Finding Home

09/02/2021

I just want to thank all of the people who came out and supported the shows last week. It was truly an honor to get to share this work with you!

I also want to thank the people who have been apart of this work in some capacity throughout the course of this year- Jo Leslie, Intrepid Theatre, Sammie Gough, Johnny Aitken, and Kathleen Greenfield as well as the First Peoples Cultural Council Thank you for your mentorship, kindness and support. Thank you as well to all others who have lent a hand or an ear along this journey.

-Thank you everyone for being apart of the weaving of this medicine.

08/21/2021

Postering the town!

08/21/2021

Follow the yellow brick road...

08/19/2021

Last year, I had the opportunity to do a scene creation workshop with Falen Johnson, hosted by Gwaandak theatre.

It was such a great experience, where I collaborated with other writers in North America and we shared our work, along with actors that performed our scenes remotely! This for me, were the first scratchings of "Finding Home".

If you haven't heard of it yet, Falen hosts a fantastic radio program on the CBC called "Un-reserved". I highly encourage checking it out!
https://www.facebook.com/cbcunreserved

Unreserved is the radio space for Indigenous voices.

08/17/2021

This is a documentary film about Richard Cardinal, by artist Alanis Obamsawin, it is really well done, and echos so much of the experience of alienation and isolation regarding being a 60's scoop survivor.

Richard Cardinal died by his own hand at the age of 17, having spent most of his life in a string of foster homes and shelters across Alberta. …

08/15/2021

"Indigenous children account for 7.7 per cent of all Canadians under the age of 14 but 52.2 per cent of children of that same age group in foster care.
Truth and Reconciliation reports show there were more Indigenous children in foster care in 2016 than there were in residential schools at the height of the system in 1953."

"Statistics don’t prove foster care is better or worse than residential schools, only that there is an unnecessary continuation of state-based removal of children."
https://globalnews.ca/news/8103829/adoption-foster-care-system-canada//?utm_source=GlobalSaskatoon&utm_medium=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2tig-VOEq7Eoo0bdfS0_1leqftNOpCQ5__k7rBWW1akfapoMcvd1LNsB4

A woman says she lost her First Nations heritage when she was adopted by a family in a different province. She is calling for the system to change.

08/12/2021

"Finding Home" involves performer Elowynn Rose, who plays "Dorothy" - Direction by Jo Leslie
https://intrepidtheatre.com/shows/finding-home/?fbclid=IwAR0RVOCKVkOVGp4syLhOgBtU9…

08/12/2021

L. Frank Baum who wrote the very famous "Wizard of Oz" held the universality of the quote "There's no place like home".

Before he wrote "The wizard of oz" he published two editorials in his communities news paper, in what was termed as a "back in the day" type of satire;
(which still contains plenty of offense) pointing out the brutality and illogical mentality of the typical white American at the time.

From The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer Editorial on The Death of Sitting Bull
“The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation?”

From The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer Editorial on The Massacre at Wounded Knee
“…our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth.”

If Dorothy could ask L. Frank B. what "No Place Like Home" means today, I wonder what he'd say?

08/04/2021

Once upon a time there was a girl who was scooped up from her Mother's home, and thrown into a whirlwind of foster homes...

Although this is a common story that many indigenous people share,
This story has relevance and potential revolution in that; we identify the crossroads we’re standing at in our society.
With the current acknowledgments of the residential school system in the minds of North Americans--The foster care system, we begin to recognize, IS the continuation and dark counterpart of this story of colonial violence towards indigenous people.

However, As The Wizard Of Oz is a universal story, so too is Finding Home.
Where displacement, cultural loss and loss of land is now the story being told, and it effects everyone.

It begs us to revisit the question what is "No place like home?”

To purchase tickets for Finding Home, please visit the online ticket buying link.

Performances by comedy, theatre, dance and spoken word companies from around the world.

07/08/2021

Welcome to "Finding Home" a page to find updates and info. on the process of the stage work called Finding Home.