In the Anishinaabe seven-fires prophecy, there is a beacon in the great, pre-contact westward migration of the Anishinaabe from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes — from salt to freshwater. This prophecy is the theme of Red Sky Performance’s latest production, Miigis: Underwater Panther, directed and choreographed by Sandra Laronde.

Miigis: Underwater Panther opened at Canadian Stage last month, and it’s about to embark on an extensive tour of Canada and the United States. Integrating dance, music, theatre, image, and Indigenous architectural forms, Miigis tells a story that migrates from prophecy to history, from hope to apocalypse, and back to hope again.

Sandra Laronde, a multidisciplinary artist and Red Sky’s artistic director, has been a beacon of powerful Indigenous performance throughout her extraordinary career. Brendan Healy, artistic director of Canadian Stage, believes the work of Red Sky is itself prophetic of a major paradigm shift in performing arts.

“It’s a moment,” he said in an interview. “Sandra is laying down a pathway. Twenty to thirty years from now, we’ll look back at the way Sandra and the handful of others are forging a pathway for performance in this land, and see how extraordinary it is.”