Elizabeth Rucker is a performer, playwright, and former Artistic Director of Arts4All, with over 20 years of experience in community-engaged and devised arts. Her training, research and work in devised play creation, as a founding member of Number Eleven Theatre (ICARIA,1998; The Prague Visitor, 2003; and The Curious History of Peter Schlemihl, 2004) strongly informs her approaches to making art and theatre with people.
Toronto is home to a large indigenous population including residential school survivors and intergenerational family members who have been impacted by the history and legacy of the residential school system. The sacred land on which we stand has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory.
