Sm Łoodm Nüüsm (Dr. Mique’l Dangeli) Born and raised on the Annette Island Indian Reserve, Mique’l Dangeli is of the Ts’msyen Nation of Metlakatla, Alaska. She is Assistant Professor, Indigenous Arts, in the Department of Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Victoria. Mique’l is a dancer, choreographer, curator, and art historian. Her work on Indigenous visual and performing arts focuses on resurgence, sovereignty, protocol, politics, decolonization, and language revitalization. As one of the youngest advanced speakers and teachers of Sm’algyax, she is dedicated to teaching her people’s language online and in-person in community-based and university-accredited classes. Since 2003, Mique’l and her husband, artist and carver Mike Dangeli have led the Git Hayetsk Dancers, an internationally renowned Northwest Coast First Nations dance group specializing in ancient and newly created songs and mask dances.

Gootlh Ts’milix (Mike Dangeli) Mike Dangeli is of the Nisga’a, Tlingit, Tsetsaut, and Tsimshian Nations. He is a visual artist, singer, composer, dancer, and educator. Mike is in line to be a hereditary chief and has trained under the chiefs and matriarchs since his childhood. A renowned wood carver, painter, and designer, he began studying and creating his people’s art at an early age through traditional apprenticeships. His work is collected and exhibited throughout the world. Over the past 20 years, Mike and his wife Dr. Mique’l Dangeli have trained three generations of dancers, singers and drummers in their dance group the Git Hayetsk. He has carved hundreds of masks and headdresses as well as made hand-painted leather regalia that are danced in the performances of Git Hayetsk as well as by many Nations and dance groups along the Northwest Coast. Mike and Mique’l bring their artistic talents and traditional training together to create new work to record and reflect upon the present so that generations after them can sing and dance this history into the future.