Native Earth Performing Arts premieres its 38th edition of Weesageechak Begins to Dance; an annual festival showcasing new works and works-in-development by 10 Indigenous creators from across Turtle Island and beyond.
The festival theme for this year is ‘Complexities and Curiosities’, weaving stories, conversations, workshops, and more around a fulsome gathering of creativity and inspiration.
Each night of the festival will feature a double bill with presentations from two Weesageechak creators.
Public Projects at Weesageechak Begins to Dance 38
‘Squeaky’ by Tara Beagan (Ntlaka’pamux)
Mentor: Anand Rajaram
November 21-22
This is a solo dramatic comedy exploring belonging, the impact of media, and the ubiquity of true crime by drawing parallels between each Trudeau prime ministerial era. Nanette Susan Cromme grew up in a series of foster homes, always lacking a sense of belonging. Of great intelligence and few social skills, she inserts herself into any conversation within earshot, swiftly making no friends at all.
‘Children of the Bear’ by Todd Houseman (Nehiyaw)
Mentor: Erin Goodpipe; co-produced by Outside the March
November 21 and 23
This story is an open-world, Indigi-fantasy play about a young, low-income family’s attempts to rise above the colonial structures that surround them. Using a tabletop D&D-style design, audiences help the family either by escaping more deeply into the game of fantasy or becoming the Crees their ancestors want them to be.
‘Don’t Bring Him Back’ by Cameron sinkʷə Fraser-Monroe (Tla’amin First Nation)
Mentor: Keith Barker
November 22
An hour before sunset, John and Samson are loading a canoe. They set off and pass the new mill and the flooded traditional village site on which it sits. Samson reveals that he knows why they are out fishing: their Chichia has told John to kill him. Samson tries to convince John that he didn’t get a fair trial. They negotiate: maybe he can let him go; after all, the wording was a bit vague.
Northern Indigenous Play Readings presented by Gwaandak Theatre
‘The Spirit of the Valley’ by Frank Henry Kaash Katasse
‘Constellation’ by Tyra Ashauntie
November 23 and 26
Gwaandak Theatre will share two script excerpts from the North to be read by a Yukon-based cast. This touring presentation creates opportunities for emerging theatre artists, promotes stronger community connections, and showcases both new and returning Indigenous scripts to a variety of audiences.
‘How Bono Saved my Life (Three Times)’ by Sonya Ballantyne (Swampy Cree)
Mentor: Olivia Shortt
November 26-27
Each time writer and supernerd Sonya Ballantyne set her mind on ending her life, something at the last second would pull her back from the ledge. And it was usually something to do with the band U2. This oral story told by Sonya uses music as another character who is part of the story.
‘mi historia que no es única’ by Jessica Esmeralda Zepeda (Kuskatan*) *Post-colonial El Salvador
Mentor: Violeta Luna
November 26 and 28
A contemporary North/Central American folk horror that blends experimental saxophone loops, and recorded testimonials. The story centres on an entity that is haunted by her parent’s undocumented journey from El Salvador to El Norte. mi historia que no es única is a devised ritual of reflection on more than forty years of micro tragedies overtaken by the macro urgency of a civil conflict: a practice of embodying our history, with mourning and without shame, to embark towards a brave future.
‘The Curse of Stolen Seeds’ by Jillian Morris (Kanien’kehaka and a band member of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory)
Mentor: Ange Loft
November 27 and 30
This is a dramatic theatre short set in 2004, inspired by the report of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights – The Scars that We Carry: Forced and Coerced Sterilization of Persons in Canada – Part II, July 2022. It explores the complexity of the mother, adult daughter relationship. It is about deep wounds and shallow understandings, resented estrangement and unexpected returns. It is about forgiveness and peace seeking after the emergence from dark places brought about by colonization.
‘Conditions to Strike’ by Montana Summers (Oneida Nation of the Thames)
Mentor: Santee Smith
November 28 and 30
Conditions to Strike is a rendition of the Thunder Boy character from Onkwehón:we storytelling. Pulling from this character’s theme of being half human and half Thunder Being, Montana attempts to correlate the struggle of being caught in between the worlds of sky and earth to the struggle of modern queer identities being caught between masculine and feminine. He reinterprets the story by layering these two narratives of spiritual and queer identities together to tell an important lesson in multi-generational connections of love, protection, sacrifice and bringing needed balance to these dualities.
‘ʔa·kinq̓uku by Samantha Sutherland (Ktunaxa)
Mentor: Christine Friday
November 28 and 30
Fire ignites, grows, burns, and devours. Once it decays, what destruction does it leave behind? How does the earth regrow out of the ashes? ʔa·kinq̓uku, the word for fire in the Ktunaxa Language, is a solo that follows the life cycle of a wildfire, and the regrowth that occurs after. Created in the Pakitinam Choreographers Circle with Raven Spirit Dance, this piece was created in reaction to the wildfire that burned through the Samantha’s home community of ʔaq̓am in the summer of 2023.
Additional Festival Details
On Saturday, November 29, you can drop by the popup market, craft space and stay for the Music + Comedy Night! hosted by Meg MacKay with performances by Yolanda Bonnell, Cale Crowe, Evan Redsky.
All Weesageechak Begins to Dance 38 presentations will have available “Held Spaces.” Held Spaces are calm settings hosted by HELD Agency where patrons can decompress. Each space has a designated “Active Listener” present, who uses a Peer-Based approach to support patrons through discussing, distracting, and/or de-escalating; whatever audience members choose and need at any given time.
Weesageechak Begins to Dance 38 runs from November 21 to November 30, 2025 at Aki Studio in Toronto. For festival details and tickets, please visit nativeearth.ca.
