About
A pre-show chat hosted by the iconic Rosanna Deerchild with Governor General's Award winning playwright Ian Ross on the legacy of his play fareWel, his career in theatre and film/tv, and inspiring a new generation of playwrights. In this conversation you will hear about the how fareWel came to be and the journey the play took to becoming a renowned piece of theatre touring nationally and internationally.
Playwright
Ian Ross
Metis/Ojibway playwright and author Ian Ross was born in McCreary, Manitoba in 1968 and currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film and Theatre. Ian Ross has written for theatre, film, television and radio. Ross’s play “Heart of a Distant Tribe” was published in the Manitoba anthology A Map of the Senses: 20 Years of Manitoba Plays, edited by Rory Runnells (Scirocco). His play fareWel, which garnered him the 1997 Governor General Award for Drama, is a dark comedy about Native life on the fictional Partridge Crop Reserve.
Host
Rosanna Deerchild
Rosanna Deerchild (She/Her) is Cree, from the community of O-Pipon-Na-Piwan Cree Nation. She has been a storyteller for more than 20 years; as a journalist, broadcaster, poet and playwright.
As the host of Unreserved — now in its 10th season — Rosanna shares Indigenous community, culture and conversation. The show is heard on CBC Radio One, Sirius XM, US Public Radio and Native Voice One; and, wherever you get your podcasts. Rosanna also developed and hosted an immersive history podcast This Place, adapted from a powerful anthology of the same name.
An award-winning journalist and broadcaster, Rosanna has worked at NCI-FM, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and wrote a regular national column on Indigenous perspectives.
Her debut poetry collection this is a small northern town shares her reflections of growing up in a racially divided place. It won the 2009 Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry. Her second book, calling down the sky, is a collaborative work with her mother who was forced to attend Indian Residential School.
Her first play with the Royal MTC’s Pimootayowin Creators Circle is called The Secret to Good Tea. It was the first Indigenous-written play to debut on their mainstage for their 2022/2023 season.
A community builder, Rosanna co-founded the Indigenous Writers Collective of Manitoba to make space for Indigenous creative writing. Rosanna now lives and works in her found home of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
