Impulse Theatre Collaborator Agreement
Updated: September 2023

Impulse Theatre asks that all collaborators (artists, staff, board, partners) agree to the following guidelines. We seek to enter into our collaboration by foregrounding consent, accountability, and collective learning. 

Guiding Values for Collaborations:

• We acknowledge that we operate on the unceded territory of the Lewkungen Peoples. We commit to deepening our understandings of these lands, building relationships, and decolonizing our work through our practices, language, and policies. 
• We  recognize that systemic oppression exists in and operates, with specificity, within the arts to disempower individuals because of their lived experiences, including race, ability, gender, sexuality. We are committed to recognizing the impacts of these barriers, including ableism, homophobia, racism, etc., and addressing them in our practices. 
• We acknowledge that anti-oppressive practice requires individuals to assume responsibility for their learning and to make commitments to intervening in systemic inequity. We are committed to cultivating spaces where this learning can take place while also inviting our collaborators  to take on independent learning. 
• We recognize that discomfort is a critical element of learning and often a sign of growth. We seek to facilitate uncomfortable work through building spaces where support and resources are available, while also distinguishing between discomfort and harm. 
• We believe that conflict is inevitable and not inherently negative. We are committed to educating ourselves to anticipate potentials for conflict, creating systems to reduce possible harm, and to negotiating resolutions, accountability, and support when conflicts do arise. 
• We acknowledge that individuals who have lived experiences of violence or oppression often act as default educators. We are committed to taking responsibility for our own learning while also appropriately compensating the labour of our collaborators and educators. 
• We recognize that the audience and identity of our organization will shift as our engagements with equity, accessibility, and decolonization deepen, and we expand to be more inclusive.
• We  value solidarity, generosity, and accountability and we are committed to expanding our capacity through maintaining good relations and collaborative efforts with other arts organizations, cultural workers, and community members.

Please familiarize yourself with our mandate,  vision, and programming history in advance of entering into this collaboration agreement. If you have questions about the scope of our work, audiences, community collaborators, etc. please reach out to Impulse in advance so that we can discuss who you might be engaging with over the course of our collaboration. With these values in mind, we ask that you review and agree to the following terms.


Indigenous Protocol

• Please comply with local land acknowledgement practices for any gatherings, meetings, performances, etc. Impulse is available to support you in understanding the protocols on Lekwungen territories.
• We invite you to take time to learn about the territories on which we reside through engaging with Indigenous oral histories, being on the land, and engaging with art. We have compiled some resources that we are happy to share with you and invite you to share with us. 
• If possible, consider researching and making a financial contribution to Indigenous resurgence projects and mutual aid groups in our area.

Safety and harm reduction

• All activities must be undertaken without the presence of police or other uniformed officers unless otherwise discussed and agreed upon.
• All content to be presented to the public will be discussed in advance with the Impulse team. We ask that you alert us of any references to sensitive subject matter or  violence (racial, sexual, cultural) and possible access notes (flashing lights, smells, etc.) 
• If conflict has arisen from any of your activities, please alert Impulse immediately. This could include an incident at an event, the receipt of feedback, or a feeling of discomfort in a meeting, for example. We will meet to discuss how that conflict can best be addressed.
• We have tried our best to anticipate the needs of our audiences and collaborators and to reduce harm and barriers to access. If you have access needs that intersect with our collaboration we invite you to share these with us and commit to addressing them. 

 
Knowledge protection and representation

• Any content that directly recreates visual material created by other creators (in particular,  Black, Indigenous, or People of Colour) must be done with written consent. These creators and or communities must also receive licensing fees and credits for any included materials. 
• Any activities that include the visual representation of  Black, Indigenous, or People of Colour in their promotional materials must only do so with the explicit consent of those people. 
• All activities will refrain from the theft of Indigenous knowledges and cosmologies. References to Indigenous teachings must be credited with respect to the protocol of that Nation.

Organizational culture

• Impulse foregrounds work from emerging and queer creators. We recognize that we do not speak on behalf of anyone other than ourselves. We ask that any engagements with histories of marginalization, violence, or oppression, prioritize lived experiences and the voices of those who embody such positionalities. 
• Impulse collaborators (with the exception of board and volunteers) receive a thrivable wage. We continuously revise what that means and invite your feedback. We ask that you try to model fair compensation with your team members and collaborators. 
• We are committed to building a culture of learning, trust, and reasonable risk-taking. When participating in Impulse’s programming or organizational culture, we ask that you be open to activities and practices that seek to build collective knowledge and cultural safety. We invite you to be aware of your own boundaries and to opt-out as needed.
• While Impulse is responsible for creating a container for our work together, we ask that you take responsibility for your individual behavior and learning. If you are challenged by the work or conversations that arise during our collaboration and think that feedback is required, we invite you to address these to the facilitators or producers as soon as possible. ​