive skin tones, makeup, costume, and painted and projected scenery. The workshop's inspiration is the heart-wrenching comment at the production desk, "Why can't we see their faces?"
The Miikana Project and CITT/ICTS presented a two-day design workshop to develop color interaction skills in a safe and inclusive learning space. Initial presentation developed with Association of Design Canada and World Stage Design at the Henry Wolfe Theatre.
Saskatoon, SK
August 13-14, 2024
About the instructors
Sholem Dolgoy (he/him) has worked nationally and internationally as a lighting designer for over 50 years in performing arts and entertainment, corporate and special event, exhibit, and some film and television. He has been an educator for over 40 years, and many former students are valued colleagues. For the Associated Designers of Canada, he led the negotiations for the original 1983 ADC-PACT contract. He is proud to be a Charter Member of IA ADC659.
Rachel Forbes (she/her) is an award-winning, Toronto-based Set and Costume designer creating for theatre, dance, opera and film. Her designs have been seen on stages and site specific locations all across Canada and she is a board member for the Associated Designers of Canada and IATSE Local ADC659. Much of her work centres stories of the African diaspora in North America and beyond.
Give 'Em Hell
Inspired by real-life student activism, the new play retells the final school year leading up to the 2012 closure of Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School (PCVS) in Ontario, Canada.
Written by Peterborough-born, award-winning playwright Madeleine Brown and featuring a cast of eight local teenagers, Give ‘em Hell explores the power of youth activism, the perils of self-discovery and what it costs to stand up for a cause.
Working with Theatre Director and Prairie Fire Please, Miikana Project provided production consulting and developed backstage mentorship training in Scenic Paint, Lighting and Stage Management.
September 2023
Manaadjia
Ruby Award winner, Opera Singer, Community and Arts Engager Rebecca Hass explores the bridge between colonial opera and family traditions. She examines her own blood memory reflections through Metis and Anishinaabe cultures; re-discovering language, heritage and relationships. The piece does not examine indigenous culture; rather utilizes family traditions of storytelling and personal experience to illustrate how we are all connected though memories and love.
Together with Pacific Opera Victoria and the Intrepid Music Festival, Miikana Project provided indigenous and production consultation for the Spring workshop presentation.
May 2023
Stabat Mater
In this unconventional format, Edmonton Opera guides the audience through the unseen backstage corridors of the Northern Jubilee Theatre; intimately joining the performers onstage. This immersive theatre experience uses space in a non-traditional way, challenging both spectator and performer. Jennifer Tarver directs a choreographed performance of Pergolesi’s music, accompanied by special musical guests in this brand-new production. The piece features two company singing debuts, UK countertenor Magid El-Bushra and soprano Mireille Asselin. Undertaking such an innovative challenge, making this production particularly noteworthy.
The Miikana Project provided Stage Management and Production Management Mentorship, along with Technical Consulting for the piece.
April 2023
Orphée
Journeying into the depths of the underworld with Orphée in search of his beloved Eurydice, this opera has riveted audiences around the world for centuries. The show’s stunning visual effects, acrobatics and multi-disciplinary performance have never been seen on the Northern Jubilee Stage. Joel Ivany once again directs this co-production with Against the Grain Theatre and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Its new-age sound is supported by the Edmonton Opera Symphony under the baton of national Conductor Sandra Horst.
The Miikana Project provided technical consultation and apprenticeships in Stage Management and Technical Direction.
Feb 2023
Inertia
Through collaborative artistic networks and residencies with Loose Tea Music Theatre and Highland Opera Company, this double bill workshop supported two diverse teams in libretto and music development. The project also explored sustainable eco-design with new recycled products and low energy consumption techniques. Inertia explores elderly isolation, perceptions of death, and a meditation on stagnation, dying, love, and friendship. It tells the story of two elderly neighbours, Evelyn and Addison, who live next door to each other for decades but have little interaction with anyone. When Death comes to collect the two, he provides an option to change their entrenched ways and become friends. Composer Ashley Au and librettist Christene Browne bring this story to life with a unique artistic vision.
The Miikana Project provided technical support, Design and Stage Management Mentorship.
August 2022
The Museum of Lost and Found: Gaakaazootaadiwag
Through collaborative networks and residencies with Loose Tea Music Theatre and Highland Opera Company, this double bill workshop supported diverse libretto and music development teams while exploring sustainable eco-design with recycled products and low energy consumption techniques.
The Museum of the Lost and Found: gaakaazootaadiwag is a site-specific piece that focuses on a fictional museum in the woods exhibiting items from various Lost and Found boxes. It serves as an allegory for how Western society treats missing person cases, specifically MMIWG2S, and is culturally centered on decolonizing spaces.
This project will continue growth within the The Miikana Project consultation and showcase stream.
August 2022
Presenting Partners
Independent Project Sponsors
