About LodgePole Arts Alliance
Since 2023, LodgePole has been offering Indigenous artistic events across the region.
We operate through a national-based volunteer commitment of six Indigenous leaders serving on the Grand Council. Each brings extensive experience across the creative sector, cultural governance, and organizational leadership.
Our vision is to empower Indigenous Peoples to realize Indigenous resiliency, respect, and reclamation through art making, creative collaborations, and cultural renewal. We have partnered with various artistic organizations to support the work of Indigenous artists at musical events, film screenings and festivals, and conduct an annual event to strengthen Indigenous-led presentation and touring network.
We produce Sounding Thunder, the Song of Francis Pegahmagabow, a musical journey of the life of the renowned Ojibwe WWI sniper, decorated officer of the Canadian military and Indigenous political activist.
Our History
The vision for an Indigenous creative centre began in 2019 with a three-year research and feasibility investigation by two of the founding members of LodgePole Arts Alliance, JP Longboat and Terri-Lynn Brennan, in partnership with ArtsBuild Ontario. The project investigated the feasibility of creating Indigenous creative spaces across Ontario. The data made it clear that Indigenous Peoples are interested in and eager to be a part of a centre such as LodgePole Arts Alliance.
In summer 2021, five people from across Canada committed two years of their time, and the Grand Council was created; we held our first meeting that July. We developed our logo, and we began small-scale projects. During this summer, we began to partner with The Hotel Wolfe Island and established an office in association with The Hotel, and its not-for-profit, the Wolfe Island Commons.
In October 2021, we became registered as a Canadian not-for-profit corporation.
Discussions with other creative organizations and individuals continued through the winter as we set our goals and continued to hold monthly meetings, with a growing number of Indigenous and non-Indigenous volunteers and supporters. We finalized a partnership with Kingston Association of Museums, Art Galleries and Historic Sites in the summer of 2022, and since that time, they have remained another steadfast partner and supporter.
We held our first annual general meeting on November 23rd, 2022.
The following summer, we began a concerted effort towards finding suitable land; our efforts were focused on Wolfe Island, but we were, and continue to be, open to land that is accessible to water in the province, preferably in the Eastern Woodland corridor.
Lodge Pole Arts Alliance (LPAA) was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 2021 and secured charitable status in 2023.
We continued to partner with The Hotel on hosting musical events and film screenings. While expanding partnerships with the Kingston Writers Fest in sponsoring and supporting 2 Indigenous authors in both September 2023 and September 2024. As well as collaborating with the Skeleton Park Arts Festival in the summer of 2024.
In October 2024, we hosted the inaugural National Indigenous Presenters Gathering (NIPG) on Wolfe Island and in the City of Kingston. We supported travel, accommodation and meals for Indigenous Presenters and Arts Creatives from Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and across Ontario to take part in the event, which by all accounts proved extremely successful.
In 2025, we moved from a volunteer organization to hiring committed staff to take us to the next level of sustainability, and are hoping to make the annual NIPG a grounded event in the region.
Vision and Guiding Principles
Our vision is to empower Indigenous Peoples to realize Indigenous resiliency, respect, and reclamation through art making, creative collaborations, and cultural renewal.
LodgePole’s approach is guided by four principles:
skén:nen
(Mohawk), peace, paix
~
To establish a safe, healthy, welcoming, and technologically modern space within the Frontenac County Biosphere for Indigenous artists to discover, develop, and create in connection with land, culture, history and place.
miigwe’aadiziwin
(Anishinaabemowin), generosity, générosité
~
To be a mobilizing, active, holistic space founded on land-based knowledge, practices, and models while offering the resources for cultural reclamation and renewal.
onkwayó’ténhsera
(Mohawk), responsibility, responsabilité
~
To contribute to the provincial Indigenous arts and culture network while developing audience, patrons, and presenter relationships with regional, national, and international Indigenous creators.
minwaadendamowin
(Anishinaabemowin), respect, respecter
~
To support professional and community arts practices and affirm, embrace, and promote Indigenous identity, culture, and creative expression, inclusive of all artistic disciplines.
The Story Behind Our Logo
The logo was a collaborative effort of the Grand Council and Mohawk designer Joel Martin. Starting at from the base of the logo, working your way up
We honour our original teachings and our original agreements with the natural world. We recognize the agreements made between the Nations recorded and symbolized in the Two Row Wampum teachings. These beads come from the land and the waters, and as such, we recognize the waters as a source for all life.
With the shoreline, we acknowledge the sacred medicines and the plant world that sustains and heals us. Above the shoreline is the white pine, the highest tree in the canopy of these Eastern Woodland forests; we can follow the white roots from any direction to this tree of peace and find shelter and protection beneath its branches.
The hands reach up to the sky as we acknowledge our way of life in tune with life’s natural cycles; the moon and sun cycles representing our ceremonial ways, which are the foundations of who we are.
