Rehearsing Indigenous-Mennonite Allyship through Forum Theatre

CCBR is coordinating the production of a forum theatre play about Indigenous-Mennonite relations in the Waterloo Region. This initiative responds to calls from Indigenous leaders for truth telling and reckoning with the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism. Through engaging local Mennonites and Indigenous peoples in participatory theatre, the artistic collective will facilitate an exploration of shared histories, allyship, and reconciliation. Our approach brings forward a bold artistic vision: to use theatre not only to represent tension but to make space for the audience to embody possibility, courage, and change.

The play was written by Janna Martin (CCBR Senior Researcher), based on her PhD research and edited by Amir Al-Azraki (forum theatre practitioner). The play was further developed in a workshop held in 2025 at Brubacher House with a group of Mennonite heritage enthusiasts and Indigenous key informants.

The artistic collective leading the project:

• Janna Martin is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Community Based Research. She is a PhD candidate, adult educator, and community facilitator. She has Swiss-Mennonite ancestry and longstanding ties to Mennonite communities in the Waterloo Region.

• Amir Al-Azraki is an Arab-Canadian playwright, literary translator, Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner, and Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Studies in Islamic and Arab Cultures Program at Renison University College, University of Waterloo. 

• Terre Chartrand is an Omámi Ininiwak (Algonquin), French, and Welsh artist, who brings a diverse background in literature, theatre, visual arts, photography, technology, and science.

The interactive nature of forum theatre will allow the audience to step directly into moments of tension, offering an embodied way to rehearse actions that address inequities in Indigenous-settler relations. Forum theatre is a theatrical game in which a short scenario is performed to highlight a power imbalance. After watching the scene unfold, the audience is invited to intervene, step into the role of a protagonist or bystander, and rehearse alternative strategies to address the conflict. This produces a democratic space in which participants experiment with solutions, practice dialogue, and generate new insight into complex social issues.

A further goal of the project is to capture and share key creative insights. Through detailed documentation of the rehearsal process, audience interventions, and dialogue during the performance, we will write an open-access report that reflects the significance of the event. This report will be submitted to an online open-access platform such as Theatre Times or Pedagogy or Theatre of the Oppressed Journal, enabling the learning to extend beyond the performance itself and offering a resource for artists, educators, and community organizations with an interest in decolonization and participatory arts methodologies.

The work thus far has been funded by grants from the Waterloo Regional Heritage Foundation and the Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario. Janna’s PhD is funded by a Canadian Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The next phase of production and performance is funded by a Region of Waterloo Arts grant. The work is also being supported by Brubacher House, where Janna and Amir are artists-in-residence (read more). Thank you to our funders!