NAC comes under new management
Lori Marchand named NAC’s first managing director of Indigenous theatre
Ottawa-raised Lori Marchand will be the National Arts Centre’s first managing director of Indigenous theatre when she takes up the position in April next year, the NAC announced this week.
Marchand has been the longstanding executive director of Western Canada Theatre in Kamloops, B.C. Her late father, Len Marchand Sr., was the first Indigenous Member of Parliament, after his election in 1968 to represent the riding of Kamloops-Cariboo. Lori Marchand grew up in Ottawa and saw her first play at the NAC as a child.
In her new position, Marchand will work with the NAC’s new artistic director of Indigenous theatre, Kevin Loring. They are to build the new Indigenous Theatre, which will open during the NAC’s 20192020 season to mark its 50th anniversary.
“We are proud of Lori Marchand’s deep experience in creating and supporting Indigenous art and artists,” said Peter Herrndorf, NAC president and CEO.
“Returning to Ottawa is like an artistic homecoming,” said Marchand. “I am inspired by and hopeful for the future of Indigenous people in Canada.
“For the NAC to make the historic commitment to build a theatre for Indigenous voices and expression is a significant step towards this future.”
Marchand has served as the executive director of Western Canada Theatre for 18 years.
The mother of three daughters, who has an English degree from the University of British Columbia, has also worked for the Ontario Human Rights Commission and Ontario Native Women’s Association. She has also served as a member of the British Columbia Arts Council and is currently its vice-chair.
I am inspired by and hopeful for the future of Indigenous people in Canada.
Christmas is important to Joan Burney — it’s the time of year when her scattered family returns home. And with four children and 15 grandchildren, the celebration is quite the production, yet there’s also a practicality to it that makes for a refreshing simplicity and balance, particularly in her decorating.
“If you have decorations all over, it’s unmanageable,” says Burney, who takes a minimalist approach partly to keep her home livable during the family invasion and partly because she doesn’t want decorations to interfere with her beloved antiques.
Along with her husband, retired diplomat Derek Burney, she has been collecting Canadiana since the couple returned from an eightyear posting to Japan in the early 1970s.
“When you’re not here and you’re raising your kids someplace else … you kind of long for home and then you want things that represent home,” she explains.
That love of home led the couple to produce a coffee-table book this year as part of a Canada 150 project. Called Celebrating Canada: Decorating with History in a Contemporary Home, it is written by antiques dealer and family friend Peter Baker and focuses on the Burney collection and how it fits in with a modern lifestyle.
The book’s theme echoes Joan Burney’s philosophy, which is to take an uncluttered approach and focus on pieces that make for ease of living.
“When something comes in, something goes out and it keeps it under control that way,” she says matter-of-factly. And she avoids antiques meant for sitting because they’re uncomfortable. “They need to be used, because they’ve all got stories.”
That helps to keep the home from feeling like a museum, yet there is a definite sense of history and connection.
“A love of the past and what was built here was so important and what people sacrificed to do it,” Burney says in explaining what draws her to the pieces in her collection. “And there are people making things like game boards and all of these things that are done by, not people studying art, but ordinary people who had skills, because they’re obviously building their houses, doing all sorts of things, and they made beautiful things that should be celebrated.”
So, when it comes to decorating for the holidays, whatever she does must fit in.
“I want to disturb the stuff I live with as little as possible … I don’t want to have wreaths and swags because it would wreck the look for me. Not for other people, but for me.”
She also aims to have her decorations fit with the period, which is why, for example, the tabletop tree in the foyer is a feather one. It’s adorned with ornaments from their past that have meaning and provide another connection.
Yet, there are also touches of whimsy, particularly as they relate to the Burney grandchildren. One long-standing tradition dating to the early days of their collecting career is to build gingerbread houses like the one on display on the dining table.
“Derek and I make this all the time, since 1973,” says Joan. “We were on this must-be-Canadian (kick) so it’s a log house. Then the grandchildren all got in on this act and they’ve been making houses.”
Burney makes the gingerbread logs from scratch, using a wellworn clipping from a 1973 edition of Weekend Magazine (all the kids have copies), and the effort led to a spinoff tradition — Christmas snakes.
“The first year we did this, a whole lot of the gingerbread logs turned out very crooked,” she says, so she decided they would be Christmas snakes. Now, every year her grandkids expect the snakes and will decorate them. “They assume that everybody knows about the Christmas snake.”
Other traditions include the obligatory tourtiere — another nod to Canada — and her mother’s salad relish.
“All of these traditions go together,” Burney says. “Kids want tradition.”