Bury the Hatchet at the Belfry Theatre, June 17 & 18, 2022
An Indigenous Cultural Offering of Community-Based Theatre
Patrons of the Belfry Theatre during these performances will get a special welcome. Instead of climbing up the steep steps and receiving a program at the door, they will gather in the courtyard, one hour before each performance. Before entering, audience members will participate in Coming Ashore Protocols. These protocols are an on-going tradition for coastal peoples. Visitors, who arrive in canoes, identify themselves and request permission to come ashore. Ceremonies and feasting follows. At the Belfry, Diane Sam and Danica Paul from Songees First Nations, will be on hand to welcome guests to their traditional territory. The guests in the four symbolic canoes are co-creators of Bury the Hatchet: the Culture Den Society, the performers, the creative team and Belfry Theatre. Theatre patrons will follow the now-welcomed canoe guests into the Belfry.
The theme of interactive theatre continues in the Belfry lobby with an Art Intervention called Spirit in the Fringes. Cultural facilitator Sarah Rhude has created an Indigenous space, a mediation between cultures in a former church. To create a sensory experience, there is a trellis of cedar boughs and the scent of sage and sweetgrass. As well as cedar, there is a ribbon fringe to walk through, sporting colours from the pride and trans flag. The lobby display includes framed artworks, photographs, videos of carving, masks and paddles.
A large pow-wow drum, recently created by Indigenous artists Sarah Rhude and Alysha Brown, sits in the center of the lobby. Bury the Hatchet has expanded the circle of performers to include people of colour (POC) and other community groups. The big drum in the lobby is reserved for 2SLGBTQIA+, Indigiqueer and women. The Douglas Treaty, translated into Lekwungen (Esquimalt and Songhees) and SENĆOŦEN (Saanich) is projected on two walls. Settlers are invited to experience the confusion of navigating this legal document in a foreign language.
A large pow-wow drum, recently created by Indigenous artists Sarah Rhude and Alysha Brown, sits in the center of the lobby. Bury the Hatchet has expanded the circle of performers to include people of colour (POC) and other community groups. The big drum in the lobby is reserved for 2SLGBTQIA+, Indigiqueer and women. The Douglas Treaty, translated into Lekwungen (Esquimalt and Songhees) and SENĆOŦEN (Saanich) is projected on two walls. Settlers are invited to experience the confusion of navigating this legal document in a foreign language.
Bury the Hatchet is the fourth in a series of performative cultural offerings from members of the Indigenous community in Victoria. Story weaver Lindsay Delaronde was the City of Victoria’s first Indigenous Artist in Residence from 2017-2019. During that time, two exceptional showcases, Pendulum and Super Nova, rocked the Belfry Theatre. Due to Covid restrictions, the third showcase morphed into a series of ten short films. Mother: Embodied Earth Performance, aired in October 2021 at the Belfry. A unique collaboration between song-writer Nicole Mandryk and the Lafayette String Quartet illuminates two of the performances: Unbury the Hatchet and Venom Dance.
The phrase “bury the hatchet” refers to an Iroquois ceremony in which war weapons were buried to herald an era of peace. The ceremony is connected to a legendary leader, called the Peacemaker, who travelled to all six nations of the warring Iroquois tribes. This messianic figure brought to fruition the Great Law of Peace known as the Iroquois Confederacy. “I honour the ethical messages shown by the Peacemaker’s travels and teachings,” Delaronde says.
The Story Weaver is a member of Kanienke’haka (Mohawk) First Nations. She grew up near Montreal on the Kahnawake Reserve. She is now a PhD student in applied theatre at UVic. It’s important that audiences understand the nature of community-based theatre, she explains. All these individuals or collectives forged their own performances using research, facilitation and ceremony. The creative team for Bury the Hatchet includes facilitators Sarah Rhude, Lauren Jerke and Ingrid Hansen. “This is interactive theatre that engages the community,” she says. “Performers are accepted at their own level, then guided, encouraged and nourished.”
The Story Weaver is a member of Kanienke’haka (Mohawk) First Nations. She grew up near Montreal on the Kahnawake Reserve. She is now a PhD student in applied theatre at UVic. It’s important that audiences understand the nature of community-based theatre, she explains. All these individuals or collectives forged their own performances using research, facilitation and ceremony. The creative team for Bury the Hatchet includes facilitators Sarah Rhude, Lauren Jerke and Ingrid Hansen. “This is interactive theatre that engages the community,” she says. “Performers are accepted at their own level, then guided, encouraged and nourished.”
The themes presented in all eight dramas revolve around coming to a place of peace both as an individual and a society. Arriving at peace involves moving through personal and collective trauma to open the heart and calm the mind. All the performers are dedicated to learning about and expressing their cultural history. “Through the learning, and the doing, new pathways to traditional teaching and ways of being are re-awakened in our lives,” she says.
Delaronde is not always feeling peaceful. In Unbury the Hatchet she makes references to specific articles in the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Articles 7, 30, and 32 cite protection from genocide and the use of ancestral lands for military purposes, resource extraction and development. Article 40 states that Indigenous traditions and legal systems should be recognized in conflict resolution. “When Indigenous people stand up for peace,” says Delaronde, “they are often criminalized.” She is mindful of the long history of struggle between settlers and Indigenous people.
Building theatre from community is not easy Delaronde says, noting there are many different viewpoints to consider. Guests at Bury the Hatchet will have their minds opened to a variety of ideas, emotions and world views. Get prepared for some powerful magic on stage. Jody Bauche, a member of the Visible Bodies Collective, says: “the magic is really in Lindsay’s ability to work with us all, supporting our community collaboration.”
Belfry Theatre, 1291 Gladstone Ave, Victoria, BC V8T 1G5 Phone: 250 385-6815. Tickets: $30.
Dates and times:
June 17th, 8:00, Opening Show; June 18th, 2:00 matinee following a Q & A, June 18th, 8:00 performance.
Bury the Hatchet played to a full house with enthusiastic audiences during the two-day run.
Photos and videos of Pow-wow drumming in the lobby catch some of the energy of Opening Night
Dates and times:
June 17th, 8:00, Opening Show; June 18th, 2:00 matinee following a Q & A, June 18th, 8:00 performance.
Bury the Hatchet played to a full house with enthusiastic audiences during the two-day run.
Photos and videos of Pow-wow drumming in the lobby catch some of the energy of Opening Night
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