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We Are The Land

We Are The Land is the Wampanoag Nation's story on stage in the very city the Mayflower sailed from. For the first time.

The sailing of the Mayflower was a moment in history that undoubtedly changed the world.

The ship that set sail to the ‘new’ world 403 years ago, left from our shores, our harbour.

It shaped this proud seafaring city. In the name of streets, schools…even the football team.

But it’s complicated.

Why? Because there are no new worlds. There is only one world.

When the Pilgrims arrived on American soil 400 years ago, they arrived as colonisers of Native Americans who had lived on that land for centuries. The impact on the Wampanoag, who had thrived in the Eastern States, was catastrophic.

In 2020, Theatre Royal Plymouth, as part of The Mayflower 400 events programme, had planned to stage a large-scale community piece entitled This Land, which would see 30 Wampanoag and 90 local people, taking to The Lyric stage for the first time in history, to tell the story of the impact of The Mayflower from their perspective.

Then the pandemic hit, and like many other cultural programmes it saw end to Mayflower 400, and This Land.

In 2022 the world had changed again but, undefeated, we were still passionate about welcoming the Wampanoag to our stage. The appetite for the story had changed though, and so had we. We asked ourselves, is what we want to do still the right thing to do?

It quickly became apparent that This Land was no longer the story we wanted to tell. Our drive and focus shifted to co-creation and co-curation. We needed to ask what story the Wampanoag would tell if they took the creative roles and told the show themselves. So, we asked them.

We Are The Land is the result.

A piece of drama with singing, dancing, drumming, and testimony. From pre-contact, through colonisation and Christianisation and into the Woodlot riots. As well as what being colonised today still means in tangible ways and through their lived experience.

Join us for a truly once in a generation opportunity to see the Wampanoag tell their story, in a way that feels honest and true to them, and all those who went before them.