After a break, I was back with the Stardale girls last night for another writing session for our 2020 performance project, The Road. As we hadn't worked together for a while, I had prepared a rather safe plan, a descriptive writing exercise to gather some more imagery about the road, or path, or city streets the girls find themselves on.

My name is Aaliyah and I am 14 years old. I've been a part of Stardale Women's Group for four years now.

It's a welcoming place where I can feel like I belong, surrounded by other Indigenous girls my age. I would definitely describe it as a character-building type of program for young girls.

Helen McPhaden and I met this summer to discuss creating a new performance piece with the girls, for them to perform at various locations around Calgary as we have done in the past with Committing and The Make Believer Project.

Committing was first developed at Stardale in 2013. Director Helen McPhaden had become alarmed at the statistics being released at the time pointing to the fact that where was a real suicide crisis among First Nations youth.

I am back working with the girls of the Stardale Women's Group this year. We are developing a performance piece titled "The Road" which came about following a conversation between Helen McPhaden and myself this summer.