TAU WELLNESS COOPERATIVE · OUR HISTORY
A magazine, a Medicine Wheel, a handmade wand, a puppet finding its voice: over the years, we’ve found many ways to make art together. Here are some of the people, projects and experiments that brought us to where we are today.
We began with peer support groups in 2013. As people got to know one another, publishing, painting, craft and performance became part of what we did together. Later, research helped us understand what would make it easier for more people to join in.
This story began with Rainbow Health, before Tau and OCHI were incorporated in December 2022. Much has changed as we’ve grown into two cooperatives, but we’ve kept making art together.
XQQ · Art, writing and community resources
XQQ first brought our art and community work together on the page. Original art and writing sat alongside a directory of community resources. We began in 2015, printed our first paper edition in 2016, and published annually until the pandemic.
Writing, illustration, page design and printing gave people ways to publish their work and see their lives reflected in print. After the pandemic, we reworked the magazine as a tabloid called Xulyma, with a final print run in 2023. We also made art cards and prints that people could take home.
An earlier personal thread · Stop-motion puppetry
ChrŸs Tei was making stop-motion puppets long before our shared puppetry programme began. These small characters needed faces, clothing and a way to move on screen. The little figure below comes from that early personal work.
From 2013 · Listening, learning and creating together
The peer support groups gave people a place to share their experiences, listen to one another and help decide what came next. We carried that approach into our art-making.
By 2017, we were working with the University of Victoria (UVic) and VNFC on research with gender-diverse, neurodivergent and Indigenous people. We wanted to understand what stood in the way of people taking part, and what could help. The project continued through 2022.
People needed places to make and rehearse, materials, someone to learn from, and opportunities to share their work. The research helped us see how to bring those things together. We were already working to make art more accessible; what we learned helped us do it better.
2018 and 2019 · Painting a shared story
At the November 2018 VNFC Two-Spirit gathering, we painted a Medicine Wheel together: four wooden panels, acrylic paint, and many people adding their own images. Two artists and a community-engagement coordinator helped with the making. A second Medicine Wheel followed in 2019.
We had the paintings reproduced as banners so we could bring them to remembrance events and other gatherings. Below is the 2019 Medicine Wheel, photographed as a banner in October 2020.
At QTown during Victoria Pride in 2019, we put up our displays and banners and welcomed people in. The tents gave us a place to gather, meet visitors and share what we’d been making.
Craft, workshops and a place for performance
From publishing, we branched out into making wands. Shaped handles, colour, texture, feathers and decoration gave each one its own character. Some of those techniques later helped us assemble puppets, and feathers from our wand-making supplies still find their way into an occasional puppet costume.
We also needed somewhere to make things. Building the workshop gave us room for tools and projects, while our portable tents let us set up a gathering space in other places. Putting them up is part of the work we do together.
Then came a stage shaped like a ship. Building Betwix’d Drydock took more than 300 hours of volunteer work, supported by a provincial grant. The photographs show it taking shape, from its wooden frame to its cloth sails, ready to become a setting for puppet stories.
The pandemic · From digital avatars to puppets
During the pandemic, some presenters in our online programmes wanted to take part without appearing on screen. We first used digital avatars, then commissioned one of our community’s artists to make puppets to replace them. That was how puppetry became something we did together.
That work grew into Betwix’d and the puppetry, vocal practice and arts and crafts offered through the 3 Mothers programme. As we found new ways to make and share art, we were also rethinking how to organize the co-op.
In December 2022, Rainbow Health’s work continued through two newly incorporated cooperatives. OCHI took on the charitable community-development work, and Tau became the home for our arts programmes. We’re still developing how the two work together, with the same community and creative history behind us.
From August 2024 · Learning how to build our cast
In August 2024, we began making prototypes for our current troupe. Hundreds of hours went into building, trying and refining them. Patterns, faces, hair and costumes all needed attention, as did the way a puppet felt and moved in a performer’s hands.
We experimented with human characters and even a unicorn. Around the table, people could try a movement, adjust a body or costume, and learn from one another. The January 2025 photograph gives you a glimpse of that work.
We learned a great deal by making our own puppets. We also learned how much skill it takes to build them well at a price we can afford. Working with professional makers would give us more time to spend with the people who would bring the characters to life.
We put out a Request for Proposals across Canada and selected two studios in northern Alberta. By the end of July 2026, our first order of nine puppets had arrived from Hawkey Studio. After nearly two years of experimenting, it was a delight to meet them.
By August, we were dressing the cast and getting to know their faces. Eight of the nine puppets are gathered in the portrait above.
WychBourne · It takes a village
A performance needs far more than puppeteers. Someone writes the scene, someone makes a costume, someone works out the lighting and sound. Others put up the stage and welcome the audience. If we’re filming, we need people behind the camera and at the editing desk too.
WychBourne brings these people together as a continuing community of practice. Many of us contribute part-time, and there are plenty of ways to take part. Someone may begin by sewing or painting, then learn to operate a puppet or develop a character’s voice. Experienced artists and people trying something new can work alongside one another.
Our adult troupe is learning, rehearsing and working toward professional performance. We want to share the work with more audiences, help young people make their own scenes, and create paid artistic opportunities as funding allows.
We keep coming back to a question: Can puppets help us talk about complicated things? We’re exploring that together, one scene at a time. If you enjoy making things, telling stories or helping a show come together, we’d love to meet you.