Origins - Festival of First Nations
Education
An extensive education programme accompanies Origins, with visits to schools and colleges for workshops and an
especially commissioned interactive play, allowing young people to become involved in the Festival's themes.
The education programme will support the principal aims of the festival to provide both access and
opportunity for an enhanced understanding of our world from an Indigenous
perspective as well as a direct challenge to our history and the stories that make us who we are.
In addition, it aims to add a local dimension to the story. Following an initiative made by
representatives of the Traveller community, who are interested to make links with First Nations
people, the programme will bring together
First Nations performers from festival companies with actors from the Romany Theatre Company.
There are clear links between the Roma communities of Europe and First Nations: for example,
both are minority cultures with long histories, both have alternative approaches to land and
environment, both value oral traditions and performance above literacy,
both are fighting for the survival of their traditional languages and ways of living.
The Romany Theatre Company will be creating a new, interactive play for schools in response
to the Origins Festival. The play will be taken to secondary school audiences where it will be accompanied by a participatory
workshop for students to further explore the themes raised and relate them to their own lives.
Origins Education is produced by Border Crossings Education and Polygon Arts, and funded by
the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Grassroots Trust and Awards for All.
www.romanytheatrecompany.com
www.polygonarts.org.uk