Documentary lecture performance about the fight for clean land

The small First Nations community of Aamjiwnaang is being smothered by the Canadian petrochemical industry: there are 63 oil-processing plants in the Sarnia Chemical Valley and numerous oil and gas pipelines converge there. Sisters Vanessa and Lindsay Gray have dedicated themselves to the fight for environmental protection and for their community’s land and water. Kevin Matthew Wong and Julia Howman create works based on local, national and global environmental issues at the Broadleaf Theatre. The Chemical Valley Project was born out of a collaboration between the four of them. Carried by Wong’s talent as a narrator and complemented by images, sound and video material, the lecture reveals the colonial roots of Canadian environmental policy. In a lively tone, the performer describes a complex picture of the resistances and solidarities of the Indigenous populations as well as the current negotiations around Canadian identity and values.