2026 - 2027 REFLECT cohort

Cameron Peal (he/they) is a Vancouver based (Musqueam, Squamish, and Tseil- Waututh territories) theatre artist, from the Nisga'a Nation of Northwest BC. His current passion is in exploring the abstract; “how can I express something beyond the boundaries of what’s literal, what’s already clear?” His work looks to blur the boundaries between art forms and genres.

He has had the pleasure of working, so far, for companies such as Electric Company Theatre, Savage Production Society, Zee Zee Theatre, Pi Theatre, Neworld Theatre, Pacific Theatre, Raven Spirit Dance, Rumble Theatre, Touchstone Theatre, Ruby Slippers Theatre, Firehall Arts Centre, and Studio 58 (to name a few). Most recently, he was assistant director on Hurricane Mona (Touchstone Theatre, Ruby Slippers Theatre).

Actor/director/writer, Studio 58 graduate

Debi Wong is a fearless and award-winning XR producer and multidisciplinary artist who has made a significant impact on the contemporary operatic scene and creative technology sector. She is the Founding Artistic Director of re:Naissance Opera in Vancouver, BC and co-executive producer and co-curator of Signals Creative Technology Expo at The Vancouver International Film Festival.

Some of her recent accolades include: Co-Executive Producer of Whipped Cream’s music video experience, The Dark (CIMA Bold Award Winner, SXSW Official XR Experience Selection); Co-creator and Executive Producer of Live From The Underworld (Aurea XR Award, double winner in creativity and innovation), and she recently opened TED 2023 conference singing as The Solar Ambassador in K Allado McDowell’s new AI opera, Song Of The Ambassadors. Wong was recently named one of the world’s 100 most influential experiential designers by XP Land’s XLIST.

Gavan Cheema is a director, writer, producer, dramaturg and co-Artistic Director of Theatre Conspiracy. She is based out of Vancouver: the traditional, unceded, and occupied territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is a first generation Canadian, with roots coming from the five rivers of Punjab. She is a recent recipient of the Sam Payne Award for Most Promising Emerging Artist at the Jessie Richardson Awards.

Gavan’s play Himmat premiered in Vancouver at The Cultch in May 2022 and will be presented at the Surrey Civic Theatres in April 2024. She holds a double major from the University of British Columbia in Theatre and History, as well as a high school teaching certification. She has created work and directed for various local, national and international stages and has extensive experience in youth engagement, theatre education and workshop facilitation.

Select directing and dramaturgy credits: Conspiracy Now: Is Democracy Dead (Theatre Conspiracy), Same Difference (Theatre Conspiracy), SWIM (Theatre Conspiracy/Pandemic Theatre), Catfish (Alley Theatre), Danceboy (Tremors Festival/ Vancouver Art Gallery Fuse), Burqa Boutique (Revolver Festival), Beauty and the Beast Pantomime (Diamond School).

Nara Monteiro (they/she) is a Brazilian-Canadian writer, editor, and nerd who crunches numbers, sends snail mail, and hosts events as the Publisher at Room, Canada’s oldest feminist literary magazine. After hours, find them working on a Master of Publishing from Simon Fraser University and flexing their editorial muscles. After-after hours, they spend their time devouring books and running off to the mountains.

Nara was born in São Paulo, Brazil on Purí, Tekohá (Guarani), and Mbya land. They were raised under Treaty 13 in Toronto on traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishnabeg, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples. Today Nara lives in Vancouver on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) lands.

Ogheneofegor Obuwoma (She/They) is a Nigerian storyteller, writer, and arts worker with a BFA in film and communications from Simon Fraser University. A key question in their practice is, “What does it mean to be a body in relationship to this world and time?” Their work as an artist and writer emerges from an investigation of questions of the body and self as it relates to the nuanced and ever-changing state of contemporary Nigerian society and culture. In exploring these ideas of self and community, she utilizes concepts of African futurisms and a visual language derived from lived experience and the vastness of the spiritual. Fegor grounds their practice in traditions of care and re-imagination and lives in Vancouver on unceded Coast Salish lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Executive Director of Programming, Indian Summer Arts Society

Pawan devotes herself to exploring the power of meaningful gathering through her work. She proposes that gathering itself is an art, and that joyful design cultivates togetherness and events that inspire purpose. For Pawan, connection is transformative, spaces and places can uplift, and art has the power to heal.

Pawan has written and produced several Leo award-winning films, including Unkept and Deeper I Go. Before joining the Indian Summer team in 2019, she also worked in TV and radio, bringing more representative storytelling to the forefront. Pawan has produced live TV specials, radio documentaries, music videos, and wellness events. She has a Master of Journalism degree from Carleton University.

Always ready for deeply personal and provoking conversations (draw a question card, go on!), Pawan loves self-growth books and podcasts, and rearranging her furniture weekly. She lives on Coast Salish, Semiahmoo, and S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō) lands, colonially known as Surrey, Canada.

Starr Muranko is dancer/choreographer, Mother and Co-Artistic Director with ​Raven Spirit Dance.  As a choreographer she is most interested in the stories that we carry within our bodies and Ancestral connections to land that transcend time and space.  Her work has been shared locally and nationally including the Dance Centre, Talking Stick Festival, Coastal Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Native Earth Performing Arts, Weesageechak Begins to Dance, Impact Festival and InFringing Dance Festival.  Featured works include Chapter 21, Spine of the Mother and before7after as well as recent collaborative work Confluence and her current research for a new piece Tracing Bones.

A proud company dancer with the Dancers of Damelahamid since 2005, she has toured across Canada and internationally and trained under the guidance and mentorship of the late Elder Margaret Harris. She is currently Artist-in-Residence at Ballet BC alongside colleague and longtime collaborator Margaret Grenier.  She values inter-generational mentorship and has facilitated workshops through ArtsStarts, Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, Native Education College and Vines Art Festival and holds a BFA in Dance from SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts. Starr honours and celebrates her mixed Ancestry of Omushkegowuk Cree (Moose Cree First Nation - Treaty 9), French and German in all of her work.

Ziyian Kwan (she/her) is a 1 st generation Chinese Filipina settler, who works as a dance artiston the unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Since 1988, she has performed over 100 original works by an eclectic range of choreographers on international stages and in 2017, received The Dance Centre’s Isadora Award for excellence in performance. Her own creations, which have been performed across Canada and in Europe, are collages of imagery, movement, and language. Ziyian is the founding Artistic Director of Odd Meridian Arts, with which she visions and stewards programming that supports the creative adventures of artists from across disciplines. With Odd Meridian, Ziyian spearheaded Morrow, an intentional cultural space that supports a growing community of artists in their work and connections with people.

Energy at play, in bodies in worlds: oddmeridian.ca.