≈ 60 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: April 13, 2022
Truth, acknowledgement, resilience
Sh :kon-sewakw kon. Greetings Everyone, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre is grateful to be performing The Mush Hole on the traditional, Unceded territories of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation.
We acknowledge our kinship and Dish with One Spoon treaty relationship. We honour and acknowledge the waters and lands on which the National Arts Centre thrives today.
Nia:wen to the Survivors of the Mohawk Institute Residential School for sharing their truth and resilience with us, in the creation of this performance.
Nia:wen for the generous support for The Mush Hole tour from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council.
“The Mush Hole reflects the realities of the Mohawk Institute residential school experience and offers a way to open dialogue and to heal, through acknowledgement and honouring the spirit of Survivors and families that were impacted. The Mush Hole moves through the devastation of residential school with grace and hope for transformation and release. Opening a small window into the atrocities inflicted on thousands of Indigenous children, it attempts to close the door on historical amnesia. A haunting portrayal, weaves through memories of Survivors, reliving traumas, school life, loss of culture, remembrance, returning to find each other. The residential school legacy and ongoing institutionalized erasure of Indigenous lives and culture is an issue that affects all Canadians. Through specificity we find universality. The Mush Hole is a story about hope and finding light in dark places. As much as it speaks to intergenerational trauma, it screams resilience. Every single element that is represented on stage came from Survivors sharing their experiences with us. After years of silence, Mohawk Institute Survivors are courageously moving past shame and sharing their story. The Mush Hole is their Truth on stage.”
Kwe! hOOlmah! Way’! Salut! Hello! We are still here! On behalf of Indigenous Theatre, welcome to The Mush Hole created by Santee Smith, performed by Kaha:wi Dance Theatre.
It is our honour, our pleasure and our responsibility to bring to the stage and share powerful, compelling art that centres the issues, experiences, and realities of Indigenous people, highlighting the vibrancy, diversity, beauty and the strength of our cultures from coast to coast to coast.
The Mush Hole est une création de Santee Smith, artiste multidisciplinaire et chorégraphe kahnyen’kehàka du clan de la Tortue des Six Nations de Grand River, en Ontario. Elle considère les artistes comme des conteurs et des moteurs de changement. Nous pensons que vous serez d’accord.
Sit back, enjoy the show and be transformed.
“Our stories are medicine. We cannot change the past, but we can learn from it. We can move forward in a spirit of openness, generosity, and healing, to honour those who have come before and empower the future.”
Kevin Loring, Artistic Director
We offer our thanks to and acknowledge the host Algonquin Nation, whose generosity and openness inspire us every day. Kevin Loring, Lori Marchand and Indigenous Theatre Team
The Mohawk Institute a.k.a. The Mush Hole
The Mohawk Institute is the oldest residential school in Canada, after which all others were modelled. Operated in Brantford, Ontario from 1828 to 1970, it served as an Industrial boarding school for First Nations children from Six Nations, as well as other communities throughout Ontario and Quebec. For 142 years, the MO of the school was to forcefully assimilate children into Euro-Christian society and sever the continuity of culture from parent to child.
Canada’s first prime minister John A. MacDonald and superintendant Duncan Campbell Scott were the main perpetrators of the residential school system. Quoting Scott, schools were designed “to get rid of the Indian problem”. Run in military style, children learned very little in the way of schooling rather serving as labourers. They experienced a range of abuses from sexual, food deprivation experiments and corporeal punishment at the hands of faculty and staff.
John A. MacDonald, 1883 - Prime Minister of Canada
“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly impressed upon myself, as head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.”
After closing in 1970, it reopened in 1972 as the Woodland Cultural Centre. In 2013, results of a Six Nations of the Grand River community referendum, 98% voted in favour of restoring the residential school as opposed to its demolition. The reasons for restoration of the site are: to transform it into an educational site, to continue to expose and reflect on the truths of the Canadian Government/Church assimilation policies, to remember and support Survivors and their legacies, to uphold the spirit of children that “served time” in the schools to heal.
In 2014, the Mohawk Institute “Save the Evidence” campaign began and continues until the building is restored. The Mush Hole performance is also an effort in commemorating and healing through the sharing of truth.
The Mush Hole
The Mush Hole was created in connection with Survivors, their writings, interviews and the Survivor Series Talks at the Woodland Cultural Centre. Creation began within the building and on the grounds of the Mohawk Institute. Survivors had a chance to witness and offer feedback to the performance along the way, such as Roberta Hill who said, “The Mush Hole performance brought back memories and was very validating emotionally. I was able to relate to the chaos and turmoil in a relationship that was so similar to my own. I lived that life I was seeing on stage. The impacts of residential school are deep and left me with emotional and psychological scars.”
Incorporating the bricks and mortar, the grounds of the Mohawk Institute, The Mush Hole travels into the environment and specific rooms where experiences took place. The Boy’s Playroom is represented, once a small jail cell that had zero toys. It was a basement room where boys were made to fight and where they hugged the hot water pipes for warmth and stared out the window down the long driveway in wait of parents and family that might take them home or not. Hardly a room, under the staircase cubby hole was the solitary confinement. The loudness of the boiler room concealed children’s cries from abuse, sexual assaults there were perpetrated mostly on the boys. The laundry room where the girls toiled was also a loud room which hid abuse. The visitation room where parents had supervised visits, so stress ridden that time was spent crying, and where family gifts and packages were taken away. The school was a child labour camp with prison mentality, devoid of positive and nurturing touch.
Two generations of Survivors are represented, demonstrating the intergenerational effects, and the long history of Canada’s Indian Residential School legacy. Survivors speak about their inability to show and receive love, struggle with addictions and PTSD fallouts. Stripped of their humanity, students were identified only by their institutional #s and not their names. Survivor brick scratchings, children’s hidden chalk and pencil scribbles are still present at the Mohawk Institute.
The Mush Hole characters are as follows:
#48 / Ernest: a son, father, husband
#29 / Mabel: a daughter, mother, wife
Ernest and Mabel met at residential school and had family, a son and a daughter.
#34 / Walter: a son, brother, student
#17 / Grace: a daughter, sister, student
#11: the one who got away – a girl with no name or family; the runaway
The scenes are titled: Under Lock & Key, T’will be Glory, Smashing Brick Crosses, What’s Your Name? Roll Call, Serving Time, Labour Camp, Running the Gauntlet, I’m So Lonely I Could Cry, The Boiler Man, I Saw the Light, Solitary Confinement, Just A Closer Walk With Thee, The One That Got Away, Remembrance, Find My Way, We Are in This Together. Scenes depict Survivor experiences in specific locations. Site becomes an important concept in The Mush Hole, as it reflects the fact that the schools were also designed to more easily remove Indigenous people from their land and their sites.
“The Mush Hole” is the nickname Survivors and Six Nations community gave to the school due to the fact that mush was the staple food. Servings of mush were often three times a day and wormy. Withholding of food and hunger was an across-the-board ingredient to the Indian Residential School experience. Children were not nourished physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
The appearance of apples in The Mush Hole performance is significant. Being surrounded by an apple orchard, the starved and growing children were strictly forbidden to eat the apples and were severely punished if they picked any for themselves. Corporal punishment of strappings most often escalated into beatings, on the body’s most sensitive parts. If students showed strength by not crying or reacting, the beating intensifies in effect of breaking them down.
Initiation into the school was done through violence. To fight and harden the spirit was a part of the school life for both boys and girls. The scene “Serving time” in the performance reflects the way Survivors qualify their time at the school, as paralleled to a prison experience. It’s not a stretch to know that many Indian Residential School Survivors later found comfort and security from within the prison system. This also reflects the disproportionate numbers of Indigenous people in prison today.
Background on The Mush Hole creation
Santee Smith began the initial concept during the University of Waterloo’s Mush Hole Project 2016. Her vision for The Mush Hole began as a short performance installation created inside the Boy’s Playroom.
In January 2017, the Woodland Cultural Centre offered a creation residency. In February 2017, The Mush Hole closed the Art Gallery of Guelph’s Exhibition 150 Acts: Art, Activism, Impact. In August 2018, The Mush Hole received a production residency at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity.
The premiere was supported by the Prismatic Arts Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Mush Hole was selected as a featured presentation at the Socrates Project McMaster University.
Kaha:wi Dance Theatre is thrilled to be able to produce the 2022 tour of The Mush Hole, after two years of shut down by the pandemic.
Duncan Campbell Scott, 1920 - Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs from 1913 until 1932
“I want to get rid of the Indian problem...our objective is to continue until there is not an Indian that has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department…”
Nia:wen Kowa / Acknowledgements
Nia:wen to the people who have offered insight into the work: Katsi Cook, Louise McDonald, Jan Longboat, Amos Key Jr., Steven and Leigh Smith, Doug George-Kanentiio and through the Woodland Cultural Centre’s Survivor Series Talks: John Elliot, Bud Whiteye, Sherlene Bomberry as well as staff. In premiering The Mush Hole, Santee Smith acknowledges the generous support of Canada Council for the Arts; Ontario Arts Council; Hnatyshyn Foundation - REVEAL Indigenous Arts Award 2017; The Mush Hole Project 2016 - University of Waterloo; Arts Gallery of Guelph - Exhibition 150 Acts: Art, Activism, Impact 2018; Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity - production residency, Prismatic Arts Festival - premiere and The Socrates Project/McMaster University. Kaha:wi Dance Theatre acknowledges the support and hard work of tour presenters and their teams and Indigenous Theatre at the National Arts Centre.
Artists
Santee Smith / Tekaronhiáhkhwa is a multidisciplinary artist from the Kahnyen’kehàka Nation, Turtle Clan, Ohswé:ken/Six Nations of the Grand River. Transformation, energetic exchange and fostering mind-heart connections through performance and design is her lifelong work. Santee trained at Canada’s National Ballet School; holds Physical Education and Psychology degrees from McMaster University and a M.A. in Dance from York University.
Premiering her first production Kaha:wi – a family creation story in 2004, one year later she founded Kaha:wi Dance Theatre which has grown into an internationally renowned company. Santee’s work speaks about identity, teachings and way of life within Onkwehonwe:neha, creativity and Indigenous artistic process. She is a sought-after teacher and speaker on the performing arts, Indigenous performance, and culture.
Smith is faculty at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity’s World Indigenous Dance Residency 2024 and curator and visionary of Inviting the Land to Shape Us series of land-based workshops and creation labs focused on Indigenous performance research.
Recently, she premiered Dora Award nominated multimedia production SKéN:NEN at TOLive 2024 and toured award-winning The Mush Hole embodying the truths of Canada’s oldest and standing Indian Residential School, The Mohawk Institute.
Jonathan Fisher is Bear Clan and Anishnabe from the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. Selected credits include: Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (Red Roots Theatre), fareWel (Prairie Theatre Exchange), New France (VideoCabaret), Copper Thunderbird (National Arts Centre), Tales of an Urban Indian (Talk Is Free Theatre), 400 Kilometers (Lighthouse Theatre), The Rez Sisters (Magnus Theatre), Night (Human Cargo), The Hours That Remain (Magnus Theatre), Elle (Theatre Passe Muiraille), The Berlin Blues and Ipperwash (Blyth Festival), Reckoning (Article 11), This Is How We Got Here (Native Earth/Shaw Festival), The Mush Hole (Kaha:wi Dance Theatre), and White Noise (Firehall Arts Centre).
Julianne is from the Mohawk Nation, Turtle clan and resides at Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. Julianne attends McKinnon Park Secondary School in grade 12. Julianne has been dancing since age 3, in all genres including Ballet, Pointe, Contemporary, Hip hop, Jazz, Lyrical, and Tap.
Julianne danced in The Gift, in Toronto, in 2014 for Mercedes Bernardez. She danced with Santee Smith at the opening ceremonies of the North American Indigenous Games, World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education closing ceremonies 2017, Indspire Awards 2018 and is a core member of The Mush Hole. In 2013, Julianne appeared as an extra in the documentary Desert Between Us & Them: Raiders, Traitors, and Refugees in the War of 1812.
Montana Summers is from the Oneida First Nation of the Thames. Montana began training in the exploration of Indigenous and contemporary dance when he was accepted into the Indigenous Dance Residency (2015) and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s Summer Intensive (2016). Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director, Santee Smith, brought Montana onto projects including The Mush Hole (2016-2020), I Lost My Talk with the National Arts Centre Orchestra (2016) and for the Grand Act of Theatre, Continuance: Yonkwa’nikonhrakontàhkwen–Our Consciousness Continues Unchanged (2020), and The Honouring.
Additionally, Montana previously acted for Backyard Theatre’s one-time new production called The Other Side of the River (2019). Montana continues to work on his abilities in the performing arts with other small projects from Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, multiple collectives he is a part of, and other colleagues. Montana hopes to inspire youth among his community to chase their dreams.
Raised in Vancouver and based in Toronto, Raelyn is from Plains Cree descent from Saskatchewan. She is a graduate of The Conteur Dance Academy. Her love of performing began with ballet and transitioned her into other styles, including musical theatre. She has trained with The Richmond Academy of Dance, MOVE: the company, and The Conteur Academy.
In 2015, Raelyn had the pleasure of working with Conteur Dance Company, a preview development show under the direction of artistic director Eryn Waltman. Raelyn has also worked with Aria Evans who is the artistic director of Political Movement. In 2017 Raelyn performed Aria’s work Voice of a Nation, commissioned by the Toronto Concert Orchestra. Revisiting her identity and background, Raelyn had the opportunity performing as a dancer at the 2018 Indspire Awards along with Santee Smith, the founding Artistic Director of Kaha:wiDance Theatre. Following her passion of performing both on stage and on film, Raelyn is a dedicated dance artist who wishes to continue her inspiration for others.
Jesse is one of those unique composers/producers whose praxis spans multiple genres and transcends contextualization. Known mainly as a violinist, he is also a multi-instrumentalist and tends to incorporate electronic manipulation and studio gadgetry within his work.
Jesse is a three-time Juno Award winning musician with his own projects and has become an in-demand producer having produced Tanya Tagaq’s Polaris Music Prize album Animism and her recent Polaris Music Prize Shortlisted album Retribution. Animism garnered Zubot the award for Producer of the Year at the 2015 Western Canadian Music Awards and a nomination for Producer of the Year at the 2015 Juno Awards.
Zubot has recently delved heavily into the world of film scoring, completing the score to the acclaimed Canadian film, Indian Horse based on the novel by the late Richard Wagamese. He was nominated for a 2018 Leo Award for Best Musical Score in a Motion Picture for Indian Horse. He has been commissioned by CBC to write symphonies and arrangements for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia. Jesse has done work in the world of dance with choreographers such as Benoit Lachambre, Su-Feh Lee and Santee Smith.
Adrian is a multi-award winning “Jack of all Trades” when it comes to performing arts. He started singing Powwow style at age seven, Fancy Dancing at 10, and then began Hoop Dancing at 12 years of age.
His performances have taken him around the world numerous times to share his culture with global audiences. Currently, Adrian now owns his own production company, Oven Baked Beatz LLC where he produces music for TV, radio and live theatre.
Adrian stands evenly in both worlds of Traditional Culture and Modern Music with credits including a NAMMY (Native American Music Award), CANAB (Canadian Aboriginal Music Award), Grammy (2001)and and RIAA GOLD Certification. He has created compositions for Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s TransMigration, The Honouring and NeoIndigenA.
Andy Moro is the artistic co-director of ARTICLE11 with Tara Beagan, upholding the 11th Article of the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Current and recent work includes: The Unnatural & Accidental Women (NAC); Rise Red River (ARTICLE 11/Theatre Cercle Moliere/Prairie Theatre Exchange); PISUWIN (Atlantic Ballet); Sleuth, Extractionist, Gaslight (Vertigo Theatre); NOMADA (Diana Lopez Soto); F WORD (Downstage/Alberta Theatre Projects); Ministry of Grace, Reckoning, ROOM, Declaration, Deer Woman (ARTICLE11); Little Women, Honour Beat; (Theatre Calgary); Hookman (University of Calgar/Chromatic); The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time (NAC/Neptune Theatre); Post Mistress, Rez Sisters (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre); Blackhorse (Caravan Theatre); The Herd (Citadel Theatre/Tarragon Theatre); Frozen River (Manitoba Theatre for Young People); Third Colour, Spacegirl, War Being Waged (Prairie Theatre Exchange); Ministry of Grace, Time Stands Still, O’Kosi (MT7); Sky Dancers (A'nó:wara Dance Theatre); Minowin and Raven Mother (Dancers of Damelahamid); Finding Wolastoq Voice (Theatre New Brunswick); Blood Water Earth, Blood Tides, The Mush Hole (Kaha:wi Dance Theatre).
Film & Video: RECKONING (ARTICLE 11); Road to Hasalala Danxalax (Chan Ctr/Marion Newman). Upcoming: The Ring Cycle: Das Rheingold for Edmonton Opera.
Andy is of mixed Euro/Omushkegowuk descent, and is currently based in Calgary.
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Evan is a Health & Safety consultant specializing in the Entertainment Industry with his company Production Health & Safety. When not inspecting theatres and concert venues, he does a show every now and again to keep it real.
For Kaha:wi Dance Theatre: Lighting Designer, SKéN:NEN (Premiere 2021); Production Manager, The Mush Hole (Premiere, 2018, National Tour 2019/20); Production Stage Manager, Blood, Water, Earth (New Zealand Premiere, 2019); Production Manager, Blood Tides (Premiere 2018, Remount 2019); Tour Manager, Re-Quickening (Atlantic Tour, 2017); Lighting Designer, The Honouring (National Tour, 2017); Lighting Director, NeoIndigenA (North American Tour, 2017).
Select credits: Safety Supervisor, UTAP, Netflix; Safety Supervisor, Reacher, Amazon Prime (2021) Health & Safety Manager, WayHome/ Boots & Hearts, Republic Live (2016-19); Audio Lead, Maple Leaf Gardens (Basketball), Toronto 2015 PanAm Games; Course Operations, Tough Mudder Canada (2015-19); Scenic Designer, Les Misérables, Hometown Acting Company (2013); Field Technician,100th Grey Cup Halftime Show, PRP (2012).
Shane is from the Mohawk Nation from Six Nations of the Grand River. He works as a videographer/photographer/editor/graphic designer/lighting technician/audio technician. Over the years, Shane has travelled extensively with various dance, theatre productions and musica lgroups providing the above services. His focus has been working within my Six Nations community, supporting our artists and cultural projects with organizations and artists such as: Woodland Cultural Centre, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Thru the Red Door, Six Nations Polytechnic Institute, Six Nations Council, Derek Miller Band, Logan Staats, Rochester Knighthawks, Lacey Hill and more.
Adriana is a Slovakian born fashion and costume designer. In 1999, she moved to Toronto to pursue a career in fashion and costuming. In 2001, she started her own fashion label Plastik Wrap which led her into the costume design profession. In the last decade, Adriana has created costumes for many video and film productions, dancers, musicians, as well as independent theatres and artists. Her client list includes Space Channel, APTN, Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, Bralen Dance Theatre, Indspire Awards and many others. Adriana’s main passion is creating. She embraces the challenge of designing any style required for the job at hand.
Production credits
Artistic Producer, Director, Performer: Santee Smith
Tour remount: Kaha:wi Dance Theatre
Cultural Advisors: Geronimo Henry, Thohahoken Michael Doxtater, Roberta Hill
Performers: Santee Smith, Jonathan Fisher, Julianne Blackbird, Montana Summers, Raelyn Metcalfe
Composition, Arrangement: Jesse Zubot
Additional Composition: Adrian Dion Harjo
Songs: “Find My Way”, commissioned remix by Nick Sherman; “I Saw The Light”, performed and recorded by Nick Sherman, Semiah Smith (vocals) and Nathan Smith (fiddle); “I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry”, performed and recorded by Nick Sherman; “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” by Patsy Cline, arranged by Nick Sherman, Semiah Smith (vocals); “The Storm” by Iskwe; “T’will be Glory”, Martin Family Singers from the album Kaha:wi
Video Tech, Director: Ryan Webber
Set, Original Lighting Designer: Andy Moro
Costume Designer: Adriana Fulop, Leigh Smith, Elaine Redding
Production Support, Videographer: Shane Powless
Production Tour Manager, Tour Lighting Designer: Evan Sandham
Tour Stage Manager: Senjuti Sarker
Voiceover: Rob Lamothe
Production Support: Woodland Cultural Centre, Thru The Red Door, Art Gallery of Guelph
Banff Centre for the Arts & Creativity
- Production Manager: Karin Stubenvoll
- Production Coordinator: Pia Ferrari
- Lead Video Technician: Jennifer Chiasson
- Video Practicum Participants: Kevin Oliver, Christopher Bussey, James MacKinnon
- Studio Technician, Cameraman, Video Actor: Aubrey Fernandez
- Audio Post Engineer: Edward Renzi
Lead Animator: Sasha Stanojevic
- Animation and Design Practicum Participants: Rimsha Nadeem, Frank Seager
- Video Actor: Carver Kirby, Kevin Oliver
Company Support: Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees