Full house on opening night of Biinoojiinyag Gitgaanmiwaa (The Children’s Garden)
By Rick Garrick
TORONTO—This year’s WeeFestival of Theatre and Culture for Early Years featured a 15-minute Ode’min performance to open the Biinoojiinyag Gitgaanmiwaa (The Children’s Garden) at Theatre Centre in Toronto.
“The opening was packed — the whole garden was filled all the way around,” says Leslie Kachena McCue, curator of Biinoojiinyag Gitgaanmiwaa and Curve Lake citizen. “[The Ode’min performance] was about a strawberry character who interacts with the space and kind of helps all the children in attendance learn how to explore the space using the seven sacred teachings and also about living the good life — Mino-Bimaadiziwin.”
McCue says about 40-50 people attended the opening on May 15, which was conducted by Elder Ernie Sandy with a smudging of the room and an opening prayer.
“It was really beautiful,” McCue says, noting that the Biinoojiinyag Gitgaanmiwaa features a variety of installations, including mushrooms, carrot mounds and bushes, for children to explore. “Each piece in the garden represents one of the seven sacred teachings. So if the children start to explore the garden, they find those teachings underneath a mushroom or behind a bush or underneath the carrot mound. So each element they begin to explore helps them to learn a little bit more about Indigenous cultures through the teachings.”
McCue says children are “loving” the Biinoojiinyag Gitgaanmiwaa, which is being held in the Incubator theatre space at The Theatre Centre on Queen St. West.
“It’s really exciting to see the kids exploring the garden the way that I intended,” McCue says. “There’s kids in the garden right now opening up the doors and exploring the bushes. [You] can see how excited they are to find that they can play with the carrots or they can play with the corn and beans and squash.”
McCue says the Biinoojiinyag Gitgaanmiwaa will be busy with workshops over the May 19-21 Victoria Day long-weekend.
“We have some programming here with Rosary Spence,” McCue says. “She is going to be doing a cradleboard workshop and bringing her newborn baby in and showing people the importance of cradleboards and why we wrap our babies.”
McCue adds that Nimkii Osawamick, a hoop dancer from Wiikwemkoong, will be doing a hoop dance on the weekend.
“So the space will be open in full bloom on the weekend,” McCue says.
McCue says this is her first big solo project, noting that she has worked on many other projects and festivals in Toronto.
“So to see some of my artwork and some of my designs and my visions come to life is really special,” McCue says. “So that is why the garden means a lot to me.”
McCue also worked on different dance performances and activations over the past five years at the WeeFestival.
“But this year they hired me to curate the Incubator space and program it for the full week,” McCue says.
The WeeFestival runs from May 11-21. With a focus on early childhood, the WeeFestival features productions by acclaimed companies specializing in theatre for the very young from South Africa, Pays Basque (France), Italy, Germany, Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario.
Other events at the WeeFestival include CutOuts, featuring Teatro dei Piccoli Principi, Italy, from May 15-17; Knock!, featuring Magnet Theatre, South Africa, from May 19-20; and WEE FESTIVAL WORKSHOP with FIDOODLE: Crafting Magical Creature Self Portraits, on May 20 from 12:15-1:30 p.m.