OTTAWA — The National Arts Centre Indigenous Theatre is taking storytelling to the streets with an online audio project that allows audiences to get to know their cities through Indigenous perspectives.
The theatre launched its first annual Indigenous Cities series Thursday featuring Indigenous storytelling set in locations across three urban centres.
The audio stories, which can be streamed for free at Indigenouscities.ca, are performed by Indigenous artists based on site-specific recollections shared by members of the community.
Local audiences are encouraged to visit the places the stories are pegged to if public health measures allow, and national audiences can follow along from home using virtual maps.
Kevin Loring, artistic director of NAC’s Indigenous theatre, says in a statement that the stories aim to explore Indigenous people’s connections to the traditional lands our cities are built on.
Indigenous Cities will roll out batches of five stories per city over three weeks, starting with Vancouver on Thursday, followed by Saskatoon on June 10 and Ottawa-Gatineau on June 17.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2021.