Listen deeper.
Join artist Elisa Harkins for an intimate walkthrough of the Teach Me A Song exhibition, offering insight into process, collaboration, and meaning.
Featuring the recording of three Treaty 7 artists, extending the life of the work into future spaces and audiences.
This evolving installation brings together Indigenous songs shared by community members and expressed through sound, text, and visual form. Discover how songs carry language, memory, and identity in this living archive. Learn through the exhibition talk how this installation reflects the voices and contributions of those who have shared their songs.
The guided experience of the tour offers insight into the relational nature of the project, where teaching and learning unfold collectively. As songs move between oral tradition and visual expression, Teach Me a Song invites us to reconsider ideas of authorship, ownership, and preservation, centering instead the ongoing connections between people, stories, and land.
This event is presented by Springboard Performance and Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society in partnership with The Confluence.
Come, learn about Teach Me a Song, attend Radio III / ᎦᏬᏂᏍᎩ ᏦᎢ, and end your night at the community-raised tipi with Garret C. Smith!
Featured Artists
Elisa Harkins · Performer, Creator, Musician
Elisa Harkins is a composer, artist, and citizen of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, also of Cherokee descent. She lives and works on the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation. Her work spans music, performance, video, and installation, centering Indigenous language, song, and sound as living cultural practices.
Since 2017, Harkins has been performing and releasing music that integrates Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee language with contemporary electronic production. Her work engages hymn traditions, translation, and the role of sound as a carrier of memory and identity.
She has presented work at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Remai Modern, and On the Boards, and has received support from Creative Capital, First Peoples Fund, and other organizations. Her recordings have been released through Bear Clan Records and Western Front.
Her ongoing projects include Teach Me a Song and Radio III / ᎦᏬᏂᏍᎩ ᏦᎢ. She is currently developing new work combining ceremonial song, synthesizers, and experimental composition.