She Won't Come in from the Fields: A 30-minute one-woman show & conversation about regenerative food growing & climate solutions
- Nanki Saluja
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
VENUE: Salle Marie Lynne Bernard, St Boniface Library, 2nd floor, 100-131 Provencher Blvd., Winnipeg
LOCATION: Jul 26, 2025, 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m
THIS EVENT IS FREE. REGISTRATION IS ENCOURAGED BUT DROP-IN IS WELCOME.
ABOUT THE EVENT
A feisty farm woman is fed up with the conventional way her son is farming the family land. That’s why she’s staging a one-woman protest, chaining herself to a fence post, refusing to come in from the fields until he agrees to try farming regeneratively. In the process, it hits home to both of them that working together is the best way to regenerate their farm and help reverse climate change.
The performance will be followed by a conversation with the audience, exploring how to dovetail different approaches to food production for the benefit of farmers, consumers and the planet. Dale strongly encourages those planning to attend a performance to also invite a farmer/gardener who uses non-regenerative food-growing methods, recognizing the importance of not “singing to the choir”.
NEWS RELEASE
Dale Colleen Hamilton grew up on her family’s farm in Southwestern Ontario. Her Celtic ancestors came to Canada in the 1820s, settling on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit Indigenous peoples. Dale’s family farmed that land for generations and it’s where she and her four siblings grew up. The latest “crop” of grandkids is the 7th generation in the Guelph area.
As the result of a farming accident, her father had to have one of his legs amputated, and he eventually decided to sell the farm. It was purchased by a wealthy man from Toronto who said he wanted to be a hobby farmer, but it turned out he had executive estate development plans. Dale simply couldn’t stand back and watch that happen, so she, along with others, spent about 4 years fighting the development plan. They were successful, even upon appeal, and that land remains agricultural to this day. Quite recently it was purchased by a woman who has made the transition to regenerative farming practises.
The main tool Dale used in successfully fighting the development is a creative community development tool called Community Engaged Theatre. She studied it in England and in 1990 wrote and produced a community-engaged play in Eramosa, her home township. This kind of theatre is inclusive - in other words, anybody who wants a part gets a part. In the case of the Eramosa Community Play, they had over a hundred people in the cast and another hundred or so involved in various ways over a two year period. The play was about the history of the community, focusing on the Farmers’ Revolt of 1837, but also about contemporary rural land-use issues, including the development proposal on her family’s farm. Staged in the ruins of a local mill, it played to sold-out audiences and received national media attention.
Closing night was in some ways like opening night, with the play sparking community spirit and activism, resulting in a series of intense public meetings about land-use. It soon became clear that there was a strong drive to prevent the suburbanization of farm land, but that the only way forwards was if people concerned about rural land use entered onto the political stage. So, several people involved in the play project, including Dale, got themselves elected to township council, constituting the voting majority, and were able to rewrite the township’s Official Plan to better safeguard farm land.
This experience made Dale realize the power and potential in this approach to social activism, and so community-engaged theatre became her passion for the next 30 years, as she undertook similar theatre 2 projects or facilitated workshops on the topic in Canada, the US, the Netherlands, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil and Australia.
Dale’s latest project is a 30-minute one-woman show and conversation about regenerative farming and climate solutions called “She Won’t Come in from the Fields”. In 2024, she received a Canada Council for the Arts travel grant to tour her show across Canada, including the far north.
“She Won’t Come in from the Fields” grew out of Dale’s Masters work at York University. After a 45- year break from academia, she received a Masters in Environmental Studies in 2022, focussing on regenerative food production and arts-based environmental education. During her time at York, Dale gained delegate status to the COP 25 UN Climate Change Summit in Madrid and the following year in Glasgow, at which time she performed her one-woman show in the streets and at fringe venues. As a result of her Masters research, and the ever-deepening climate emergency, Dale could never see open tilled mono-cropped fields the same again, and made a commitment to become part of the growing movement towards regenerative agriculture.
To date Dale has toured her show to every province, plus Yukon and NWT. She is now planning a second tour, focussing on urban audiences, with financial support from the Soil Conservation Council of Canada’s Soil Champions Committee.
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519-546-5610
Website: theatre-etc.ca
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