TIME: All.
SPACE: The Multiverse.
Come along for the ride to Kamloopa, the largest Powwow on the West Coast. This high-energy Indigenous matriarchal story follows two urban Indigenous sisters and a lawless Trickster who face our world head-on as they come to terms with what it means to honour who they are and where they come from. But how to go about discovering yourself when Christopher Columbus allegedly already did that? Bear witness to the courage of these women as they turn to their Ancestors for help in reclaiming their power in this ultimate transformation story.

In developing matriarchal relationships and shared Indigenous values, Kamloopa explores the fearless love and passion of two Indigenous women reconnecting with their homelands, Ancestors, and stories. Kim Senklip Harvey’s play is a boundary-blurring adventure that will remind you to always dance like the Ancestors are watching.

Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story is the work of Kim Senklip Harvey, a proud Indigenous woman from the Syilx, Tsilhqot’in, Ktunaxa, and Dakelh First Nations, listed for the Gina Wilkinson Prize for her work as an emerging director and widely considered to be one of this land’s most original voices among the next generation of Indigenous artists.

Kim Senklip Harvey is a proud Syilx, Tsilhqot’in, Ktunaxa, and Dakelh Nations womxn and is a Fire Creator (director / playwright / actor / community member) and Indigenous Cultural Evolutionist.Past acting highlights include: Rez Sisters, Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout, The Laurier Memorial, Salmon Row, the Governor General’s Literary Award–winning play Where the Blood Mixes, the final show of Gordon Tootoosis’s Gordon Winter, and the world premiere of Children of God at the National Arts Centre / Centre national des Arts.In 2017, Kim participated in the residency Centering Ourselves: Writing in a Racialized Canada, which assembled twenty of Canada’s most exciting PoC writers at the Banff Centre. She recently completed her two-year residency with the National Theatre School of Canada / École nationale de théâtre du Canada in their inaugural Artistic Leadership Residency program. Kim has been shortlisted for the Ontario Arts Foundation’s Gina Wilkinson Prize for her work as a director and has participated in the Banff Playwrights Lab and the Rumble Theatre’s Directors Lab.In 2018, the play Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story had a three-city world premiere. It won the 2019 Jessie Richardson Award for Significant Artistic Achievement – Outstanding Decolonizing Theatre Practices and Spaces, was the first Indigenous play in the Award’s history to win Best Production, and was the 2019 recipient of the Sydney J. Risk Prize for Outstanding Original Play by an Emerging Playwright. Kim is invested in community and youth engagement and has worked on the Mayor’s Task Force on Mental Health and Addiction and the City of Vancouver’s Urban Aboriginal Peoples’ Advisory Committee. As Youth Program manager at The Cultch, she created, spearheaded, and fundraised the Indigenous Youth Initiative which focused on increasing the artistic opportunities of young urban Indigenous people in Metro Vancouver.Kim’s passion for theatre lives within its transformational nature. She believes that storytelling is the most compelling medium to move us to a place where every community member is provided the opportunity to live peacefully.

Kim Senklip Harvey's profile page

“Pain is the easiest palette from which to paint, but Harvey’s Kamloopa is a magnificent song of laughter and joy. It is a portrait of Indigenous sisterhood, the likes of which you have never seen before.” —Tetsuro Shigematsu

"Each time I picked up Kamloopa, I found myself laughing and crying.” – British Columbia Review

"A thoughtful, funny, and compelling exploration of the complexities of Indigenous community making and knowledge reclamation."—BC Studies

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“Kamloopa is a hilarious and courageous transformation story. Kim Senklip Harvey makes a generous invitation for all of us to bear witness to the joy, resilience, and brilliance of Indigenous women.”—Christine Quintana

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“This story about three women who are actively trying to decolonize themselves (whether they realize it or not) resonated deeply … Uplifting the voices of Indigenous women, Two-Spirit, and non-binary folks is incredibly important to our resistance and our communities. Kamloopa is one of those stories providing that platform.” —Yolanda Bonnell

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“Kamloopa brought me an empowerment of self and a reclaiming of knowledge. It brought me sisterhood and ties that have shaped the way I create and approach life. As an Indigenous woman I felt seen, heard, and valid, something we should all experience. Miigwech.” —Samantha Brown

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“Provocative, hilarious, and shit-disturbing, Kamloopa is at once political, uncompromising, and generous. It centres stories and experiences and BODIES that are almost never given this level of agency, importance, and general badass hilarity. At its centre, Kamloopa claims dissent, humour, and experiences that settler Canadian audiences aren’t familiar with … Brilliant.” —Marcus Youssef

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“Harvey’s play is set simultaneously in the messy apartment of two sisters, and in “the multiverse.” It’s set in the here and now, and it’s set across, and outside of time. In other words, it’s both incredibly specific, and much broader than the constructs of any given book.” —the Tyee

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“This story about three women who are actively trying to decolonize themselves (whether they realize it or not) resonated deeply … Uplifting the voices of Indigenous women, Two-Spirit, and non-binary folks is incredibly important to our resistance and our communities. Kamloopa is one of those stories providing that platform.” —Yolanda Bonnell

“Kamloopa is a hilarious and courageous transformation story. Kim Senklip Harvey makes a generous invitation for all of us to bear witness to the joy, resilience, and brilliance of Indigenous women.” —Christine Quintana

“Kamloopa brought me an empowerment of self and a reclaiming of knowledge. It brought me sisterhood and ties that have shaped the way I create and approach life. As an Indigenous woman I felt seen, heard, and valid, something we should all experience. Miigwech.”
—Samantha Brown