Patti Shaughnessy
Don’t Fence Me In is a film musing on my life and the connection to the land I inherited from a beloved uncle. Notions of my Nishnaabeg and Irish identities are interwoven in the image and soundtrack. This land “settled” and cultivated by my Irish ancestors was also stolen from my Nishnaabeg ancestors. An instrumental version of the Cole Porter song, Don’t Fence Me In, speaks to the reclamation of the geographic space I now inhabit, land I’ve been dancing walking, falling, and rolling on since I was a child.
performer, director Patti Shaughnessy
camera, editing Wayne Eardley
music (Don’t Fence Me In) written by Cole Porter, Robert Fletcher
music interpreted and performed by Charlie “Chickenhawk” Glasspool
filmed on Michi Saagig Nishnaabeg territory in
Co-founder and Artistic Producer of the O’Kaadenigan Wiingashk (OKW) Collective in Peterborough, Ontario, Patti Shaughnessy has toured nationally and internationally as an actor, danced with several choreographers, and directed productions both in Canada and at the National Theatre of Greenland, where she has been guest director, instructor, and dramaturg since 2012. 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 is Michi Saagig Nishnaabe from Curve Lake First Nation #35 or Wshkigimong, and a descendent of Irish settlers who arrived in the Kawartha Lakes region