Burnt Thicket Theatre’s ‘We Treaty People’ Soars

Stephen Waldschmidt, Artistic Director at Burnt Thicket Theatre, was successful in applying for a Creative Saskatchewan Marketing Grant (Micro Stream) aiding in the development of their project We Treaty People.

We Treaty People was introduced in the form of nine digital audio plays and nine interviews from a diverse group of 49 artists exploring the question, “What does it mean to embrace all our relations?”  This original fiction podcast provokes listeners to hear the calls to Truth and Reconciliation in our neighbourhoods, and across Canada.

Creative Saskatchewan’s Marketing grant enabled the redesign of Burnt Thicket Theatre’s logo and website, optimizing them for search engine rankings and improving functionality and user experience for both live theatre productions and digital audio series. Waldschmidt remarks, “[The] Enhancement of digital production processes and online marketing skills led to a significant 400% increase in audience for our digital productions.”

Waldschmidt also highlighted that the investment in these key marketing initiatives enabled Burnt Thicket to achieve several positive outcomes:

“The project afforded us an extended time of learning about and practicing decolonizing approaches to our work that supported Indigenous people sharing their stories, from their perspectives, free of bias, discrimination, and false assumptions, and in a trauma-informed and culturally sensitive way (National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Call For Justice #6.1). That learning is helping us develop more restorative and respectful ways of producing plays, of working toward reconciliation in community, and of cultivating more connections between the arts and our real lives (audience included).”

Creative Saskatchewan was thrilled to support this impactful project, helping it to reach a much wider audience, and grow into an even larger initiative. “The project helped establish our company as a voice for Truth and Reconciliation in our community, and led to our presentation of New Blood: A Story of Reconciliation earlier this year, in partnership with Gordon Tootoosis Nikaniwin Theatre and Persephone Theatre.”

We Treaty People has just been nominated for the 2024 Leading Together Award, presented by the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan and Office of the Treaty Commissioner to recognize work with long-term impact towards reconciliation.

In 2023 We Treaty People was honoured with:

Nominations for both the Innovation and Trailblazer Awards at the SATAwards,;

Presentation of the full series by Native Earth Performing Arts in their Weesageechak 36 Festival; and

Its radio broadcast premiere by CFCR 90.5 FM.

You can listen to We Treaty People on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Each episode was published with suggestions from the artists of ways to learn more and take action towards Truth and Reconciliation. See all the suggestions here: https://burntthicket.com/we-treaty-people-action/

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