Canada in all its diversity is up for discussion during a series of Memory Cafés at Oak Bay Lodge.
During the Memory Café – Remembering Our Canada project, students from Oak Bay High and the University of Victoria theatre program asked lodge residents, “What does Canada mean to you?”
“The project is about celebrating Canada ... honouring and paying tribute to the people,” says Oak Bay’s Trudy Pauluth-Penner, artistic co-coordinator for the program. “What’s the theme? It’s the story, it’s the people that made this country.”
The intergenerational mentorship program spearheaded by the Eldercare Foundation and funded in part by the federal government’s New Horizons for Seniors Program, had students ask Oak Bay Lodge residents to share stories about Canada and being Canadian.
From those stories, senior and youth artists from theatre, music, dance, multimedia, photography, literary and visual arts will then collaborate to create a series of performances and art exhibits, showcased at the Dave Dunnet Community Theatre this March as part of the Eldercare Foundation’s festival events for Embrace Aging Month.
“The arts are just a natural way to bring this out,” Pauluth-Penner says.
Dubbed “fictionalizing the real,” the project has its roots in applied theatre, which works with strategies and conventions of theatre to bring about social change and community building, Pauluth-Penner says.
A UVic doctoral candidate and former Oak Bay Lodge staff member, she brings several years’ experience with reminiscence theatre projects in addition to a commitment to improving quality of life for the elderly.
Taiwo Afolabi is a UVic graduate student in applied theatre from Nigeria who was excited at the opportunity to work with seniors.
“I love applied theatre because it’s about making theatre for the common good of the people,” Afolabi says.
Working with seniors is especially rewarding, he says. “With seniors you have a lot of humour and a lot of wisdom. ... I like the knowledge transfer and their willingness to share their stories.”
The North American view of aging was new to Afolabi. In Nigeria, families stay together and younger generations care for older ones, sharing experiences and wisdom.
“Aging is not wrong. It’s the way things are meant to be,” he says. “As we start talking, for them there’s something they just want to share with this generation.”
The Remembering Our Canada theme was chosen to appeal to participants of many different ages and backgrounds. Key questions helped get the conversation started – getting to know who they are, where they’re from, the work they did, their relationships and courtships.
“That’s always a great starter,” Pauluth-Penner says.
While they might initially protest, “‘I don’t have a story to tell,’ from there you have phenomenal stories,” she says. “It really does bring history to life.”
Two questions in particular can elicit poignant responses: Tell me what turns your heart to ice and tell me what warms your heart
“And that’s when you hear stories of family and love and their favourite day.”
Participants have shared stories of war experiences, or growing up following the Second World War, and wonderful tales of courtship and romance.
The experience can be eye-opening for some of the younger people.
“Not many have seen 90 years old or 104 years old. I think the most significant is they begin to see the person within, beyond the outward appearance of the very, very old,” Pauleth-Penner says.
“I think it’s life-altering for many of them.
“The idea is the intergenerational mentorships,” Pauluth-Penner says. “Not all of us are fortunate to have families close at hand.”
Nicole Quast, an Oak Bay High student and Interact member, came to the project via the Interact Club.
Quast says she’s lucky to live with her grandfather, but the exercise is valuable for those who don’t have those relationships to share intergenerational knowledge.
“All the (residents) have so much knowledge to share,” Quast says. “They have such amazing stories.”
She recalls one whose father fought as an 18-year-old in the First World War, an experience that affected him so greatly he attended medical school upon his return. When the Second World War broke out, he returned as a doctor.
“There was such violence he wanted to be the one who went back to help people,” Quast says.
Some stories were more light-hearted, like the twin sisters who switched places part way through a dance.
One boyfriend was a terrible dancer, and this way both sisters got to light up the dance floor, and the boys never learned the truth, Quast heard.
The experience overall has had a profound effect.
“From the stories, I feel you need to live life to the fullest,” Quast says.
When & Where
Memory Café/Remembering Our Canada celebrations at Dave Dunnet Community Theatre and Oak Bay High lobby.
Art exhibits: 3:15 to 5:30 p.m. in the Oak Bay High lobby.
• March 7 – Stories on the Wall by Tara Shanks, recording graphic artist.
• March 7 – Living Landscapes by visual artist Kristy Brugman.
• March 15 – Multilingual Perspectives, bilingual songs and French sing-along, with Rejean Bussieres.
Performances: 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the Dave Dunnet Community Theatre
• March 7 – Zoe Duhaime, former Victoria Youth Poet Laureate, plus 150+ students and years of music opening concert with Daniel Lapp & ensemble
• March 15 – Under-told Stories, theatre performance from the Oak Bay High Interact and fine arts students, and community performing artists, with post-performance break-out social
• March 17 – closing celebration, including Where were they from? with storyteller Lina de Guevara, and Memory Café Rocks a musical extravaganza with ‘Arf the Dog’ and Oak Bay High students.