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ROYAL WINNIPEG BALLET PRESENTING SPONSOR NATIONAL TOUR
Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation April 1 + 2 • 7:30 pm Running time (including intermission): 2 hours 15 minutes (including a 20-minute intermission)
The path of vengeance and the path of feathers start and end together. On the path of vengeance I departed. By the path of feathers I arrived. – Kyaanusili Haida Peace Poem
Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancers in Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation. Photo by Samanta Katz.
Creative Team Artistic Director André Lewis Executive Director Jeff Herd Associate Producer Tina Keeper Choreographer Mark Godden Story Joseph Boyden Music Christos Hatzis Music Director and Conductor Tadeusz Biernacki Inuk Throat Singer Tanya Tagaq Singers Steve Wood and the Northern Cree Singers Costume Design Paul Daigle Set Design KC Adams Lighting Design Pierre Lavoie Projection Design Sean Nieuwenhuis Choreography Assistant Cindy Marie Small Score performed by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Featuring Tanya Tagaq and Steve Wood (Mistikwaskihk Napesis) & the Northern Cree Singers: Kanatawatam (Shane Dion), Mikwanank Kamosakinak (Joel Omeasoo), Kihew Onanapekasowino (Leroy Whitstone), Mikisew (Marvin Deschamps), Manicos (Kyle Pasquayak) Spoken text by Joseph Boyden, additional voice over by Tanya Tagaq and Steve Wood
Synopsis ACT I Going Home Star is the story of a young contemporary First Nations Woman, Annie. Confident and self-reliant, she’s living in the big city. A vague gnaw tells her there’s something more to life, but Annie does at least get some creative satisfaction working as a hair stylist for upwardly mobile and chic urban women. At the end of a typical day, Annie joins the fast-paced thrum of downtown and the carefree encounters that come with it. Her nights often end with a line of cocaine and sometimes a random lover. Work. Commute. Clubs. Pretty boys. Repeat. There are worse existences. More and more, though, Annie’s finding herself restless. More and more, she’s feeling strangely disconnected with her superficial urban loop. Gordon, by appearance, is a homeless First Nations man. Born on the reserve, he was scooped from his home as a young boy and forced into the residential school system. Eventually, Gordon fled this life to live on the streets, not as a victim but as a true survivor. What the residential school couldn’t steal from Gordon are his memories and his knowledge, especially the teachings of a certain Anishinaabe trickster. This magic, this shape-shifting power, is the heart song of his people, and it’s certainly present when Annie and Gordon first meet. In the bowels of the subway commute, surrounded by the urban masses, Annie and Gordon’s initial attraction is more than just physical. Annie has the sensation that Gordon knows something deep. Something deep about her. Although Gordon struggles with his conflicted past, he recognizes the disconnected spirit in Annie. Gordon becomes the being who teaches Annie about her people, her past, and ultimately, her story. One night after a random lover departs, Annie lies motionless on the floor, slipping into sleep. She dreams of Gordon. He approaches and kisses her on the forehead, sending her flying back through time. Annie hovers near a nomadic woman pulling a great weight through blowing snow. Upon waking, the dream still etched upon her, Annie wonders if this is her first vision. All she knows for certain is the strange connection she feels with Gordon somehow connects to the ancient woman.
As it always does, work beckons. Annie begins her busy day at the hair salon. Last night’s dream, last night’s vision, though, discombobulates. The urban women demand highlights, highlights and coffee. Mistakenly, Annie gives one patron a measuring cup full, not of coffee, but bleach. The patron gags and spits it out; Annie’s mortified. Closing up the hair salon early, Annie escapes toward the subway for the clubs but not before finding a wallet dropped on the metro floor. When the owner returns for his lost property, he aggressively snatches his wallet from Annie, and she becomes acutely aware that all of the commuters around her now eye her suspiciously. Gordon, the trickster, enters. The mysterious cloth that’s usually among Gordon’s scant possessions (and which Annie always assumed was his sleeping blanket) is now spread out upon the floor. Resting on top of the cloth is a reliquary, a shrine. It’s a model of a large, oldfashioned school. Gordon pulls the cloth, the reliquary upon it, to the nomadic woman of Annie’s vision. For Annie, Gordon’s burden, and the burden of the nomadic woman, this reliquary they struggle with, is strangely familiar. The reliquary is a perfect replica of the residential school of Gordon’s past. And Gordon’s feat is as maddening as Greek Sisyphus’. Try as he might, Gordon can’t banish this burden. Gordon the Anishnaabe trickster knows well that life experience is at the heart of all teachings, something that now’s only beginning to dawn on Annie. Afraid of Gordon’s mystical power, and of his burden, Annie runs back to her lover. She has another dream of flying and nightmares of urban people walking all over her. Upon waking, Annie realizes that her life, thus far, has been spinning out of control. When Gordon is near, she feels part of something greater than herself. Annie and Gordon walk a little ways away from the fast, urban world. Gordon stands behind the residential school reliquary waiting for Annie’s attention. When she looks his way, Gordon lifts the reliquary over his head. The weight, the burden, is too great and begins to crush him. Annie comes to try and help. Now having Annie’s attention and aid, Gordon begins to tell his story of residential school. Moving back through time, towards a residential school in a birch wood forest, Gordon’s story begins
with two First Nations children, Niska and Charlie. They were forced from their homes to be educated by a Clergyman. Abusing the power entrusted to him, the Clergyman subjects the children to corporal punishment and his religious zeal. Annie’s heartbroken over the treatment of the children but Gordon knows she must venture deeper into the story; to know only a few surface details makes it easier to dismiss the truth. Gordon leads Annie to a dilapidated wall of an abandoned school. She has passed this wall many times but never really considered its origins. They climb and sit upon the wall. Staring at the night sky, Gordon continues his story. Moving back through time, Annie sees Niska and Charlie in the residential school. They sneak about, looking for food and mischief. They’re excited to be out of bed and even more elated at their ability to avoid the Clergyman’s detection. When Niska first entered the school, she managed to hide a tobacco pouch, a gift placed by her mother around Niska’s neck for protection. Niska now retrieves the tobacco pouch from its hiding place for Charlie and her to enjoy. The smell of tobacco reminds Niska and Charlie of home and the rituals practiced by their families. Although they can’t fully remember the details, their desire to be with Mother and Father is too great. Homesick, Charlie lights a Votive candle for fire and Niska sprinkles tobacco into the flame. The children recreate their parents’ prayers. The ever-watchful Clergyman discovers Niska and Charlie practicing their sacred ways. The Clergyman is bent on destroying these heathen cultures and assimilating these children into his way of life. His retribution against the children is severe. Sitting upon the wall with Gordon, Annie learns of Charlie’s beating and of Niska’s hair- shearing by the Clergyman. When Annie returns to her hair salon chair, she understands that this once chic antique may have a darker history. Searching through the hair on the floor, Annie looks for the tobacco pouch. Gordon’s inherited this artifact and he gives the tobacco pouch to Annie. Continuing his story, Gordon reveals the truth hidden in the cracks of the residential school wall. Annie sees the loving moment when Niska’s mother and father gave her the tobacco pouch as well as the
moment Niska’s parents were forced to say goodbye. Annie, now horrified, sees the moment that the Clergyman rapes Niska. Annie’s greatly distressed by this final story and Gordon moves to console her. Repulsed and angry, Annie pushes Gordon away and exits. ••• Alone, Gordon remembers Charlie’s story. Charlie escaped the residential school and the punishments of the Clergyman. He fled into the nearby woods, looking for the railroad tracks that might lead him home. He used the North Star, known by his people as “the Going Home Star” to help navigate his course. For Gordon, the stars in the night sky are Star Children, those who have come before, and those who will come after. In Gordon’s past these Star Children and his Mother and Father have acted as guides and helpers. Gordon’s hope is that they were there for Charlie on his frightening journey home. Gordon holds the artifacts from the past and communes with Charlie’s plight. Charlie carried the Votive candle and matches for energy and strength. Charlie’s fate, his disappearance, is the devastating fate of many children from the residential schools. Gordon knows it could have been his fate as well. Annie returns to console Gordon. Like the vision in Annie’s dream — the vision of the nomadic woman pulling the great weight — Annie now realizes she shares Gordon’s burden. Like the woman before her, Annie picks up the burden of the past and begins her new destiny as healer for Gordon and potentially healer for her people. The “Going Home Star” is clear in the sky and Annie knows the direction of her future. ACT II Annie, having picked up the burden of the past, immerses herself fully in the healing of Gordon. Learning the ancestral power of the Sweat Lodge, Annie stokes the stone fire pit. The turtle shell mirror from her hair salon and the shallow vanity it represented is gone. In its place Annie has hung a large turtle shell. For Annie, the turtle shell has a deeper
Synopsis (cont’d) meaning now. It’s an inspiration to unite with her people’s Creation Story by building a new home for her and Gordon. Mourning the loss of his own childhood, Gordon’s every thought is with Niska and Charlie. He remembers the torture these young children endured and he knows there was more than just one abuser. Many Clergymen practiced corporal punishment and more. It was an approach to education so foreign to Gordon’s own people. The abuses haunt his thoughts. His body is present, but his mind is trapped with these children in the past. Earlier, Annie followed Gordon through the underworld to learn about the past. Now, she follows Gordon to help him reconcile his own conflicted memories. Gordon knows he has to “build his fire up” and Annie aids in this endeavor. In search of answers, Gordon contemplates a time before the residential schools. He questions how European colonialism became a campaign of forced assimilation for his people. Comical images of Louis the 14th, Divine Louis, are imagined by Gordon. Gordon remembers that first contact between the newcomer and the original inhabitants. He understands that Turtle Island was not discovered by these Divine explorers, but was shown to them by his people. The Europeans’ very survival depended it. Gordon wants to laugh at these earlier explorers, but when he thinks of Niska being raped, he only feels anger. And his anger leaves him weak. He tries to remember a better time when Niska and Charlie were with their own mothers and fathers. The Clergyman’s abuses, though, are nearly impossible to forget. ••• Annie continues to make a home for Gordon and herself. Her hope is to commune with the Star Children without anger, but instead to hold them in loving memory. Annie brings the turtle shell down as an idea of shelter for Gordon and herself; it is her way of unifying all the past lives under one beautiful idea, shelter, refuge. The loss of Charlie, his disappearance, is too painful for Gordon. He cannot so easily forgive this mistake. Gordon holds the votive candle and says a prayer for Charlie. Gordon’s hope is to find
reconciliation. He imagines both sides joining in a prayer for Charlie. He also imagines both sides coming together in prayer for all the survivors and the damage that’s been done. Prayers for the child taken. Prayers for the parent left behind. Annie, more confident on her road, crosses the stage with her playful animal being. Gordon is at a far less confident crossroads: his ancient path of animal tracks lead one direction, and the difficulties of his more recent path, the railroad tracks, lead another. Annie invokes a new symbol for Gordon’s dilemma. She also invokes the healing power of the medicine wheel. Entering with ribbons representing the medicine wheel’s four colours, its directions, Annie begins hanging these ribbons on the trees. Recognizing the sacred ways of their people, Gordon and Annie begin making a shelter for their sweat by placing the glowing stones underneath the turtle shell. Annie has prepared one more healing action for Gordon. She leads Gordon to the pyre that she’s built. Resting on top of the pyre is Gordon’s ever-present burden: the residential school reliquary. Annie instinctively desires another realm for Niska, Charlie and Gordon’s past; a realm where the children no longer live trapped in the residential school. Annie envisions a world where Niska and Charlie run free and happy as Star Children. Annie hands the flame to Gordon. Gordon feels deeply the damage that has been done and the anger he carries inside. Following Annie’s lead, her hope, Gordon knows what he must do next. Gordon sets the reliquary on fire. His gesture is a willing surrender as well as the boldest statement he’s ever made. For a brief period, Annie and Gordon commune with Niska, Charlie, and their Elders. Gordon is weakened but feeling held by love. Annie builds back his strength in the simple act of braiding his hair. The future shines in Annie, a shining bridge to the dark past that haunted Gordon. Annie and Gordon become one another’s truth. Although they only see it now, they were always one another’s truth. Their journey has been like a dream, and in their hearts are the words from their people’s Morning Song: “Sun’s finally here. Beautiful day. Just got back from a long walk in the forest.”
Royal Winnipeg Ballet Nightly Casting Role
April 1
April 2
Annie Gordon Niska Charlie Clergy Man Mother Father Urban People
Sophia Lee Liang Xing Alanna McAdie Yosuke Mino Dmitri Dovgoselets Yayoi Ban Thiago Dos Santos Sarah Davey Stephan Possin Manami Tsubai Thiago Dos Santos Yayoi Ban Liam Caines Elizabeth Lamont Egor Zdor Yoshiko Kamikusa Tristan Dobrowney Manami Tsubai Stephan Possin Chenxin Liu Ryan Vetter Yoshiko Kamikusa Luzemberg Santana Sarah Po Ting Yeung Jaimi Deleau Anna O’Callaghan Katie Bonnell Liam Caines Stephan Possin Luzemberg Santana Tristan Dobrowney Ryan Vetter Katie Bonnell Sarah Davey Elizabeth Lamont Kostyantyn Keshyshev Tyler Carver Egor Zdor
Yayoi Ban Kostyantyn Keshyshev Yoshiko Kamikusa Ryan Vetter Liam Caines Sarah Davey
Star Children
Clergy
Divine Louis
All casting subject to change
Sarah Po Ting Yeung Chenxin Liu Tyler Carver Luzemberg Santana Jaimi Deleau
Egor Zdor Elizabeth Lamont
Tyler Carver
Egor Zdor Sophia Lee Katie Bonnell Alanna McAdie Liang Xing Yosuke Mino Dmitri Dovgoselets
Additional Credits Lead Scenic Carpenters Marc Gagnon & Robert Schultz Carpenters Bob Smith & Matthew Bates Head Scenic Artist Carla Schroeder Assistant Head Scenic Artist Farrah Okolita Scenic Artist Andrea von Wishert Whale Bones Production Canada Props Paragon Innovation Group Artisan Knitter Valerie Reinhardt Dyer Kelly Ruth Wigs Sharon Ryman Special thanks to Shapes International
In memory of the late Elder Mary Richard (Ah Kha Ko cheesh) who inspired the RWB.
Kitchi Miigwetch to Elder Thelma Meade, Phil Fontaine, Jean Giguère, Sandra Delaronde, Elders Clarence & Barbara Nepinak, Mel & Shirley Chartrand, Doris Young, Ted & Morgan Fontaine, Laurie Messer and Tom McMahon for supporting the vision and all involved in the development and production of Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation.
Elders: Bernard Nelson (Fort Hope/Eabametoong First Nation, ON), Norma General (Six Nations of the Grand River, ON), Pauline Shirt (Saddle Lake Reserve, AB), Andrew Wesley (Fort Albany, ON).
We give our thanks to local Elders, Cultural and Mental Health Supports, Youth Ambassadors and community leaders - whose roles in this tour were fundamental to the integrity, relevance and success of this ballet. Thank you to Yuxwelupton (Bradley Dick) and the Unity Drumming Group for the traditional welcome before our performances.
Cultural and Mental Health Supports: Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, Six Nations of the Grand River, Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre
Funders & Sponsors WINNIPEG BALLET SALUTES ITS 2015/2016 SEASON FUNDERS & SPONSORS: FUNDERS / BAILLEURS DE FONDS RWB acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $157 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.
PRESENTING SPONSOR NATIONAL TOUR
GOING HOME STAR – TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION PRODUCTION INVESTORS
TOUR SUPPORTER
SUPPORTING SPONSOR
In Memory of Peter D. Curry
Manitoba Public Insurance
Reconciliation Through Repatriation
Raven by Jeffrey Cook: Huu-ay-aht First Nation. Fish in net Mark Atleo: Ahousaht First Nation. Photos by Devin Tepleski.
Alberni Indian Residential School Paintings Exhibition For a brief period of time, children at the Alberni Indian Residential School on Vancouver Island experienced a unique opportunity to express their creativity through art. A painter by the name of Robert Aller volunteered to teach a weekly art class to selected children at the school. During the years 1958-66, Aller taught painting to as many as 47 students at a time. From these classes he saved 75 paintings created by his students. He exhibited these paintings in public venues such as the Provincial Museum in Victoria, BC in the late 1960s, as well as smaller venues across Canada through the 1970s. He also worked to publicize the children’s artistic achievements through local and national radio, television, and print media. Aller cared for these paintings until he died in 2008. After his death his family gifted this collection to the University of Victoria. Since 2012, Survivors from the Alberni Residential School have collaborated with Dr. Andrea Walsh of the Department of Anthropology at the university to locate the
individuals who created these paintings when they were children. The goal of this project was to repatriate the artwork as part of the University of Victoria’s commitment to reconciliation. The project has received the support of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada through its invitation to exhibit the paintings at regional and national events, and through the funding received for a commemoration feast in Port Alberni in 2013. At this feast the university publically returned paintings to Survivors and their families. The complete story of the repatriation of the Alberni paintings is recorded in the Commission’s final report volume on reconciliation. At present, little is known about the role that art may have played in residential schools. Stories of Indigenous children’s creativity are seldom heard in present discussions of reconciliation across the country, which are focused on present day healing and justice. Therefore the paintings are compelling; they visually reference the experiences and knowledge of children who attended the Alberni Residential School. For the child artists, images of
Reconciliation Through Repatriation (cont’d) A special thank-you to Dr. Andrea Walsh and First Peoples House for coordinating the paintings in our lobby made by former students of Alberni Indian Residential School. Thank you to the Survivors who have loaned their artworks and to those who have worked to have them repatriated, for sharing your stories with us: Wally Samuel, Ahousaht First Nation Donna Samuel (Marsden) Gitanyow First Nation, Jeffrey Cook, Huu-ay-aht First Nation Lavern Cook (Bolton) Tsimshian First Nation Jack Cook, Huu-ay-aht First Nation Deborah Cook (Clark), Nisga'a First Nation Dennis Thomas, Ditidaht First Nation Charles August, Ahousaht First Nation Arthur Bolton, Tsimshian First Nation Shelley Chester for her late mother Phyllis Tate, Ditidaht First Nation Mark Atleo, Ahousaht First Nation Gina Laing (Cootes) and daughter April Laing, Uchucklesaht First Nation Myrna Cranmer, 'Namgis First Nation Black and white headdress by Phyllis Tate: Ditidaht First Nation. Yellow island by Charles August: Ahousaht First Nation. Photos by Devin Tepleski.
flora and fauna, people (relations, loved ones), and places (home and territories), come alive through brilliant colors and brushstrokes. These images provide an opportunity to witness the visions of the children who attended the Alberni residential school through their own voices, expressed through their artwork. In dialogue with Survivors who remember Robert Aller’s art classes, the memories that come forward speak positively of his mentorship. They allude to the way in which he created a space of emancipation and safety while they lived at the school, away from family and home, and often separated from siblings who also attended the same school. Yet, the significance of the paintings today is not anchored to the past. The sharing of these paintings by Survivors via exhibitions provides audiences across Canada with an opportunity to educate themselves about the impact of residential schools. In 2017, a selection of these works will be installed in the new Canada Hall at the Canadian Museum of History as part of its permanent exhibition on the legacy of residential schools. Unlike statistics about the schools, or government narratives of apology, the paintings represent in a very powerful way, the children themselves. Read more about this in the latest issue of UVic Torch at http://bit.ly/1q0L3Pv
Indian Residential Schools Survivors Campaign Thank you to the many local donors who assisted in the 2016 Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation survivor campaign (as at March 23, 2016)
Blue abstract beach by Gina Laing (Cootes): Uchucklesaht First Nation. Halibut hook by Arthur Bolton: Tsimshian First Nation. Photos by Devin Tepleski.
Anonymous x 4 Muriel Andrews Nicole Ardiel Sylvia Bews-Wright Christine & Michael Bloomfield P. M. Bond Elizabeth Borek Heidi Bunting Paula Carey Marilyn Chechik Franc D'Ambrosio Christopher Devlin &
Claire Handley Tom Fielding Fran Gebhard Diana Gillis Eleanor Gjelsten Shirley Grosser Lorna Harris Marnie Hill Linda Jarman Katherine Lawes Sheila Linder Allana C. Lindgren & Ted L. McDorman
Margaret Long Erin Macklem Kirsten McGhee Joan McNeely Susan Moger Laurie Morgan Helen Nation Susan Newlove Mary & Ron Pollock Catherine Rubincam Dale Shortliffe Terry Simonson Jan Skirrow
Sandra Stott Don Straathof Patricia Taylor Toes ‘n’ Taps Dance Shoppe Barbara Tolloczko Terry Vatrt Pat Vickers Debra Warden Ann West Anne Whetham Victoria Wray
For all the occasions of life…
800 Yates (in The Atrium) 250-383-0743 poppiesfloralart.com
DANCE VICTORIA Board of Directors President: Mariann Burka Vice-President René Peloquin Treasurer Regan McGrath Directors Susan Howard, Kristen Kitchen, Lynda Raino, John B. Shields, Nikki Sieben
Staff Executive Producer: Stephen White General Manager: Bernard Sauvé Operations Manager: Shireen McNeilage Marketing & Development: Tracy Smith Trips Coordinator: Bill Hamar Production Manager: Holly Vivian Graphics: Rayola Creative
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