Sedna premiered at the Caravan Farm Theatre in December 2018. 

On a winter night, Selia, an Indigenous woman looking for work, wrestles with the pros and cons of an impending pipeline coming through her peoples’ territory. On the day of the project’s ground breaking ceremony a cataclysmic storm brings her face to face with Sedna, Goddess of the Arctic Sea, who opens her eyes to a wider perspective on the environment and all who depend on it. A spectacular retelling of the legend about the Inuk spirit of the arctic sea, told through magnificent large-scale puppets, music, and as always horse drawn sleighs transporting the audience both literally and figuratively through a beautiful telling.

Urban Ink commissioned Corey Payette, Reneltta Arluk, and Marshall McMahen 3 years ago to create a project that tells both contemporary and traditional stories of Indigenous women. The project was researched by the UBC First Nations Studies Program, includes Inuktitut language, and a new original score by Payette. 

Monice Peter (she/her) was born in Moh-kíns-tsis and the traditional Treaty 7 territory and oral practices of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani and the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. She is the youngest of seven children from her Caribbean parents. Her parents called Dominica, which is the nature island of the Caribbean, home before settling in Canada. She has travelled only once to Dominica, but eagerly hopes to get back soon. The indigenous name of the island was Wai’tu kubuli, which translates as ‘Her Body Is Tall.’ The original inhabitants of the island were the indigenous Kalinago-Taino (Carib-Arawaks). Even more exciting, Monice has tracked her African ancestry to Benin and Togo in West Africa. This history and linage discovery plays a huge part in Monice’s creative practice as she recognises all who have come before her in order for her to practice what she does today.    

A Conversation With Burnt Cork or Burnt Cork investigates our relationship with the past. Bert Williams is a washed up vaudeville actor who has one last chance to escape purgatory. Trapped in a fading room with Sandra, an amnesiac woman, George and Ada, faint memories of his past life, and buckets of paint, Bert must face his shadows and achieve ascension or risk ultimate death. Burnt Cork asks us to engage with what we are afraid of: ourselves.

(Photo Credit: Ian Brown)