Tla-o-qui-aht’s Hannah Frank takes on the role of Mary Robins in Scenes from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital, a play that marks a “confluence” of Nuu-chah-nulth, Hul’q’umin’um’ and Kwak’wala languages as the audience follows a friendship between three girls in attendance at the hospital.
Mary Robins, the Nuu-chah-nulth character in the play, speaks the Barkley dialect, while Frank, whose traditional territory is in the Tofino area, speaks a central dialect of Nuu-chah-nulth. Frank said roughly 40 per cent of her lines are in Nuu-chah-nulth. Frank’s aunt, Ida Thompson, suggested she become involved with the play. She was hesitant at first because she had not acted before.
“Hearing other stories about people going in for the dentist and coming back with no teeth … I thought that was horrible,” Frank said. “I couldn’t imagine what they’ve been through.”