Messages On Doors: Quw’utsun

Messages On Doors

Produced by The Fox Queen

A live blending of storytelling, personal experience, and performance art.

Join us in person this Sept 26, 2023 for the public feast and sharing of the Core Artists’ and Community Participants’ artistic responses to the messages on doors workshop.

Messages on Doors is an online community engagement workshop and live art presentation where members of the Vancouver Island public generate works of art through an online theatre workshop and directed creative process.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Indigenous and non-Indigenous community participants work together to create messages shared as part of a digitally streamed and live celebration performance on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Cowichan Tribes

The Big Ideas 2023

We are responsible to take action against the Historical and Present day dark messages of hate towards Indigenous peoples.
In these times of Reconciliation, we need to connect more.

Values: Love. Truth. Listening. Survival. Joy.

Artistic Lead — Tsatassaya White

Tsatassaya White, B.A. is a curator, event planner and community mobilizer. She is a member of the Snuneymuxw First Nation (Coast Salish) and also of Earthquake House of the Hamilton family of Hupacasath (Nuu-chah-nulth Nations). She carries cultural knowledge, roots her work in traditional protocols and has a vast network of community connections. Recently, Tsatassaya curated “Qwuyulush utl’ Swyalana” a day of Indigenous dance at InFrinGinG Dance Festival (July 2019) at Maffeo Sutton Park, produced and directed “huulth-huultha 2020” a dance film in response to the pandemic, and curated the inaugural Sum̓sháthut (Sun) Festival, an on-line Indigenous cultural festival, and co-produced with Nanaimo’s Crimson Coast Dance Society.

Artistic Lead — The Fox Queen

Progressive Theatre Collective, The Fox Queen (FQ) was formed during the early days of Covid 19, due to a strong desire to connect, inquire, dismantle, (re)align artistic practices, and forge new decolonized ways of theatre making and creation. The Fox Queen is creative collaborators Tamara McCarthy and Dave Mott. These two white artists of settler descent have over 40 years of combined theatre creation, direction, performance, physical training, devising, leadership, independent producing, mentorship, presentation and teaching in the arts sector. The Fox Queen ethos rests solidly inside the founding shared values of Humour, Love, Communication, Listening, Respect, Healing, Song, and Collaboration. Tamara and Dave are focused on Community, Responsibility, Survival, Anti-Racist Practice and the Present Moment. Our values lead and define us. FQ exists in the present moment, self reflecting and focusing on the heartbeats around us; we are flexible, continually responding to the evolving needs of the people on our teams and the communities with whom we engage.

Core Artists 2023

Featured

Minah Lee & Wryly Andherson

Minah Lee and Wryly Andherson are the founding duo of Art Action Earwig (2020~), an interdisciplinary arts collective based between Nanaimo and Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territories. They have been …

Fred Wilson

I am Fred Wilson

I am a member of the Gitga’at Nation, through my mother’s side of the family, so I am also a member of the Gisbutwada Clan and have family ties to the Cowichan Valley through …

Michelle Lieffertz

Michelle (she/her) is a mother, daughter, partner, artist who lives works and plays on the unceded traditional lands of the Stz'uminus first nation, the hul'quimi'num speaking peoples, the Lheidli T'enneh, Lhtako Dene, and Secwépmec peoples. Her training in colonial theatre performance …

Qwulipulwut Loha

Qwulipulwut is a Quw' utsun sleni (Cowichan woman). She is a new actress and enjoys bringing characters to life and helping to convey their message. Her debut was at the Indigenous New Waves festival in "Trying to keep up," and ….

The Community Participants

Jacquie Adams - Kwustunaat Roberta Charlie - Melissa Flagg - Rob Honzell - Kristina Kehoe - Will Johnson - Benjamin Joseph

The Team

Produced by Tsatassaya White & The Fox Queen

Technical Direction by Al Frisk

Digital Technical Direction by Mike Watts

Event Stage Management by Brianna Hamilton

Technical Assistance by Benjamin Joseph

Associate Production by Minah Lee

Elder in Training Jacquie Adams

Elder in Residence Chris Alphonse

Event Details

Public Celebration and Performance - September 26, 2023

Siem Lelum Gym - Cowichan Tribes

5574 River Road - Duncan BC V9L5J1

Complimentary food and soft drinks will be served starting at 7:00pm until resources run out.

Reserve a ticket to join us for the celebration and feast.

EVENT TIMELINE

Protocol/ Welcome

Dinner Break

MOD Introduction

Wonder Wall by Kristina Johnson & Will Johnson

Heart to Heart: A Collaboration by Melissa Flagg & Rob Honzell

Awakening in the Seam by Fred Wilson

Welcome Mat by Art Action Earwig

Intermission

Welcome back to part 2

Nutsamaat Shqwaluwun by Qwulipulwut Loha

A Beaver's Tale/Tail by Michelle Lieffertz

Final thoughts

Book a Free Ticket

This is a free event. Donations gladly accepted.

Do you have barriers to access Messages on Doors?

Please contact us to discuss with The Fox Queen if our team are able to meet them.

Online Workshop - July 31, 2023 6-9pm

ZOOM details are available to Community Participants via email. Contact Us for more info

Support us with a Donation

Siem Lelum Gym - Cowichan Tribes 5574 River Road - Duncan BC V9L5J1

Messages on Doors Image was created

by Eliot White-Hill Kwulasultun.

Artist’s Statement:

Its a simple Salish design in a heart.

The crescent and trigon come together with the shape of the heart to

form a the lower half of a face, kind of like the smiling comedy mask.