About
Lindsay Dawn Dobbin is a Kanien'kehá:ka - Acadian - Irish water protector, musician, artist, storyteller, educator and lifelong learner who gratefully lives and creates in Wabanaki Territory. Born in Kenepekachiachk—a tidal tributary of Wolastoq ("the beautiful river")—their practice follows the highest (and lowest) tides in the world within the traditional unceded lands of the Wəlastəkwiyik, L'nuk and Peskotomuhkati, Bay of Fundy.
Dobbin's relational and place-responsive practice is guided by curiosity rather than form—the way of water. They are committed to paths of creation that honour the ever-changing thresholds between land and water, and embrace an emergent ethics of improvisation rooted in kinship, living processes, deep listening and mutual flourishing. Their transdisciplinary, genre-fluid work in drumming, sound art, film, performance, sculpture, poetry, pedagogy and curation brings attention to the natural world as witness, teacher and collaborator in learning.
An active collaborator and facilitator, Dobbin has co-created with artists, Elders, children and communities on projects across Turtle Island—particularly those engaging with Indigenous, Queer, Environmental, Disability and Healing justice lineages. Their work has been presented nationally and internationally, primarily through artist-run and community-based initiatives at the intersections of art, education, and ecology. They are the recipient of the Arts Nova Scotia Emerging Artist Award (2019) and the Canada Council for the Arts’ Robert Fleming Prize (2022), awarded annually to an emerging composer in Canada.
As a human being with intersecting identities, Dobbin is invested in (re)connection, (ex)change, renewal and worlding projects that uphold respectful relations and embrace interstitiality. Their practice honours lived experience as a way of coming to (un)know while listening for the shared beingness, life and resilience in meeting waters. Their practice is a commitment to sharing the support and learnings that have been poured into them by the Elders, teachers, ancestors and children in their life.
Website in transition. Renewal coming soon.
“Listening As Wayfinding” a land-based, participatory performance in collective listening, Menagoesengo/Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine (photo: Nigel Quinn)
Top image of “Water Drumming” on Minas Basin, Bay of Fundy (photo: Lucas Ferguson-Sharp).
Lindsay Dawn Dobbin gratefully acknowledges the support of: