GOING HOME STAR
RECONCILIATION BY BALLET
BY MILLIE KNAPP
forcibly assimilate Native children into Cana- dian culture. But she accepted a position on the board of
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the Royal Winnipeg Ballet (RWB) to help give indigenous direction to its project to develop a new Native-themed ballet. The RWB, based in Manitoba, was already
famous for a work on contemporary Indig- enous life, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, a gritty depiction of the destruction of a Native girl in the big city. The company turned to the work of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation
26 AMERICAN INDIAN FALL 2015
allet seemed an incongruous way, Tina Keeper thought at first, to present the story of the Indigenous residential boarding schools, a system designed to
Commission for a theme just as harrowing, the destruction of Indigenous culture in the boarding school system. “We were able to get collaborators, dancers,
elders and staff to feel like they were partici- pating in something beyond the dance,” says Keeper (Norway House Cree Nation), a film producer and former award-winning actress in the Canadian television series North of 60. The result was the new ballet Going
Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation. It pre- miered in October 2014 in a five-night sold- out run in Winnipeg, to commemorate the 75th
anniversary of the RWB, one of the
oldest ballet companies in North America. Plans are underway for a national Canadian tour in 2016 and the performance of ex-
cerpts in Washington, D.C., this December. One thing was clear for Keeper, a member
of the Canadian House of Commons in 2006 as Liberal representative from the riding of Churchill, and the Opposition Critic for Pub- lic Health and Canadian Heritage: Indigenous artists must steer the project direction. In 2009, Keeper met RWB leaders Andre
Lewis, artistic director, and Jeff Herd, ex- ecutive director, to discuss how to envision a Native-themed ballet. She joined the RWB board and a programming committee where she became acquainted with Stephanie Bal- lard, a contemporary dance school director, in Winnipeg where she lives. Early on, Keeper met with author Joseph Boyden (Anishinaabe) who lives in New Or-
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