When the Queen’s Native Student Association (QNSA) sat down to plan this year’s Aboriginal Awareness Week, they thought about focusing on celebrating Indigenous heroes. As planning moved along, though, the students knew they needed to engage with some challenging topics.

“The main focus of the week has always been about education and celebrating our culture,” says Melanie Gray, Artsci’16, Co-President of QNSA. “It’s not always about positivity. We have to acknowledge that there are some tough subjects and negativity that have come from years of colonization.”

With that in mind, QNSA decided to launch Aboriginal Awareness Week by presenting The Hours That Remain, a play written by Keith Barker, a Métis playwright and actor. The production, which opened at the Tett Centre on March 10 and continues March 11-12, tells the story of Denise, an Indigenous woman who seeks answers to the disappearance of her sister, Michelle.

Director Rebecca Benson drew most of the actors from the Queen’s community, except for one who is currently a Grade 12 student from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory east of Kingston. Four of the six actors in the play are Aboriginal.

The play is timely, given the launch in February of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

“This production is a really good way to start the week off because it talks about a tough subject in a multi-dimensional way that goes beyond the headlines, the catchphrase, and the hashtag #MMIW,” says Leah Combs, Artsci’16, Co-President of QNSA and production manager for the play. “We hope that students, staff, faculty and members of the local community will see this play and start to understand, through one fictional woman’s account, how this crisis impacts people on a personal level.”

In addition to the play, QNSA will screen After the Last River, a documentary about the Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario and the Idle No More movement. The film presents the issues of poverty, contaminated water and a declining school system from the point of the view of the local residents.

QNSA has also planned several events to celebrate Indigenous languages and culture, and role models. Callie Hill from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory will lead a Mohawk language luncheon. She will talk about the importance of keeping Indigenous languages alive before teaching the participants some Mohawk phrases.

Beginning Sunday in the John Deutsch University Centre, an installation will highlight historical and contemporary Indigenous heroes. The week will wrap up Wednesday night with a concert at the Grad Club featuring the Ollivanders, a rock band that hails from Six Nations.  

Visit the Aboriginal Awareness Week Facebook page for a complete listing of events and more information.