Written and Performed by Ty Defoe

Zhooniyas has fallen from their home in the stars onto Earth, shrouded by light pollution. Interdisciplinary artist Ty Defoe and the All My Relations Collective merge augmented reality installation, performance and story circles to explore the intersections of science and sacred knowledge. Utilizing Anishinaabe star maps, astrophysics, and personal narrative, GIZHIBAA GIIZHIG | Revolving Sky creates a lens to view indigiqueerness and the current climate crisis.

The experience begins with an installation: inviting blankets, camping chairs, and ipads live underneath a projected starscape. Stepping through this portal audiences are encouraged to shed the stresses and noise of life. By preparing audience members to listen and receive stories in this way the space is indigenized. The indegenized space then gives way to the narrative of Zhooniyas , a Queer/two-spirit shapeshifter who lives with his family, the consellations, in the Sky World. Zhooniyas conjures stories out of the cosmos, adapted from the traditional Anishinaabe stories of the fischer (ochek), loon (maang), moose (mooz), and panther (mishi bizhiw). Zhooniyas, like the stars, strives to find points of interconnectedness.