Squaw Hall—A Community Remembers

• Published in: Canadian Theatre Review
• Main Author: Harwood, Nicola
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 2011
• Subjects: Visual Arts and Performing Arts; First Nations
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/ctr.148.25; https://ctr.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/ctr.148.25

Squaw Hall—A Community Remembers, documents an artist's response to returning to her home community of Williams Lake, BC to co-facilitate a community-based project exploring an Aboriginal-centred history of the area. Williams Lake borders three major First Nations including Secwepemc, Carrier, and Tsilhqot'in First Nation communities. The project artists worked with youth to write and perform a play on issues of importance to them including: gang violence, drug and alcohol use, and family struggles. The youth were also trained in media skills and created a short film which documented their elders' experiences as youth. The project revealed both the struggles and resilience of the communities as well as a fondness for the early days of the Williams Lake Stampede, when Aboriginal families would sometimes travel for days by horse and wagon to compete in the rodeo and dance at the Squaw Hall, the Indian dance hall.