Cottagers and Indians

From October 22 to 25, 2018, Truth and Reconciliation Community – Bobcaygeon (TRC-Bobcaygeon) presented Cottagers and Indians, a play written by Drew Hayden Taylor from Curve Lake First Nation (CLFN), in the Kawarthas.

Three school boards (Trillium Lakelands District School Board [TLDSB], Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board and Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board Peterborough) provided transportation for up to 145 students each day to attend the play.

This project far exceeded our wildest dreams! Thank you to everyone who helped.

Through TRC–Bobcaygeon’s various educational activities we hope to “inspire Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to continue to transform Canadian society so our children and grandchildren can live together in dignity, peace and prosperity on these lands we now share” (Introduction, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, 2015).

This special education-through-arts initiative was intended to help promote reconciliation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians in the Kawartha Lakes area and to facilitate working together to create systemic change. In recent years, the traditional right of First Nations to grow and harvest wild rice (manoomin) in this region has been challenged by a few settlers who own cottages on Pigeon Lake in particular.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

One patron wrote that [the play] “showed some of the dialogue that is happening around the native/settler issues in the context of a very specific situation – wild rice. And it tied together so many important points – environmental concerns, development, real estate issues, food security and cultural values. It was all there!

“It must be really satisfying for you and the other members of the TRC group to feel something meaningful is happening – even if it is uncomfortable or threatening for some people. At least attention is being paid – which is the only way people will ever consider different ways of looking at something.”

Another patron writes “I was aware of the play and the general story, but did not know the whole story and the ongoing conflict between the cottagers and their Indigenous neighbours.

“I found the theatre and set to be simple, yet intimate and effective. Well staged and performed.

“The two actors are powerful, and deliver the well-written script with passion. At times the play is very funny but also very poignant. I didn’t know this story and now I do. It stays with me and I ponder how can this be resolved. No one knows how we resolve this, until we sit down and talk.”