Going Home Star is a ballet created with the support of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools. Based on a story by Joseph Boyden, Going Home Star portrays told and untold stories relating to experiences in Canada’s Indian Residential school system. The word keewatin is the source of the work’s title, Going Home Star, and is commonly known as Polaris or the North Star. Going Home Star premiered in Winnipeg in October 2014, and will be touring Canada in 2016.
Collaborators on this project included associate producer Tina Keeper, composer Christos Hatzis and choreographer Mark Godden (among many others). This project was the first of its kind for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the formal and social tensions inherent in presenting an indigenous story of cultural oppression and survival through a so-called “high,” western art form form the basis of Dr. Elliot’s research regarding the production.