The Transformations Project

TRANSFORMATIONS: warming/BURNING

By Thomas McKechnie / Soulpepper Theatre Company
Special projects

A reality check. A set of suggestions. A prayer.

The piece was created in Tkaronto, which is part of the traditional territory of many nations: the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. The land was obtained by the Toronto Purchase of 1805 from the Mississauga’s of the New Credit. The paper that the original deal was supposed to be on was blank and the signatures of the chiefs were not on the document but on a separate document that was attached. This was untenable and the British government sought to rectify it with a proper contract but now with significantly more land being sold. The Mississauga’s additional received 10 shillings or around $160. In 1998 a land claim was begun by the Mississauga's of the Credit which was finally settled in 2010 when the government of Canada agreed to pay the claimants $140 Million to make up the difference of the original value of the land. From the total of $140 million the government subtracted the value of the hats, ribbons, needles, whisky and etc. that the Mississauga's had received in 1805. There will never be justice on this land till the whole violent, extractive, colonial project of Canada is unrecognizably transfigured. 

Commissioned by Soulpepper Theatre Company.  Written by Thomas McKechnie. Directed by Guillermo Verdecchia. Performed by Oyin Oladejo.

English.

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