Quelemia Sparrow’s Skyborn: A Land Reclamation Odyssey is a spirit journey

Art leads, again.

Politics, language, history: all play a part in playwright and actor Quelemia Sparrow’s Skyborn: A Land Recla­mation Odyssey, but this innovative interdisciplinary undertaking began with time for quiet reflection, dreaming, and the act of putting pen to paper.

As the part-Musqueam, part-settler artist tells the Straight in a wide-ranging telephone conversation from her Kerrisdale home, her new play began some years ago, when she embarked on a writing retreat on the Sunshine Coast. There, Sparrow says, she first conceived of putting what she now calls “a spirit-canoe journey” on-stage—but, as she also notes, she didn’t quite know what to do with the concept. Some of this personal odyssey factored into her 2016 project O’wet/Lost Lagoon, but she feels that production was never fully realized. Now, with the support of a primarily Indigenous crew helmed by the brilliant Syilx, Tsilhqot’in, Ktunaxa, and Dakel director Kim Senklip Harvey, Sparrow is revisiting her original vision with a newfound appreciation for what it means.

Source: The Georgia Straight