Sandra Laronde (BA ’88 Innis) is changing the cultural landscape across Turtle Island and around the world
I aspire to have the intellectual courage to walk in the direction of meaningful choice, vision, and purpose. My life’s passion is to move the Indigenous narrative from the margins to the centre of Canada’s consciousness, and to help build a pathway for the next seven generations. My work is very much about expanding and elevating the Indigenous canon and awakening a wider ecological relationship to nature.
You are a groundbreaking multidisciplinary artist and arts leader who, for over three decades, has been transforming our cultural landscape through dance, music, theatre, film, and writing, as well as founding game-changing arts organizations such as Red Sky Performance. Do you have an overarching artistic vision or worldview that guides you in your work and your life?
“Story” and ongoing experimentation are paramount to the overarching artistic vision that guides my work and life. My work isn’t just dance, theatre, music, or film, but more of an experience that springs from cultural complexity — passion, joy, talent, and story. I’m interested in telling unusual stories that speak to the more-than-human world. It is a world that is less constricted and limited. I wish to pursue that which shines forever and to create evocative art that has an inherent
“lift.” Art is so necessary in a world of consumption, political intolerance, climate disaster, and fear. It helps us tremendously, and after all, “Life is short, but art is long.”
You are from the Teme-Augama-Anishinaabe (People of the Deep Water) First Nation, growing up in the remote community of Temagami, Ontario, and then moving to Toronto to study philosophy at Innis. What role did your time at U of T play in shaping your path forward?
The move from Temagami — with 1,600 islands, 3,200 km of shoreline, and a population of 500 people — to the big city of Toronto was the most monumental travel that I have ever undertaken. I’ve been to many places in the world, including numerous trips to China, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as two visits to Mongolia, and other locales, but the greatest distance that I ever travelled — psychologically — was from Temagami to Toronto. It was not an easy path, but I was
extremely fortunate to have a handful of U of T professors who made a huge impression on me. I was exposed to new and old ideas, philosophies, worldviews, languages, and feminism. I was also fortunate to surround myself with very bright friends and classmates who excelled in university and were engaged with the world.
Every single day of my life, I use what I’ve learned at U of T, especially as it relates to critical thinking, knowledge, values, writing, speaking, and the sheer discipline of getting things done. This has been a huge asset.
I also studied for a year abroad at the University of Granada in Spain. This too shaped me immensely. Everything about Granada oozes creativity. I have a great love of travel, and it shapes a person. It’s a lot like a pine tree that is forever shaped by the wind. Travel leaves you awestruck, speechless, and rattles you around a bit—and then turns you into a storyteller.
My current work is very much like that of an architect. I design and build, but the difference is that I design and build that which is ephemeral. All projects come from an idea in my head, and I love putting feet to my ideas. I also love putting ideas in
motion to help change the way people perceive and relate to the world.
Ultimately, I want people to feel connected to the electrical charge of an idea or a story. In my own work at Red Sky Performance, I want people to walk out of the theatre feeling inspired, lifted, and larger than when they first walked through the door.
(Photo of Sandra Laronde by Paula Wilson)
This story originally appeared in the 2022/23 Innis Alumni & Friends magazine.