Patti Shaughnessy (Actor)

Flight: Indigenous Women’s Leadership Stories in Canadian Universities 

Situated on a fictitious university campus, Flight explores two Indigenous women’s stories as they set out to implement a reconciliation policy and transform the academy through collective and ancestral Indigenous leadership efforts. In the process, the women encounter age-old colonial tropes about Indigenous peoples and women and find themselves caught between university administrative systems and the Indigenous communities they serve. In this paradoxical world, Weesakeechahk (in goose form) shows up to guide the women and have some fun in the process. This work-in-progress builds on previously published academic research done by the playwright in 2021

Biography 

Co-founder and Artistic Producer of the O’Kaadenigan Wiingashk (OKW) Collective in Peterborough, Ontario. OKW’s activities have included community arts events, music concerts, multidisciplinary festivals, and workshops (such as Mnoominkewin: The Art of Wild Ricing, a gathering on the shores of Curve Lake First Nation, and the Ode’min Giizis Festival in Peterborough, ON), and stage works (including both local productions and a slate of shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland).  Patti Shaughnessy has toured nationally and internationally as an actor, and directed productions both in Canada and at the National Theatre of Greenland, where she has been guest director, instructor, and dramaturg since 2012. Patti is Mchi Saagig Nishnaabe from Curve Lake First Nation #35 or Wshkigimong, and a descendant of Irish settlers who arrived in the Kawartha Lakes region circa 1825.