Here’s a preview of 5 / 21 controversial statements:
How do we address things like this?
Electing a new, different government (Liberal, NDP, etc.) will not change the Canadian-First Nations relationship.
Idle No More has been an urban movement.
Harper lied in the apology.
Confrontation is likely the key to any real change.
The Indian Act is illegal legislation.
Debate 3: Idle No More
June 18, 2013; doors 7pm, debates 7.30pm The Theatre Centre Pop-Up, 1095 Queen St. West, at Dovercourt PWYC at the door. No RSVP required. Hashtag: #CivilDebates
Click here for more information about the Civil Debates series in partnership between The Theatre Centre & Praxis Theatre.
#CivilDebates 3: Idle No More is Tuesday June 18 @ 730pm in The Theatre Centre Pop Up – Queen St. W @ Dovercourt
After rigorous debate on Creative Cities theories and the Role of Arts Boards, we’re excited to announce the speakers for #CivilDebates 3: Idle No More.
Resolution to be addressed:
The issues that created the Idle No More movement require extreme methods to achieve change.
Speakers:
Yvette Nolan (Algonquin) is a playwright, dramaturg and director. Her plays include BLADE, Job’s Wife, Video, Annie Mae’s Movement, Scattering Jake, from thine eyes, Ham and the Ram, The Unplugging, The Birds (a modern adaptation of Aristophanes’ comedy. She is the editor of Beyond the Pale: Dramatic Writing from First Nations Writers and Writers of Colour, and of Refractions: Solo, with Donna-Michelle St Bernard.
Directing credits include Justice, Café Daughter (Gwaandak Theatre), Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, Salt Baby, A Very Polite Genocide, Death of a Chief, Tales of An Urban Indian, The Unnatural and Accidental Women, Annie Mae’s Movement (Native Earth), The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (Western Canada Theatre/National Arts Centre), The Only Good Indian…, The Triple Truth (Turtle Gals). From 2003-2011, she served as Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada’s oldest professional Aboriginal theatre. She is currently working on a book on Native theatre in Canada.
Hayden King is Pottawatomi and Ojibwe from Gchimnissing (Christian Island) in Huronia, Ontario.
He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics at Ryerson University.
In addition to work in the academy, Hayden has served as the Senior Policy Adviser to the Ontario Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Director of Research for the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Scholar-in-Residence for the Conference Board of Canada and Governance Consultant to BeausoleilFirst Nation.
Wanda Nanibush is an Anishinabe-kwe mother, curator, image and word warrior from Beausoleil First Nation.
Nanibush has published in FUSE magazine, Literary Review of Canada, MUSKRAT magazine and in the book: This is an Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Blockades amount others. She is an Idle No More Toronto organizer and history buff. ”
Unlike the previous two #CivilDebates, this debate will not be modled on the Parliamentary debate system. Discussion will be broken into five sections:
1
5 minutes from each of the speakers responding to the statement:
The issues that created the Idle No More movement require extreme methods to achieve change.
2
Up to 5 minutes each for each of the speakers to respond to any of the ideas put forward by the other speakers.
3
Reading of 21 Provocative Statements. 7 each provided by by the speakers, but not-attributed.
4
Opportunity for audience members to respond to one of the statements for two minutes. Debaters may also participate.
5
Conclusion. An opportunity to define the final portion of the discussion to discuss any actions, opportunities or ideas have been illuminated by the discussion.
#CIVILDEBATES
Debate 3: Idle No More
June 18, 2013; doors 7pm, debates 7.30pm The Theatre Centre Pop-Up, 1095 Queen St. West, at Dovercourt PWYC at the door. No RSVP required. Hashtag: #CivilDebates
Click here for more information about the Civil Debates series in partnership between The Theatre Centre & Praxis Theatre.
On December 10th, over 5000 people rallied across the country against controversial omnibus Bill C-45. This legislation makes sweeping changes to the Indian Act and drastically reduces protections for waterways without any consultation with First Nations, in direct opposition to existing treaties. You may not have heard about those rallies on December the 10th because our national media was busy covering a certain little well-dressed monkey lost at an Ikea store.
Chief Theresa Spence has been on her hunger strike since December 11th. She seeks a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a representative of the Queen to discuss our country’s existing treaties. “All treaties were signed by the Crown — the government — and our ancestors … the treaties are there for a reason and either the prime minister doesn’t understand them, or he doesn’t want to respect them,” Spence has said.
Movements of solidarity have popped up across the country and in other parts of the world. In Toronto, Native Earth Performing Arts has organized a Fasting Relay in solidarity with Chief Spence. Artists in the community have each taken a day throughout Spence’s hunger strike to fast for the day in support of her efforts, and to send a unified message to the Prime Minister to meet with the First Nations leader.
What Chief Theresa Spence is doing is forcing the government and all of Canadian society to decide publicly whether they care if she – and by extension her people and our shared land – ceases to live. She is willing to die. This is an extreme measure that I have not had the courage to take. With this fasting relay, I am proud to join with my many beautiful communities to support Chief Spence in this small yet symbolically significant way.
~Tara Beagan, Artistic Director, Native Earth Performing Arts
Below is an ever-growing list of relay participants as gathered on Native Earth’s facebook event page. Please add your name to the comments section if you have joined the fast and are not on the list, and be sure to let Native Earth know if you haven’t yet joined the relay but would like to.
Find out more about upcoming Idle No More events on their official website here.
Native Earth Fasting Relay Timeline
Dec 12 Chief Spence began.
After 24 hours, and a fair assessment landing on the reality that Harper would not be hearing her, the organizing of this support relay began.
Dec 13 Steve Tredget (NEPA family) fasted in support before this relay began
Dec 14 Tara Beagan (NEPA)
Dec 15 Derek Garza (NEPA) and Tahani Afaneh (NEPA family)
Dec 16 Janet Antone (NEPA)
Dec 17 Jiv Parasram (Pandemic, New Harlem and Cahoots Theatre)
Dec 18 Aislinn Rose (Praxis Theatre), Richard Cliff (NEPA family) and Kenneth Williams (playwright)
Dec 19 Keith Barker (NEPA)
Dec 20 Rae Powell (NEPA) and Brooklyn Doran (NEPA family)
Dec 21 Winter Solstice, Andy Moro (NEPA family) and Troy Emery Twigg (Centre for Indigenous Theatre), Michelle Latimer (NEPA family, filmmaker)
Dec 22 PJ Prudat (NEPA family), Eli Ham (NEPA family) and Leah Simms-Karp (NEPA)
Dec 23 Rupal Shah (Nightswimming and Obsidian Theatre, NEPA member), Anita Majumdar (actor/playwright), Christopher Ross (NEPA family)
Dec 24 Deb Courchene (NEPA), Ashley Bomberry (NEPA family), Jiv Parasram again.
Dec 25 James Cade (NEPA family), Marjorie Chan (playwright)
Dec 26 Cole Alvis (NEPA), Luke Larocque, Jordan Tannahill (Suburban Beast)
Dec 27 Michael Wheeler (Praxis Theatre), Ruth Madoc-Jones (NEPA family and SummerWorks), Marilo Nunez (Alameda Theatre), Naomi Skwarna (Suburban Beast)
Dec 28 Brooklyn Doran, again (NEPA family), Aislinn Rose, again (Praxis Theatre) Sasha Kovacs, Marion de Vries (Centre for Indigenous Theatre)
Dec 29 Laura Nanni (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), Christine Rambukkana
Dec 30 Michael Rubenfeld (SummerWorks), Lisa C Ravensbergen (NEPA family)
Dec 31 Colin Doyle (actor) and Darla Contois (CIT)
“After the years and years of weaker and waterier imitations, we now find ourselves rejecting the very notion of a holy stage. It is not the fault of the holy that it has become a middle-class weapon to keep the children good.”
#CivilDebates 3: Idle No More will include a discussion of 21 controversial statements our speakers have submitted anonymously.
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