Groundbreaking theatre addresses Reconciliation call

Nine audio plays. Forty-nine artists. Working to address one Call to Action, “for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to undertake collaborative projects and produce works that contribute to the Reconciliation process,” they created change.

Burnt Thicket Theatre in Saskatoon recently embarked on an ambitious project centred on the idea of handing the reins of nearly two consecutive seasons over to Indigenous playwrights, without curation. The result was We Treaty People, a fiction podcast where a diverse group of artists answered the question: “What does it mean to embrace all our relations?”

For Stephen Waldschmidt, artistic director, Burnt Thicket Theatre, the project was innovative in its approach to passing the mic to Indigenous artists and amplifying their voices.

“A Cree friend and theatre artist said to me that it’s rare for a theatre company led by non-Indigenous people to say, ‘Indigenous playwrights, write what you want about Treaty or Reconciliation, and we’ll produce it and make it the focus of our company,’” Waldschmidt says.

The results spoke for themselves. By a conservative estimate, more than 6,400 people tuned in. Burnt Thicket received the 2024 Leading Together Award from the Office of the Treaty Commissioner and the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan. It was also nominated for both the Innovation and Trailblazer Awards at the Saskatoon and Area Theatre Awards.

Raven Dallman, a Cree actor from Muskoday First Nation, performed in the “Taken Before Birth” episode about a child who asks their mushum, “Why don’t I have a Treaty card?”, harkening to a time when women lost their Treaty status if they married someone without status. For her, “it hit deeper, to the idea that if you don’t have status or look a certain way, you’re not seen as Indigenous.

“I faced a lot of prejudice about that growing up by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures,” Dallman says. “After that experience, I don’t want others to feel the same way as I did, and I want to help change that perception.”

A lot of work went into the podcast behind the scenes. Before the episodes and corresponding conversations with actors aired, the creative team braced for backlash, Waldschmidt shares. How would the plays, which dealt with sensitive topics such, as Gerald Stanley’s acquittal, be received?

“Each of us involved knew people who we expected to be upset. I was pleasantly surprised that the people really appreciated it. They found the stories compelling, educational and poignant,” Waldschmidt says. “The series did what we hoped it would — it pushed buttons without alienating people.”

The legacy of We Treaty People continues in Burnt Thicket’s play choices. Their current season features a play by Yvette Nolan, who was the mentor for the creative team throughout the We Treaty People project. Nolan’s The Unplugging is a post-apocalyptic story that deals with environmental sustainability and Indigenous ways of knowing, which has been performed all over North America, but never before in Saskatchewan.

“We are convinced that if we want to be about positive social change and put our money where our mouths are, we have to be producing work that addresses Reconciliation in some way,” Waldschmidt says. “It doesn’t need to be everything we do, but it needs to be somewhere in our season every year.”

Burnt Thicket Theatre’s 2025 production of The Unplugging received support from the SaskCulture Multicultural Initiatives Fund – Project, funded by the Sask Lotteries Trust Fund for Sport, Culture and Recreation.