A Playmaking Research Journey Into Canada's North: Kangiqsujuaq

Abstract

In 2009, two white women from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (a playwright and a director/dramaturg), went to the community of Kangiqsujuaq in Nunavik, Northern Quebec, to conduct play development research for a theatre for young audiences piece called Beneath the Ice. The women were aware that the project raised complicated ethical issues, including appropriating voice and story, potential cultural and community misrepresentation, reinscribing Canadian identity myths concerning the North and Inuit people, essentializing and stereotyping identities, and possible neocolonial relationships. This is a discussion of how the artists tried to approach the project with care, respect, and artistic integrity; how the research journey augmented their perceptions of the North and Northern people; and how the playwright exposed her Southern position through the script's narrative and characters.