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A Winnipeg theatre company is offering days of theatre, activities and learning for children impacted by the wildfires that have ravaged parts of Manitoba for the last several weeks.
Oshkagoojin Theatre for Youth is meeting impacted families in their temporary accommodations across the city and at public gathering places like the Pitikwe Skate Park in Portage Place Mall to provide family-friendly activities and Indigenous teachings for fire evacuees, many of whom come from Indigenous communities in the province’s north.
“We incorporate things like movement, storytelling, mask-making and puppetry and all those elements to help bring those stories and jus tto make it really fun to play,” says Oshkagoojin’s artistic director Nova Courchene.
Courchene and her relatively young theatre company have already hosted a couple of workshops with support from Manitoba Theatre for Young People and the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakinak. The workshops have been a welcome escape for children and parents alike as the children learn about Indigenous stories and cultures, including the seven guiding teachings of love, respect, courage, honesty, wisdom, humility and truth.
“A lot of different nations across Turtle Island have adopted the seven teachings,” says Courchene, who herself is Anishinaabekwe with roots in Rolling River and Sagkeeng First Nations. “We use it with them to go over what some of those really important teachings are about our society and how we deal with each other.”
Courchene hopes that Oshkagoojin’s drama workshops will inspire the participants to connect even further with their culture and with their communities when they are able to safely return home. “We’re just making it very easy-going so that they can pick it up and plant seeds so that they can ask their grandparents or their parents about some of the traditional knowledge that we bring with us, too,” she says. “We’re hoping that grounded connection happens after the workshops.”
The latest round of drama workshops from Oshkagoojin Theatre for Youth will take place on July 3, 4 and 5 with activities available for ages 4 through 17. The location for the activities will be determined depending on the registration numbers. For more information, families are invited to consult Oshkagoojin’s Instagram or Facebook page, or to visit their website.