Imperial Theatre Facilitates Conversation About Reconciliation With Indigenous Rights Advocate And Author
SAINT JOHN — In Canada, the word “reconciliation” has come to describe attempts to raise crucial awareness about our country’s colonial past and its ongoing effects on Indigenous peoples.
It also refers to efforts made to address the harms caused by various policies and programs, such as residential schools, which continued into recent decades.
To many, it represents an opportunity to reflect, heal and make things right.
For Jesse Thistle, his own life story serves as a cultural touchstone of being indigenous in modern Canada, a living example for all Canadians to search out the corners of our own difficult past in an attempt to find inspiration for healing and change.
This spring, Imperial Theatre in Saint John, with the help of The Greater Saint John Community Foundation, will present An Evening With Jesse Thistle, when the Indigenous rights advocate and bestselling author visits the city for a free speaking engagement on June 16.
Angela Campbell, the Executive Director at Imperial Theatre, says community partners are helping to offset the cost of bringing Thistle to Saint John and to help others attend this important keynote discussion.
She says Thistle’s initial involvement came from discussions about actionable items centering around reconciliation.
“As an arts and culture venue, and for the ways that we can really do meaningful events and create space for indigenous creators and performers and authors and artists, it just felt like it was it was absolutely the right thing to do.”
Campbell says providing the entire community a free opportunity to hear Jesse’s story also eliminates the financial barrier which comes from priced ticketed events.
“We really felt that the message that Jesse has, and these incredible challenges that he has overcome, can touch so many lives in our immediate community,” says Campbell. “It was just an important project for us to take on and make available to as wide an audience as possible.”
Thistle, who is Métis-Cree, currently writes and educates on theories of the intergenerational and historical trauma of the Métis people.
His work involves reflections on his own previous struggles and has been recognized as having a wide impact on both the scholarly community and the greater public.
Born in 1979 in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Thistle and his two brothers were removed from his family home and moved to Brampton, Ontario to be brought up by his paternal grandparents.
During his late teens and twenties, Thistle struggled with addiction, homelessness, and served several brief stints in jail for petty theft.
After an unsuccessful robbery attempt in 2006, Thistle turned himself into police custody and entered a drug rehabilitation program.
In 2012, he entered the undergraduate history program at York University in Toronto where today he is a Ph.D. Candidate in the History program and also an Assistant Professor.
Thistle has won numerous awards for his work, including the Odessa Award in 2014 and the Dr. James Wu prize in 2015 for his paper, “We are children of the river: Toronto’s Lost Métis History.”
In 2019, Jesse published his autobiographical and acclaimed book, “From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless and Finding My Way,” which went on to be a number one bestseller in addition to being nominated for Canada Reads.
Jesse is also the author of the Definition of Indigenous Homelessness in Canada, published through the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.
“He’s coming in specifically for us,” shared Campbell, who adds Thistle’s June 16 keynote at Imperial Theatre in Saint John will be his only Maritime engagement.
Campbell says Imperial Theatre recently finished a strategic planning process involving work on enhancing subject matters around equity, diversity and inclusion, helping to fulfill one of the venue’s major goals in place for the next five years.
“As a cultural venue, we’ve been really fortunate that we’ve been able to tackle diversity from a presenting perspective,” says Campbell. “By bringing a wide variety of diverse performances to the stage, it has enabled us to do a lot of this work before we really started having conversations about reconciliation or Black Lives Matter, or the importance of equity for people who are LGBTQ+.”
Campbell sees that work as an important part of Imperial Theatre’s responsibility within the community to use its platform for talks like “An Evening With Jesse Thistle” to help educate through perspective, while working toward creating better opportunities for the BIPOC community, and other underrepresented or racialized communities who have that voice.
Campbell says those interested in attending the free June 16 keynote can book their complimentary tickets by visiting Imperial Theatre online and through the box office, adding those interested should act fast as Thistle’s appearance has already created plenty of local interest.
“We have been working with some local groups and our partners to ensure that they gain access to tickets before they went on for the general public,” says Campbell. “A lot of Jesse’s talks deal with homelessness and addiction, and we wanted to connect with groups that help and work with people struggling with those issues first.”
“We’re so thrilled to be able to do this engagement with Jesse. We hope it’s the first of many in the years to come.”