Artistic Responses and Responsibilities to Residential Schools

A discussion about artistic responses to Residential Schools and their impact on survivors, families and communities as well as the responsibility artists have when connecting with this content.  

Grade: 11-12, University 
Length: 1 hour
Language: English

Tara Beagan

Tara Beagan is proud to be Ntlaka’pamux and, through her late father's side, of Irish ancestry.  She is cofounder/director of ARTICLE 11 with Andy Moro. Beagan served as Artistic Director of  Native Earth Performing Arts from February 2011 to December 2013. During her time, NEPA  continued with traditional values for guidance, had an Elder in Residence, and named and moved  into the Aki Studio. Beagan has been in residence at Cahoots Theatre (Toronto), NEPA  (Toronto), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) and Berton House (Dawson City, Yukon). She is now  Playwright In Residence at Prairie Theatre Exchange (Winnipeg). Seven of her 28 plays are  published. Two plays have received Dora Award nominations (one win). In 2018, Beagan was a  finalist in the Alberta Playwrights’ Network competition. In 2020, Honour Beat won the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama. Recent premieres include Deer Woman in Aotearoa (New  Zealand), Honour Beat opening the 2018/19 season at Theatre Calgary, The Ministry of Grace at  Belfry Theatre in Victoria, and Super in Plays2Perform@Home with Boca Del Lupo (Vancouver).

Kevin Loring

Kevin Loring is an accomplished Canadian playwright, actor and director and was the winner of the Governor General’s Award for English Language Drama for his outstanding play, Where the Blood Mixes in 2009. The play explores the intergenerational effects of the residential school system. It toured nationally and was presented at the National Arts Centre in 2010, when Loring was serving as the NAC’s Playwright in Residence.

A Nlaka’pamux from the Lytton First Nation in British Columbia, Loring created the Songs of the Land project in 2012 in partnership with five separate organizations in his home community. The project explores 100-year-old audio recordings of songs and stories of the N’lakap’amux People. Loring has written two new plays based on his work with the community including Battle of the Birds, about domestic violence and power abuse, and The Boy Who Was Abandoned, about youth and elder neglect.

A versatile artist and leader Loring has served as the co-curator of the Talking Stick Festival, as Artist in Residence at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, as Artistic Director of the Savage Society in Vancouver, as a Documentary Producer of Canyon War: The Untold Story, and as the Project Leader/Creator, and Director of the Songs of the Land project in his home community of Lytton First Nation.

Len Marchand, Jr.

Justice Len Marchand, Jr. is a member of the Okanagan Indian Band and grew up in Kamloops. After finishing a B.A.Sc. in chemical engineering at UBC in 1986, he worked in the oil industry for five years. He returned to law school at UVic in 1991 and graduated in 1994. He articled and practised law at Fulton & Company LLP in Kamloops from 1994-2013. His practice focused on the liability of public authorities and he appeared before all levels of court and many administrative tribunals.

Justice Marchand has dedicated a substantial portion of his career to achieving reconciliation for many Indigenous people through, among other things, advancing civil claims for abuses suffered by residential school survivors. In 2005, he helped negotiate the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class action settlement in Canadian history. He served on the Oversight Committee for the Independent Assessment Process and on the Selection Committee for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Justice Marchand was appointed to the Provincial Court of British Columbia on September 5, 2013. As a Provincial Court judge, Justice Marchand had the privilege of presiding in Cknucwentn Court in Kamloops, where, with input from Elders, healing plans are developed for Indigenous offenders. Justice Marchand was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia on National Indigenous People’s Day, June 21, 2017. He was appointed to the British Columbia Court of Appeal on March 24, 2021.