Hi there,
My name is Tina Overbury and I’m a writer and storyteller living on Nex̱wlélex̱m (Bowen Island), in British Columbia, Canada.
I need to introduce myself to you because I’ve written and performed a piece that intersects with your story and I wanted you to meet me as a person first, before you hear about me as a storyteller somewhere else. The story that doesn’t belong to me but has found it’s way into my heart and hands is the Mother and Baby Homes across Ireland, and the Tuam babies of County Galway.
Before I go any further, please let me first say how sorry I am for all that has been done. I’m truly sorry.
I’m sending you this message to share a few bits and pieces about how this painful part of your history has impacted me, and I’ve attached a few links about the piece I’ve written as part of a social impact project called: ‘Storytelling for Reconciliation’. It’s called OMYGOD about the women we’ve burned, the babies we’ve buried and the Gods we have worshipped. It’s a 97 minute solo-show, and the Tuam story is only one of three story threads in it, but it’s a significant one and it matters to me that you hear from me personally. It’s just what’s right and respectful.
So thank you for listening.
I want to give you a bit of a back-story because I didn’t set out to write about this. It began as a solo-show project to celebrate my 50th birthday, but the more questions asked, the deeper the answers went and as it evolved, it took me in an entirely surprising direction around the forgotten and ‘accepted’ wrongs done to women and children, Indigenous people, and our culture pre-Christianization and colonization.
It’s not a piece about blaming, it’s about naming, witnessing and holding enough of a container to actually take it in, accept the truth of the atrocity, and be changed by listening to it. I believe that storytelling and theatre can do that.
When I started, this show was about exploring why women are self-conscious and why they (me) second guess themselves consistently. I started with a narrative called: ‘the making of a madwoman’. As I began to unpack that idea more and more and ask why we people (often of the feminine persuasion) do this so much? And where did it all start? It lead to me to a number of unexpected story threads including:
Indigeneity. Why aren’t there female Gods? Then I stumbled upon The Morrigan & Brigid, which led me to try and figure out the witch burnings, which then challenged my own faith journey.
The last thread to arrive was the story of the Tuam babies. I had been watching the news while folding laundry by the fire in January when I saw all the socks and shoes dangling in the wind on my screen. I thought of my own story of being adopted and losing my mom at eight years old. As a mother to three boys (almost men!), I also remembered what it was like to lose my first child. I kept watching, until I heard what felt to me like a pretty insufficient apology offered by the Irish government and then I just couldn’t shake it. This part of Ireland’s history (and yours) struck a chord with me.
Here’s a bit more about where this piece called OMYGOD is taking me:
This might not sound like it intersects but it does. So again… thank you for hanging in this far. I am part of a 100% Indigenous owned organization called PowHERhouse Impact Media group. The founder of the organization is also adopted, is Indigenous and was part of the foster care system for four years before she was adopted by a family.
Where Ireland and Canada’s history intersect is here: In Canada 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced into what we called residential school. 6000 children lost their lives there and countless others were traumatized for life. I understand that in Ireland 56,000 babies were born in Mother and Baby homes, and 9000 children lost their lives. Again… I am so sorry.
Truth and Reconciliation is a big part of Canada’s current awareness and we are all learning how to listen to the wrongs we have done (whether we personally did them or not). My kids are learning about it in school and my middle son just last week talked to me about it. I know this was never something that would’ve come up when I was in school. We can only continue to do better and better with the truths we are made aware of. While doing research for my show I just couldn’t get over the similarities in our collective history.
I have screened OMYGOD to a small audience already and the feedback has been overwhelmingly encouraging. I have to admit I was quite nervous. The subject matter is quite direct and as a white woman woman of privilege I know these conversations are complex with a lot of pain and trauma wrapped up inside. But what happened really inspired me to keep going. The screening opened up challenging conversations and it seems to invite a space for stories like this to be heard, and that is what this show is all about for me. It’s about reconciliation, truth telling, and humility as we move forward together through the wrongs we’ve done to each other in this really divided time in our history.
I may have given you way more information than you needed or wanted, but I’m a writer and I come by it honestly, so thank you again for listening.
If you’ve moved on from this part of your personal history already and would really rather just put it all behind you, I’m sorry for bringing it up. Truly I am. I hope you can hear my heart on this.
On this path of conscious reconciliation, and as an artist, storyteller and mom to three boys, I am stumbling forward here and learning as I go. I keep hearing from the Indigenous elders around me that ‘before we can have reconciliation we must have truth’, and I couldn’t agree more and it takes a long time for that truth to be received. I don’t think of truth as an intellectual exercise of saying the right thing. To me it’s experiential and I notice how uncomfortable I am with how painfully slow it can be. The other thing we keep hearing in the arts world, and I’m working on being in practice of (also a slow process for a western mind and over-achiever like me!) is: ‘not about, without’ – meaning don’t tell someone else’s story for them, and definitely, not without them.
I recognize, this Tuam story isn’t mine to tell, and I’m not Indigenous to Canada either, yet these two story threads are woven into me, so here I am with an open heart and I’m trying. So thank you for taking the time to hear me out.
There’s a press conference on the 28th and a screening in three time zones. I hope it goes without saying that you are more than weIcome to be there. I am open to talking more about any and all of this with you as well. I know I’m not going to be able to reach all of the Mother and Baby Home survivors and those affected by what happened, so if there are people in your circle, will you forward this letter to them?
Again, I am so sorry for all that has happened. This is a big wound that deserves to be honoured, and at the same time deserves to be laid to rest and heal.
My hope is that my piece: OMYGOD can do a bit of both.
Sincerely,
Tina Overbury
Mother to four, three with me.
Daughter to two, one with me.
Settler to Canada, grateful to call Nex̱wlélex̱m (Bowen Island) on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations my home.
Tina Overbury is a storyteller, performer, and a professional listener who works with narrative and story structure as a vehicle for human connection. Her work is rooted in Myth, Mysticism, and the practice of personal faith. She is devoted to global reconciliation through the exploration of origin stories, sharing our oral history, land-based knowing, and a continued focus on communication as a sacred practice. She brings thirty years of collaborative storytelling in theatre, film, marketing, team based selling, and workshop facilitation. She is the founder of Live Your Best Story, a weekend retreat of deep listening held on Bowen Island, BC, Canada and is the voice and story behind TinaOLife, home to Stories from the Core – her weekly writing and conversation series. She is a proud associate of PowHERhouse Impact Media as a core-communications specialist working with individuals and organizations who feel called.She is a co-host of GATHER for HER, and a PowHERhouse Artist of Impact Amplify Coach helping leaders become artists and artists become leaders.