Season 1 | Awakeners

APTN

Contact Us tiktok Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram

Season 1

Episode 1- The Search Begins
Laura shares the personal queries that prompted her journey to seek out disabled Indigenous artists. She discovers Esther Auger, a young painter and embroidery artist living with Sotos syndrome, and Gabe Calderon, a dynamic Two-Spirit slam poet.
Episode 2- The Dance and The Dream
Laura meets Lyle and David Donald, a father and son who head the Edmonton Métis Dancers. David is living his dream, teaching young people the traditional Métis jig and sharing his knowledge with people like Stacey, who lives with Down syndrome.
Episode 3- The Healing Culture
Laura meets award-winning dancer Raymond Gladue, who tells her about the car accident that left him in a wheelchair and killed his brother. Laura also meets Sissy Thiessen Kootenayoo, who suffered a brain injury and uses jingle dance as a form of healing.
Episode 4- The Message is the Art
Laura meets three visual artists: Tom Baril, whose photography honours the children of missing and murdered Indigenous women, Mackenzie Brown, whose paintings celebrate Cree culture, and Jolanta Bird, whose photography shares a strong personal perspective.
Episode 5- The Hope Art Carries
Laura meets Wayne Levesque and Yvette Cenerini, who began their lives in the able-bodied world but experienced traumatic injuries that permanently changed them. Now, Wayne is an accomplished recording artist and Yvette is a groundbreaking visual artist.
Episode 6- “Meegwitch, hi hi!”
Laura meets J.R. Bjornson, an up-and-coming stand-up comedian who is blind and lives with anxiety. She also visits the dilapidated farm of groundbreaking visual artist Candace Lipischak and visits the Louis Riel Museum to learn more about the Métis hero.