MINDFULNESS and AWARENESS
It has always been our policy to hire conscious of geographic diversity. We want to make sure the regions we travel to are represented and that they are included in helping us form the stories we tell. In recent years it has become even more important that our artists are representative not just of the art we have seen in the past, but the art we want to see in the future. We actively seek out artists of color, hold auditions in numerous locations, and when we are not seeing the diversity in the audition rooms, we are quick to ask for help from past collaborators and myriad organizations dedicated to broadening diversity in the arts.
We apply the guidelines of Not In Our House Chicago to our rehearsal practices in order to keep our organization accountable for safe practices with respect to violence, sexual harassment, and other health and wellness policies.
We strive to be accountable to one another as we move through the changing theater practices that aim to create a safer and more inclusive theater community. We remain community based and open-minded in our efforts to tell stories that allow for empathy towards all.
In recent years it has become a trend to acknowledge the traditional homelands of the indigenous peoples of a particular area through a land acknowledgement. This type of activity is designed to bring more awareness and understanding of the history of indigenous peoples and their territories. But a land acknowledgement should also be more than that; it should be a call to rethink one’s own relationship with the environment and the histories of all peoples.
It is vital to recognize that this country was founded on genocide and the removal of its first peoples so by doing land acknowledgments we are starting to recognize a more truthful history of this country. We are providing healing to the land by speaking to it and saying the names of its caretakers, our Indigenous peoples.
In Carbondale, home of our residency, we are occupying the traditional homelands of the Kickapoo, Myaamia (Miami), Osage, Sioux, Kaskaskia, O-ga-xpa. In Chicago, home of our administrative office, we are occupying the traditional homelands of the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi) people. As we Tour we visit many homes of many lands. Tonight as we perform in West Lafayette, we are occupying the traditional homelands of the Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi), Lenape (Delaware), Myaamia (Miami), and Shawnee People.
There are over 75,000 tribal members in Illinois, many living in Chicago which is currently home to the sixth largest Urban American Indian community that still practices their heritage, traditions and care for the land and waterways. Located at the intersection of several great waterways, the land naturally became a site of travel and healing for many Tribes.
As we also share digitally to the internet, we can also consider the legacy of colonization embedded within the technologies, structure, and ways of thinking we use every day. We are using equipment and high-speed internet not available in many Indigenous communities, and the technologies we use in artmaking contributes to changing climates that disproportionately affect Indigenous peoples worldwide. We can acknowledge all of this as well as our shared responsibility: to make good of this time, and for each of us to consider our roles in reconciliation, decolonization, and all our work together.
As we tour throughout the midwest, we must consider the legacy of colonization present throughout the tour region and the many different homelands we pass through. Our own intent as we travel from one town to another, meet and learn with audiences of great diversity, and share in the wealth the land and the communities (past, present, and future) offer us, is to celebrate stories without negatively impacting our surroundings. We follow the ideology of the “no harm pact” with respect to the peoples and the environments we travel to, asking only to share a story with the small amount of time we have together.
Land acknowledgments are not the only way to celebrate and honor indigenous people- supporting indigenous orgs and individuals with time and money, land taxes and giving land back are a few ways. (Here’s the guide to Transferring Land from the Sustainable Economies Law Center: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BznGM1zCsJPKeWZDdEpOMUVMeXBiYjlJTkpyODZyWGRwS3lB/view)
Diversity statements are only relevant if they are followed up by the hard work of dismantling oppressive systems. Stone Soup Shakespeare is continuing to learn through study and discussion how we can best dismantle systems that we acknowledge we are a part of. As the individual members of our company work to challenge the systems we vow to share what we learn, challenge our own systems, and expose with empathy, compassion, and story the oppressions that challenge our very society.
We apply the guidelines of Not In Our House Chicago to our rehearsal practices in order to keep our organization accountable for safe practices with respect to violence, sexual harassment, and other health and wellness policies.
We strive to be accountable to one another as we move through the changing theater practices that aim to create a safer and more inclusive theater community. We remain community based and open-minded in our efforts to tell stories that allow for empathy towards all.
In recent years it has become a trend to acknowledge the traditional homelands of the indigenous peoples of a particular area through a land acknowledgement. This type of activity is designed to bring more awareness and understanding of the history of indigenous peoples and their territories. But a land acknowledgement should also be more than that; it should be a call to rethink one’s own relationship with the environment and the histories of all peoples.
It is vital to recognize that this country was founded on genocide and the removal of its first peoples so by doing land acknowledgments we are starting to recognize a more truthful history of this country. We are providing healing to the land by speaking to it and saying the names of its caretakers, our Indigenous peoples.
In Carbondale, home of our residency, we are occupying the traditional homelands of the Kickapoo, Myaamia (Miami), Osage, Sioux, Kaskaskia, O-ga-xpa. In Chicago, home of our administrative office, we are occupying the traditional homelands of the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi) people. As we Tour we visit many homes of many lands. Tonight as we perform in West Lafayette, we are occupying the traditional homelands of the Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi), Lenape (Delaware), Myaamia (Miami), and Shawnee People.
There are over 75,000 tribal members in Illinois, many living in Chicago which is currently home to the sixth largest Urban American Indian community that still practices their heritage, traditions and care for the land and waterways. Located at the intersection of several great waterways, the land naturally became a site of travel and healing for many Tribes.
As we also share digitally to the internet, we can also consider the legacy of colonization embedded within the technologies, structure, and ways of thinking we use every day. We are using equipment and high-speed internet not available in many Indigenous communities, and the technologies we use in artmaking contributes to changing climates that disproportionately affect Indigenous peoples worldwide. We can acknowledge all of this as well as our shared responsibility: to make good of this time, and for each of us to consider our roles in reconciliation, decolonization, and all our work together.
As we tour throughout the midwest, we must consider the legacy of colonization present throughout the tour region and the many different homelands we pass through. Our own intent as we travel from one town to another, meet and learn with audiences of great diversity, and share in the wealth the land and the communities (past, present, and future) offer us, is to celebrate stories without negatively impacting our surroundings. We follow the ideology of the “no harm pact” with respect to the peoples and the environments we travel to, asking only to share a story with the small amount of time we have together.
Land acknowledgments are not the only way to celebrate and honor indigenous people- supporting indigenous orgs and individuals with time and money, land taxes and giving land back are a few ways. (Here’s the guide to Transferring Land from the Sustainable Economies Law Center: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BznGM1zCsJPKeWZDdEpOMUVMeXBiYjlJTkpyODZyWGRwS3lB/view)
Diversity statements are only relevant if they are followed up by the hard work of dismantling oppressive systems. Stone Soup Shakespeare is continuing to learn through study and discussion how we can best dismantle systems that we acknowledge we are a part of. As the individual members of our company work to challenge the systems we vow to share what we learn, challenge our own systems, and expose with empathy, compassion, and story the oppressions that challenge our very society.