Bury The Hatchet

On Friday, June 17 & Saturday, June 18, the Culture Den will present Bury the Hatchet, a cultural offering of eight newly devised performances all dedicated to the restoration of our sacred humanity that lays sleeping under the bodies and psyches of our collective historical struggle with colonization across the world.

One hour prior to each performance is 'Coming Ashore', a cultural protocol that audiences are encouraged to attend (Fernwood Square). Patrons will find the Belfry lobby transformed with an art exhibit/intervention called 'Spirit in the Fringes.'

The eight performances are:

The music for Unbury the Hatchet and the Venom Dance will be accompanied by Nicole Mandryk. She will be performing three original songs with Lafayette String Quartet (Ann Elliot-Goldschmid - violin, Sharon Stanis - violin, Joanna Hood - viola, and Pamela Highbaugh Aloni - cello).

Performances
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​Friday, June 17 at 7 pm - 'Coming Ashore'
​Friday, June 17 at 8 pm - Bury the Hatchet

Saturday, June 18 at 1 pm - 'Coming Ashore'
​Saturday, June 18 at 2 pm - Bury the Hatchet (followed by a Q&A with the performers)
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​Saturday, June 18 at 7 pm - 'Coming Ashore'
​Saturday, June 18 at 8 pm - Bury the Hatchet

Tickets are available at tickets.belfry.bc.ca or 250-385-6815

Bury the Hatchet is a performative cultural offering that expresses diverse Indigenous concepts of Peacebuilding which at its core resurges ancient teachings of political and social structures pre-contact that honours rightful nation-to-nation relationships to remain in harmony, balance, and peace.

Weaving political implications directly responding to UNDRIP (article 7, 30, 32, 40) and the Indigenous Peoples: conflict, peace, and resolution, these eight performances carry the breadth of negotiations that express: war, violence, surrender, unity, humility, and forgiveness.

The objective of the offering is to nurture the Indigenous performative community which effectively links retention, renewal, and transmission of cultural knowledge through creative artistic practice.

Creating from an Indigenous-centered worldview fosters an understanding of Indigenous cultural ways of knowing for both artists and audiences. Bringing Indigenous worldviews into the western theatre context challenges the dominant historical legacy of Eurocentric narratives that continue to perpetuate the invisibility and erasure of Indigenous land and bodies.

“Burying the Hatchet” is a phrase embedded within the origins of an Iroquois ceremony in which warclubs, axes, and weapons were buried into the ground to symbolize newly made peace.

This ceremony expresses rituals that connect to the legend of the Peacemaker, a Huron foreseer who carried the Urging for the restoration of our sacred humanity that lays sleeping under the bodies and psyches of our collective historical trauma.

Bury the Hatchet illuminates, awakens, and opens the heart portal back to Ka’nikonhri: io (a good mind) to revitalize Skennen (peace)- the message of the Great Law of Peace to the Iroquois confederacy due to the 100-years of Indian civil wars.

Spirit in the Fringes is a trans-conceptual space that presences Indigenous methodologies, protocols, and teachings to transform the western theatre environment into an ‘Indigenous' space. Through the practices of self-representation, we tell of our presence, our resistance, and our survivance (Gerald Vizenor, 2010). Spirit in the Fringes asserts the right of Indigenous people to be seen on their own terms – to reflect their experiences and perspectives, creating a portal for the audience to see into their worlds.

By enacting the 'Coming Ashore' Protocols and being given the floor to lay down our ways of knowing and being on Lekwungen territory, we assert our natural agency to bring forth the various Indigenous laws and stories carried by members of Bury the Hatchet, while making visible the authority of the Lekwungen people, the ancestors, and the living earth where the work and art of Burying the Hatchet take place. In particular, the voices and knowledge of Two-Spirit, Indigequeer, people of colour and women are centred - voices that have been silenced, disappeared, and muted by settler colonialism, patriarchy, Christianity, and capitalism.

Rooted in sacred objects imbued with spirit and teachings about what it means to ‘come to peace’, Spirit in the Fringes prepares you to fully engage in the performances you are about to witness. ​ In the fringes of our ribbon skirts, our regalia, we catch spirit and medicines. In the fringes of systems, where we can bring in the beauty of ancestral ways of knowing and being, we as Indigenous peoples often find safety, community, and spirit.

Creatively articulating Indigenous freedom, hope, and joy and envisioning worlds outside the confines of colonialism and western systems has the potential to shift perspectives and allow for re-visioning and reframing. Self-determination recuperates Indigenous spaces from the fringes, allowing them to ‘dance in a new light’ (Sarah Hunt, 2022). A, situated intervention into systemic racism can be had through a reframing of relationality and vision sharing.

Welcome to our house as we center and celebrate the Spirit in the Fringes.

Lindsay Delaronde Storyweaver ​ 

Produced by the Culture Den Society and the Belfry Theatre 

Sponsored by The First Peoples' Cultural Council, BC Arts Council, Dance Victoria, and Belfry Theatre

About The Culture Den
​The Culture Den is led by a matriarchal council committed to guiding and supporting Indigenous-led artistic work. We encourage, support and respond to the needs of local First Nation, Metis and Inuit interdisciplinary artists through mentorship, performance and exhibitions that amplify and lift up our stories and gifts. We are committed to finding the healing, wellness and reclamation of Indigenous sovereignty through this work. We create and support each other on Lekwungen Territory, and work with the local Nations to build and maintain ongoing respectful relationships. Representing many Nations, we are rooted in this land and culture, telling our own stories, in our own voices.