Episode 63 – Never Whistle at the Northern Lights (Kiuryaq)

Gabrielle Martin: Hello and welcome to Push Play, a Push Festival podcast featuring conversations with artists who are pushing boundaries and playing with form. I’m Gabrielle Martin, Push’s artistic director, and today’s episode highlights Northern cosmologies, the critical leadership of Northern artists today, and return and belonging.

I’m speaking with co-writers Rawdna Carita Eira, Alon Nashman, and Dr. Reneltta Arluk, who’s also the director of Kagoriak, which is being presented at the Push Festival January 28th, 2026. The Northern Lights have always carried stories, frightening, spiritual, epic, and playful. Kagoriak is a circumpolar theatrical performance exploring our relationship with the Aurora Borealis, created by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists from Canada, Kalaallit Nunaa, Greenland, and Sapmi, Norway.

Kagoriak blends theater, live music, and video design to weave Northern stories into a landscape of light, memory, and cosmology Dr. Reneltta Arluk, doctorate in literature, is an Inuvialuk, Gwich’in, Dene Suline, and Cree writer, director, and artist, arts leader from the Northwest Territories, raised by her grandparents on the trap line.

She is the founder of Acpik Theatre, the only professional indigenous theater company based in the Northwest Territories, which develops and produces northern indigenous-led performance rooted in community and land. Over two decades, she has worked across Canada and internationally as an artist and advocate, becoming the first Inuk and indigenous woman to direct at the Stratford Festival, and now serving as senior manager of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization at the National Gallery of Canada.

Alon Nashman is a Toronto-based performer, director, and producer, and the founder of Theaturtle, creating ecstatic theater that touches the earth and agitates the soul. His stage work spans from the Stratford Festival to international tours, and he has collaborated with composers and artists worldwide on projects that bridge theater, music, and visual art.

Ravna Karita Ira is a Sami Norwegian writer, playwright, and lyricist from Kuoddatgihtnu, and her plays have been staged by the Sami National Theatre, Beaivváš. Her writing bridges the poetic, political, and spiritual landscapes of the North. She is also the vocalist and lyricist for the band Circus Polaria and co-writer of the opera Two Odysseys, Pamuiduvnne and Gallibáirriddmit.

Here is my conversation with Alon, Rawdna, and Reneltta.

I wanna open by acknowledging that I’m joining you from the unceded ancestral, uh, and traditional lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, and that these living territories have been held through generations of care and resistance. And I’m… would love to hear where you’re joining this conversation from.

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Uh, I’m in the Anishinaabe Algonquin region in Ottawa, and I’m very grateful to be here, and we’ve been living here for just over a year. 

Alon Nashman: I’m joining from Toronto, otherwise known as Tkaronto. This is a land inhabited and cared for by the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat, and currently home to indigenous folks from across Turtle Island.

Rawdna Carita Eira: Yeah, and I’m joining you from Sami. Right now I’m in Stockholm in Sweden, but I’m, I’m based in Kuoddatgihtnu, so that’s where I live and, and yeah. Most of the time, but right now I’m working at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. 

Gabrielle Martin: Well, thanks for taking a break from your rehearsals to jump into this conversation and switch gears to think about Kaguruak again.

Um, so yeah, Kaguruak gathers artists from across the circumpolar north, Inuvialuit, Sámi, Kalaallit Nunaa, and southern collaborators. Uh, and this is within a shared cosmology. I would love to hear what drew you to the Aurora as a connective tissue, and how it became a dramaturgical bridge between these distinct Northern worlds.

Rawdna Carita Eira: Yeah. We started by connecting and, and, like, sharing stories, I think- Yeah … in the beginning. And what we found that w- some of the stories that we kind of had in con- common was the mythologies, mythologies, uh, regarding the northern lights, and, uh, we had all l- learned the… In the North, we have all learned that we should never whistle at the northern lights because then it will come and get you.

So all of us, I think, had some kind of connection to that So that was kind of a g- good and natural starting point. It’s- 

Gabrielle Martin: And how were you already in conversation? Have you been collaborating before, or how did those conversations come to be? 

Alon Nashman: Renaldo and I met at the Stratford Playwrights’ Retreat. And, you know, you talk about projects, you talk about what, what your fascinations are, and we had, you know, re- areas of overlap and, and reasons to wanna work together.

And, um, it was out of conversations that we were having that, uh, we wanted to kind of consider… Because I, I’d been doing this production of The Snow Queen, like, what do people who live in the North really think of The Snow Queen? And, you know, that question just had this domino effect through to, um, this relationship with those lights that are forming a, a kind of cosmic band around the circumpolar region.

And even though the lands are different, tundras, forests, fjord, uh, glaciers, that light extravagance is uniting every part of the, the North. 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Yeah, I mean, we’re all storytellers l- first and foremost, right? Like, Rauna’s an incredible storyteller. Alon’s a wonderful storyteller. I’m a storyteller. And so when you start bringing storytellers together, our natural instinct is to share stories that we know.

And so, you know, we kinda… I told stories of the North. Um, Alon, you know, shares stories of his experiences with the northern lights, and then Rauna shared her stories. And what we did find was that there is a shared cosmology of the aurora, to not whistle at them, uh, to never taunt them, that they will come to get you.

And, uh, like, kuk qulak is, it means bright colors, and the, and it means, like, bands of bright colors or a singular bright color. And, uh, another word for it is aqsarniq, which is the, uh, Nunavut, a dialect, and it actually means, uh, walrus skull. So then it’s even in the language, it’s saying, you know, “We will take your head and, and play soccer with it.”

And that is, that’s the describing of the Aurora Borealis, I think, in, uh, possibly, like… Uh, definitely, I think Alaska and Greenland is the… Not Alaska, but I think Nunavut and Greenland is, is a bit of that descriptor. And so, um, yeah, like, we, we share it, and it’s in our, in our language. 

Rawdna Carita Eira: And it’s always li- it was always like, uh, when I was a kid, we, our parents told us that not to go and whistle at the northern light.

Never taunt, tease them. Uh, but at the same time, they told us these riddles That if you go, then you do this riddle or this poem. So it’s kind of, it, it was a big part of my childhood, and, uh, also a big part of, like, bringing up my own kids and grandkids. 

Gabrielle Martin: Wow. I actually just, um, had a t- chance to chat with Itay, who’s one of your collaborators on lighting design, and he showed me the photos of the northern lights from your recent tour.

And they’re just spectacular. I mean, I know I’ve seen, uh, work in progress of Kigoriak, um, and got to see a little bit of it there, but obviously doesn’t, doesn’t compare to being, uh, immersed in that. It was really special to hear through his experience and just to start to kind of, um, yeah, through that, through, through his stories and just feeling his excitement about what it meant to be there.

Uh, it just made me really excited even more so for Kigoriak coming to our stages, and I know that’s such a beauty of this project as it does through the projections. And of course, the storytelling, it brings us into a cosmology that we in southern Canada don’t, uh, are not, don’t encounter very often and can completely forget about.

Um, I wanna talk a bit more about the technology, um, the sonography. So it in- the piece intertwines theater, concert, immersive projection to reimagine ancestral stories through contemporary media, and how do you navigate the tension between technology’s mediation and the embodied land-based knowledge at the heart of Kigoriak?

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Oh, we should add music to the, the i- the co- like, with the composition music part. Yes. ‘Cause that is another, a large element of, of the telling. 

Rawdna Carita Eira: Yeah. In, in Sámi storytelling, it’s always been a connection between music and, and telling stories. So our yoiks, our traditional music, has always been a part of the, the storytelling.

And I think that the musical elements and the, and the kind of the, what happens on stage, uh, together is, uh, kind of connected to the old ways of telling stories, but we are still using tools, uh, that are available, uh, today, and te- techniques that are av- available for us to, to, to, to broaden the story or to lift the story, uh, to be on a, a modern scene.

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Yeah 

Rawdna Carita Eira: So, but I still think that the core of the performance is very much like, uh, storytelling used to be 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: I mean, it is a great question to think how are we incorporating a digital landscape into, like, into a land-based telling? And it… That is, like, the ultimate question of involving digital work in theater, in dance, in music.

Like, ’cause it can become so… It can become its own world, and then you lose the essence of what we’re, what you’re trying to achieve with digital engagement. And, uh, and so one… And so the technical residency we did at Chan, a three-week, that we did that three-week residency, was really helpful. We did a little mini residency in Montreal that was very helpful to help us really figure out what is our relationship with the digital world.

Um, one of the things that we did was, and I was really insistent, that we didn’t Getty our northern lights. Yeah. Like, we didn’t get them from, you know, the Getty Images, Getty Videos. So all the content that you see is all content that we have from northern filmmakers. Uh, we like in Yellowknife thankfully, there’s, there’s a nice handful of, of really incredible filmmakers.

So we just, we got, we had, we hired filmmakers to film certain images that we wanted, s- certain B-roll that we wanted, and then when we noticed gaps from the technical residency, we went right back up to those filmmakers. And, and, uh, Raudna as well, uh, we realized we didn’t have enough, um Sámi footage, and so we really wanted to make sure that we, uh, brought in, uh, that, that lens as well.

And so all the i- all the work that you’re seeing is, is gathered by, by our team, and it’s original content. And then the other was that when we were playing with all the images, we… The feedback that we got was, um, “We want more. We want more,” which is, like, so typical Aurora. Like, Aurora always wants more. So we had to, like, reshift that for Yellow Knife and kinda go like, “We’re never gonna be able to recreate what this is, what to experience it live.”

So we went back into the essence of it’s our relationship with the northern lights, and how can we really emphasize the relationship? And so w- thankfully, we have this incredible, uh, artist, Haley Vrbonic, who is our set designer and our graph- and our animation designer illustrator. And Haley, uh, des- uh, was doing animation for us.

And when we… After the residency, we circled back with him, and I asked him to create a, uh, what does Marie’s auroras look like? What does Rowan’s auroras look like? And so what we’ve done is we’ve added their own personal, uh, aurora interpretation, um, into it so that we’re not so focused on only aurora, like the aurora borealis, but that we’re, we’re kind of contextualizing it through the lens of who we are, a- as, as a, uh, who they are as characters so that we recognize that it’s, um…

We, we always, uh, put our own selves in this, in the aurora, and that’s what also makes it really magical and, uh, and emotional and spiritual. Um, so we wanted to do that for, um, Marie and Rowan as well. 

Rawdna Carita Eira: And I think also the fact that we used original footage from, from these, uh, from Yellow Knife and from Sámi and from…

It’s also a connecting to land. Mm-hmm. Like, it is re- important for us Uh, so, so I think it’s, uh, that was a, a good thing 

Alon Nashman: Yeah. It- there is a- there’s s- such an urge to commodify the Northern Lights, and the play deals with this fetishization that, um, I’ve been a part of. I’ve, I’ve been a, a, an Aurora tourist-

um, and hunter and all of that. But, um, the, the play and the process, we kept insisting that we go back to elemental and personal relationship and, um, yeah, that, that insistence on, um, using bespoke images, both drawn and filmed by ourselves just made it real. 

Gabrielle Martin: I wanna talk a bit about the story, um, a bit more about another aspect of the story.

So it centers around two siblings separated by colonial histories and geography, one raised under the Northern Lights and one adopted South. What thoughts of belonging, return, or rememory, which is a Toni Morrison term for reinhabiting memory as something that still lives in the present, um, what, yeah, what thoughts of belonging, return, or rememory surfaced for you in writing and directing this relationship?

Rawdna Carita Eira: I think that, uh, th- some… another aspect that was similar in a way in both Canada, Alaska, and Kalaallit Nuna- Nunat and Sapmi is the children being taken away or, like, forced adoption out from the society. We have these stories in Sapmi as well, and we also have, uh, th- those children returning home. So it, it is an issue that, that we all…

Like, it’s a part of our lives i- in Canada and in Sapmi and in Kalaallit Nu- Nunat. So… And where to belong for people who feel that they have lost culture or language or, like, revitalization and coming home, which can be a quite, uh, can be quite hard for some people. It’s kind of a, uh, very, uh, diff- can be a very difficult path or it can be simple.

That depends. So, uh, but at least that is a very important, uh, story to tell also I think. So, uh, and lot of, lot of these stories is like, uh, “Can I come home? Uh, is this right? Do I belong here?” And these are big questions for all of us, I think. 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Like this, I think is the benefit of having multiple writers.

I’ll share just to add to Raudne’s I’ll add I’ll add an experience that we had in Inuvik. But I just don’t want to lose that celebration of us three writers because Alon actually like not actually Alon played a really big role in the development of Rowan and we have to really acknowledge that and So one to add to, um, Raona’s sharing is that we went to Inuvik, and I haven’t been to an…

Like, my dad’s side of the family is from Inuvik, a Klavik region, and I haven’t been since my late 20s, early 30s. And, uh, so this was really exciting that we got to bring Kagoriak up there. And it’s the, like, the Kagoriak is the Inuvialuktun word. Nanaq, Atarak are Inuvialuktun words. Pia Qipini, which is I love you, which is also an Inuvialuk word, uh, from my, all helped with Wilbert Papik and my great aunt Lillian Elias.

And she lives up in Inuvik. And so I brought my son because my son had not been up there yet, and I wanted him to see some of his ancestral land and, and his territory and meet some of his aunties. And so I brought him, brought him up with us. And there happened to be a young man there, Asivak Kusatchak, whose mother is a, a really amazing Cree filmmaker.

She’s Cree, and his dad is actually Inuvialukt- is, uh, Inuvialuk. And so he just happened to be up there. He’s an actor. We did a movie together called Red Snow by Marie Clements, like, a few years ago. And, uh, so he was up there reconnecting with his family, and just happened to be there the same time that we were.

And he said, “You’re here. I wanna hang out with you. You know how hard it is to see your auntie? She’s busy.” And it’s true, she’s a busy lady. And so, uh, during rehearsals, we brought her in, and he came, and he sat with us, and he sat with her. And he started, like, he’d been doing all this research, so he started saying to her like, um, “Do you know this name?

Do you know this person? Do you know this person?” And she’d be, “Oh, yeah, that’s, that’s my grandpa. That’s, that’s your grandpa. I w- we went to school together. Uh, oh, yeah, that’s your auntie. I remember her.” And you could tell that everything that came out of her mouth was, like, sacred information to him. Like, he just took it in.

And then he, he was asking these other questions, and then she said… He said, “I, I’m feeling like I wanna know…” And it was because his dad was adopted out, so he didn’t get to connect with the community. And so then she, um, he was like… And y- she could tell that everything she was saying was something that was really important to him.

And so, um, she said to him, “It’s always good to come back because we miss you when you go, and we miss you when you’re not here.” And it was just like this encapsulation of, you know, she’s born and raised in her community. She’s one of our s- uh, strong language speakers. Um, she’s so beloved and, uh, and you know, Asivak is, is, um, this young man is making his way back to his community and You know, there are so many internal thoughts that tell us we don’t deserve to know who we are.

We were taken away. Like, there’s so much shame-based that comes with disconnection of culture. It’s, it’s colonial shame. It’s, um, it’s just things that are told in our mind. Um, and so it’s such a welcoming, um, always, and you’re always, always get to know who you are and, and get to know your community, and it’s encouraged because your community doesn’t actually forget, and that, and, uh, and so it’s, it’s really important.

So that was, like, one very special moment that happened in Inuvik that I won’t forget anytime soon. 

Alon Nashman: That’s part of the magic of Kagurak, um, the project, that it keeps drawing this kind of connected energy. Part of the magic as well and the formation of this story of the two siblings is from my own family, that I have a cousin who was adopted, and he was adopted out of Inuvik, actually.

Um, and it’s, it’s not a, it wasn’t a forced adoption. It was an open adoption. He was four years old, and my, my cousins who adopted him knew the mother, and it, it all was a good idea for everybody. But this boy who’d grown up in, in Inuvik, he had been born in Fort Smith, which is where Renalde was born. And so we imagined, you know-

what, what, what if, you know, this is a long-lost brother or a long-lost relative? And that’s where the story came out of, but I just have to tell you that because he grew up for four years in the North, when he was growing up in, in the South, he felt claustrophobic, totally hemmed in by all the trees and buildings and this horizon that was not available to him any longer, and that affected him so deeply.

Um, and just hearing both of you talk about the power of returning, it, it makes me feel like there’s another conversation I have to have within my own family. 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Mm. And that only came from us all together. Like, we didn’t come together to write this story of these two siblings. That wasn’t the intention. The intention was to explore our relationship with the Northern Lights, but then this relationship between Marie and Rowan- W- was actually from the three of us and the power of grandmother also, you know, through Rauna’s voice, um, has really made this a rich telling.

And I didn’t even, like, y- you know, we’re so busy in the minutia of digital and design, um, but it wasn’t until it got in front of an audience did, uh, we really realize that this relationship between Marie and O- and Rowan is transcendent to all of the regions, and transcendent to who we are right now. And, uh, and, like, the emotions that come from some of the audience members, uh, is very potent, um, from, from this, from this telling.

It’s… I would never have predicted that from the beginning of this project. 

Gabrielle Martin: Wow. Thank you for sharing that. This is why I love these conversations, just to like… It, it just, you know, it… There’s such a rich process behind the development of this project, and so just to get to understand a little bit more of your thinking behind it and how it all came together and some of the magic behind how the stories and the, the, you know, serendipity of where you were when and the people who shaped what the story is now, it’s really, really exciting to hear about.

Um, and, and as you’re sharing, like, I think that is something that is so special about this story is, is the layering of, you know, the, the mythology or the stories around the cosmology and also this, these really, um, urgent stories as well that are so contemporary. Um, like the timeless stories and the very contemporary, um, stories also that you’re talking about i- in terms of like bel- uh, belonging, return, um, these stories of the colonial legacies also that, um, have shaped that.

Um, and yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I wanna ask a little bit about, uh, the collaboration, a bit more about the collaboration, so across indigenous and non-indigenous or between indigenous and non-indigenous artists from different circumpolar territories, um, and that this is both, you know, a creative and a political act.

I’m wondering how this co-creation process shaped, uh, uh, your understanding of shared sovereignty, reciprocity, or kinship across northern nations. 

Rawdna Carita Eira: I think it’s really important that we f- find a way to share our stories, stories and our, like, cosmology. It strengthens us as northerners to find that we have similar stories.

Of course, we have difficulties or, or like different ways of, of telling or, uh, or living, but there is so much, like, in common. And by working together- Uh, these stories mo- many of them have not been shared. Like, I didn’t know much about the Canadian stories or from the Canadian side. Uh, uh Or, or, so I’m learning s- so much during this process.

Uh, d- it has been, uh, quite a few years since we started, and I have learned so much. And I find that we have kind of a, we have similar thinking, ways of thinking that is a different, that’s different from the, the way of thinking that we always are presented with. And it’s so important that we get to tell our own stories and share them.

And it, it’s important for us as indigenous people, but it’s also important for everyone, like, living together to understand and to get, like, get one step further. Um, so, so I think it’s really … This has been a really important process in my life, uh, really, to get, getting to learn all these people, visit these places, and be a part of this production.

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Yeah, I’m a little emotional about that, Rauna. 

Rawdna Carita Eira: No, but it’s true. It is. 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Yeah, it’s, like, such a gift to be able to share space with Rauna and just hear her wisdom. You know, like I’m, I’ve been a producer since 2008. Alon’s been a producer, and, uh, Rauna’s a producer as well. Like, we all have that experience, and we come into the room so generous.

And, um, and it’s not … You know, at times you, you, you hit those little waves of creativity and what you become passionate about, and, and there’s always wise words that come out of all of our mouths at different times. But I always find that more of the wisdom comes from Rauna, than it does- 

Rawdna Carita Eira: No … 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: from anyone else.

And so, uh, how grateful. Um, and it, there’s a great, Matina, who did the news article, New York Times article, she picked up on something really astutely, which is that in the time of all the separation that’s happening with world politics, that it’s the artists in the, in the circumpolar north that are continuing sovereignty.

Sovereignty, unity, and really bringing our voice forward. And so I, I completely agree, Rauna, that this is an important time that our voices are heard through unity. Uh, and it’s our, the artists that are really advocating and politicizing and, uh, being vocal about it. Like, we were just in Greenland for this, uh, Sualla Festival, and you know, they were selling sweaters that says, “Greenland is not for sale.”

We watched a, a piece with Armand, um, Make the North Great Again is one of his slogans, and he’s like, “The Arctic is not for sale,” and they were, like, yelling it at us in the audience- 

Gabrielle Martin: Mm-hmm … 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: so powerfully. And And, um, and, and these, you know, um, Raudna’s part of Deađaidalu, which is this incredible Sámi collective, um, that’s multidisciplinary.

And so it really is the time that we, that we have these conversations. And, um, I’ve learned so much from being able to m- to, to, to visit Raudna and, and, um, to have Raudna come to Canada. Like, it’s, uh, it is… This has been a very powerful process f- for sure, and I just remain so, so humbled and grateful. 

Alon Nashman: Yes.

I mean, I just have to echo because- … because it would seem like I’m, I’m, I’m not as absolutely in love with my collaborators as, as they are of each other. But, you know, we’ve been, um, to, uh, to visit the Sámi National Theatre, Beaivváš, and see its incredible new building- Mm … which is architecturally indigenous wisdom made manifest, and so, um, so elevating of whatever happens in there.

I saw great performances in, in a building that is inspired by the key bone of, of the, uh, of, of, of the horn of the reindeer. 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Mm. 

Alon Nashman: Um, and, uh, it’s… Yeah. We- And the fact that, that we’ve prioritized performing in the North, um, taking this to the communities where the stories originate from, has been so important to the process.

And there were temptations, you know, “Well, we could be invited there. Let’s go to that important festival.” No. We’re gonna go, we’re gonna open and premiere at the Northern Arts and Cultural Center. We’re gonna tour throughout Northwest Territories, then we’re gonna go to Kalaallit Nunaat, and we’re going to open with the arts festival in Nuuk.

And then, uh, we’re going to go to where we have our, our dates booked in, in, uh, you know, in Sappeme and, and tour around there. So, you know, this… It- it’s super relational. I’m bringing a Southern perspective, and this quality of w- working together. Um, Renelta gave me an incredible, uh, template for, for this, and I forget the source of it, but she said when we’re doing this kind of allyship coordination, there’s a way to go into the meal as bringing our own dishes and sharing them.

Or we could make our favorite food in, in the same kitchen and pass them between each other. But there’s another level that we were going for, and that is actually cooking together- And in cooking together, you bump into each other. You’ve gotta be careful with, you know, how you hold the, the implements, but, you know, you get super close and you get super aligned.

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Yeah. I can’t take credit. That’s Rai Maran. That’s Rai Maran who taught me that. 

Rawdna Carita Eira: But I, I will also add that because it’s something about the meals. I think I’m maybe obsessed with meals, but, but it’s something about this great, uh, these resources, these people from different places getting together, and we are working together, and we are doing all these things, but we also have these meals together that are equally important just to get to know one another, and also to be, like, going to one, to each other’s home, uh, l- homelands.

That for me it was such a joy to, to be able to receive Alon and, and your wife, and we did, uh, we went, uh, to different places in, in Sapmi, and also Renate and your, your family, and it’s also like this is also a part of sharing and growing and, like, uh, recognizing, yeah, one another or, like, listening to one another.

And I think that is, that is one of the most important aspects to this Even though we are working like we are professionals, we are working and we are developing, developing, uh, this project, but it’s still on a human level, like a universal level that makes us stronger 

Gabrielle Martin: Yeah. It sounds like you’ve really been shaped by the process, allowed yourself to be shaped by the process, allowed the process to shape itself as well, and that there’s power in, in terms of how that process has, has changed you and also how it’s changing the audiences.

I want to… It was such a beautiful, you all spoke such beautiful words. It would be a really nice note to end this, uh, conversation on, but I have one more question. I just wanna b- come back to the Aurora, um, for the, the final part of this conversation. And I know that in Kangiruaq, it’s more than an image.

It’s presence, witness, teacher. In the making of this work, did you, did your relationship with the northern lights change? Uh, did they reveal something new to you, demand something more of you, uh, than before you started? 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: I could just talk about the multi-generational aspect of it. Um, you know, the Aurora, at times in my life when I’ve, when, like, when special people in my life have passed, it’s very natural that a big streaks of color just go across the sky, and that seems to be something that’s very consistent in my life, and I hear from others that experience as well.

And, and then to talk about my son, so Carver saw the show. He loves the show. He’s talked about it twice. You know, he saw it twice and he kept talking about it. And when, when we went to Inuvik, he was like, “So when do I see these lights? Like, do I get to see these lights?” And it didn’t even occur to me that Carver, ’cause he’s a southern child, has really never seen the lights.

And so, and then I was like, “Oh, man, I’d really love to share them with you, but they come out really late and I’m sleeping,” like… But he has such a curiosity now that it, it was like, “Oh, of course. Of course he’d wanna see the lights, too.” And so, um, when we were in Yellowknife, I’d be like, “Okay, let’s look for these lights tonight.

Let’s make sure we see them.” And, and so yeah, he’s now asking about them just simply from the show, and I maybe never would have put the two together, you know, ’cause life is life- Mm-hmm … and so I was grateful for that. 

Alon Nashman: You, Renel, just with that, you know, I’m too tired, I’m going to bed thing- … um, you’ve reminded me.

In Yellowknife we had spectacular displays. It was like- Mind-blowing. Um, some people in the quartet came with all their camera equipment, and they were going out every night. It was- Every night … they were getting, like, the best footage. Um, and so moving in this process is that, um, Julia Ulak Davis, who is playing Marie, um, was born in Churchill, um, is Inuit, but has grown up in Winnipeg and actually never saw them.

So to be with her the first time she actually saw them after dreaming about them, you know, and writing about them her whole life- 

Outro : Mm … 

Alon Nashman: it was, it was astonishing. And also to be with Itay, um, who is, you know, our, one of our genius lighting designers, to be there in encountering the ultimate lighting design, mind-blowing.

Um, you know, it, it was like everyone was having the, these, these out-of-body transformative experiences. And, and then he would say, “Hey, the lights are gonna be great tonight.” And we said, “Everyone, you know, the van will be there.” And, and Elean and, um, Seliq, who, you know, they, they both grew up with the lights all the time, they’re like, “We’re going to bed.”

Rawdna Carita Eira: And it, uh, and it was also another aspect that is, I have discovered, uh, that I didn’t know about, is that the northern light industry is so big in Yellowknife or other places. I thought it was only in Sappi. So we have been competing who’s got the best northern lights. I think maybe Yellowknife. I 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: think it’s Yellowknife.

Rawdna Carita Eira: Okay. 

Gabrielle Martin: You got that 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: recorded. 

Rawdna Carita Eira: But it’s like- 

Gabrielle Martin: Wow … 

Rawdna Carita Eira: the discussion’s still going on.

Gabrielle Martin: It’s not over yet.

No. Awesome. Thank you so much for this conversation. I’m so thrilled that, you know, we get to host this beautiful piece, uh, at Push 2026 with the Chan, and welcome you all there after having seen, uh, the work in progress when you were in residency at the Chan, and now being able to bring it back in its full realization.

It’s really special. Looking forward to it very much. 

Dr. Reneltta Arluk: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Us, too, so excited about- Yes … Push Festival. And we’re bringing the quartet. I think we have to mention that we will have the live quartet, so Carmen will be there, and we’ll have, uh, we called, they called themselves Curmode when we were doing the, um, residency.

And so Curmode will be joining us for, for Push. 

Gabrielle Martin: Thanks so much, everyone. Thank you. 

Alon Nashman: Thanks for bringing us together. 

Gabrielle Martin: Thank you. See 

Alon Nashman: you 

Gabrielle Martin: soon