Why a Festival of Theatre for Human Rights?
May 20, 2012
Why should we care what happens in countries wracked by civil conflict? I was a Trudeau baby – I learned French in elementary school, I witnessed the creation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, I believe in the vision of Tommy Douglas and Lester B. Pearson – that we care because to do otherwise is to invite cruelty into our lives. The national mythology of Canada includes the idea that we are nice people. After all, we are the most successful multicultural country on the planet – isn’t it because we like people, and they like us? Of course the situation in reality is more complex – but in general, from socialized medicine, (un)employment insurance, welfare, pension plans and education – we try to take care of our citizens.
So how do I come to terms with the fact that our country stands behind a new generation of Canadian companies that are rushing into the most unstable parts of Latin America to extract oil, gold, and other minerals as fast as possible while the prices are up? How do I understand them as Canadian when they pay off illegal armed groups for ‘protection’, monies which directly fund the ongoing violence in places like Colombia? Or when they hire local ‘security’ forces to treat local protesters as criminals who should be punished for refusing to sell their homes, as in Guatemala?
We cannot claim to be surprised by these developments – our history of mistreating the indigenous peoples of Canada is an undying tumour on our collective soul. Even now, Cancer rates in the reserve lands of Fort Chipeweyan, downriver from the Alberta Tar sands, are hundreds of times higher than the national average, while the Alberta and Federal governments are reluctant to sanction a health survey of the area.
When we began our piece Nohayquiensepa (No one knows), we asked ourselves about our relationship to the deaths of strangers. Without question, we feel sympathy for others in their time of loss. Tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan have brought that out. But in other parts of the world the disasters are man-made. In such cases we need to go further, and ensure that the price of our comfort is never someone else’s misery.
Panamerican Routes / Rutas Panamericanas brings voices from across the Americas together in a festival that combines performance with a conversation on pressing social issues. I believe that the sensitivity to hear the softer voices that don’t cut through the daily noise of our over-mediated lives is a strength of the Arts. And that the next step, of moving from the galvanizing anger that we feel when we recognize injustice, and turn it into sympathy and empowerment, is a contribution that theatre can make – through strong artistic choices that risk sanction – that can lead to action. Positive, intelligent, considered, healing action.
We invite you to Theatre Passe Muraille this month to explore with us what that could mean.
(updated from Director Trevor Schwellnus’ program notes to Nohayquiensepa (No one knows), 2011)