Golden Rez Dog
Work-in-Progress Presentation by Marcus Merasty
June 1, 5 PM*
daphne Art Center
Free
40 min
English
*This presentation is followed by a conversation with Kyana Lyne which starts at 6pm.
Inspired by The Old Rez Dog, a poem written by his aunt about life on the reserve, Marcus Merasty opens a space where transformation, memory, and transmission meet. At once familiar and symbolic, the rez dog becomes a metaphor for resilience, displacement, and belonging.
In the Golden Rez Dog, Marcus composes a somatic, non-narrative choreographic performance where personal memories and intergenerational legacies converge. In an ever-evolving work, language, voice, movement, sounds, and objects act as performative materials, activating processes of decolonial transformation deeply rooted in the land.
Content Warning
Inter-generational trauma
About Marcus Merasty
Marcus Merasty is a Nēhithaw/Cree performer, choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist with ancestral roots in Wapâwikoscikanihk/Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan. Their work integrates traditional and contemporary Indigenous dance forms, ideologies, and practices with choreography, visual imagery, storytelling, poetry, film, and object-based performance. Rooted in decolonial approaches, territory-based research, and the exploration of somatic movement and relationships with objects, their practice investigates histories, lived experiences, and narratives that shape both personal and collective memory.
Pamskodategw program
This presentation is part of the Pamskodategw program. Supported by the Conseil des arts de Montréal, this 12-month initiative provides support to an Indigenous artist through studio residencies, a creation grant, structural mentorship, and dramaturgical guidance. It also includes an active participation in OFFTA, support from the FTA, as well as a residency at Est-Nord-Est in dialogue with Ivanie Aubin-Malo. Marcus Merasty is guest co-curator of the OFFTA 2026.
Samantha Hinds