Transcript of the 2SLGBTQI+ National Monument Team OnCommon Ground’s video
Video length: 1:30 minutes
The visual elements are animated renderings, video images, news clippings.
There narrator is Robert Lepage.
[Text on screen: Monument national LGBTQ2+ National Monument, OnCommon Ground]
[Animated black background with lighter shadow effect]
[Soft music playing]
Narrator’s voice: “The Stories of LGBTQ2+ people in Canada have been silenced for too long”
[Animated rendering of the monument site in the rain, without any monument or landscape elements]
Narrator’s voice: “Exposing the Purge will end this silence”
[Animated rendering of the monument site in the rain, now showing tall pines, benches and a plaza]
Narrator’s voice: “Reseeding the unceded lands of the Algonquin People”
[Animated rendering of the monument site in the rain, now showing a long etched wall with an opening. The wall partly hides the tall pines and other monument elements]
Narrator’s voice: “Our Monument is anchored as a spiritual space of tall pine trees and sheltering canopy”
[Animated rendering of a close-up of the opening on the monument wall, showing introductory interpretive text]
Narrator’s voice: “Our vision, like a haiku, opens with an Authority Wall, an oppressed humanity”
[Ominous music playing]
[Text on screen: The Wall’s voice is dark]
[Animated video showing someone being interrogated, historic news clippings of arrests, protest. Text on screen reads “9000 LGBTQ2+ people purged from RCMP, military and civil service]
[Animated close-up of someone in an interrogation room]
Narrator’s voice: “The stories of the LGBT Purge survivors are difficult to hear but we must hear them”
[Text on screen: Settlers to Canada brought rigid gender norms that saw the near-destruction of Indigenous two-spirit identities]
[Text on screen: Daylight holds a warm embrace]
[Animated rendering of an interior view of the monument space showing the tall pines, a sculpture of two forms embracing, an wall etched with text and a reflective pool]
Narrator’s voice: “Bald heads, encircled arms and naked bodies, so close that their hands are imprinted in each other’s backs. Male, female, both, neither – it does not matter. Love is love.”
[Text on screen, translated from French: We are sorry]
[Animated rendering of an interior view of the monument space showing the tall pines, grassy areas, a wall etched with text, interpretive elements and the sculpture in the background]
Narrator’s voice: “We need space for healing. A grid of trees with aisles of sweetgrass. The stelas stand to offer personal stories of Purge survivors and two-spirited people”
[Animated rendering of an interior view of the monument space showing the wall with 9000 points of light]
Narrators’ voice: “9000 points of light for each survivor change a quiet day to a full spectral evening of Pride”
[Animated rendering of an interior view of the monument at night showing the illuminated wall, performers, an audience and fireworks]
[Animated rendering of a close up of the sculpture and of the wall etched with text]
Narrator’s voice: “This Monument is meant to be felt, not observed. It uses textures, sounds, darkness, and daylight to tell stories.”
Text on screen: [OnCommon Ground
bbb architects/PWP, WSP and a collection of artists
Concept Review + Video Narration
Robert Lepage]
Narrator’s voice: “This is OnCommon Ground”