The mound and the pit are a street installation conceived and created by Paul Kuhn, artistic director of Curio Theatre Company, which is based in the Calvary Center. Curio is about to open its production of “The Thanksgiving Play” by Larissa FastHorse, a comedy about a group of white theater artists attempting to stage a culturally sensitive holiday play at an elementary school, which goes wrong. The play made its Broadway debut in 2023, the first Broadway show by a female Native American playwright.
Kuhn wanted to acknowledge the Lenapehoking, the Lenape name for their homeland, in a more substantial way than merely a note in the playbill. Originally from Nova Scotia, Kuhn was moved by the recent discovery in Canada of possibly hundreds of unmarked graves at residential schools for Indigenous children.
Although no human remains have been exhumed, which caused a backlash against the discovery, Kuhn felt personally culpable as a descendant of white Canadians. He watched the ceremonies of Sept. 30, Canada’s annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which were televised nationally.
“All over Canada they were broadcasting live Indigenous people discussing the horrors and the atrocities that were committed against their people,” Kuhn said. “It actually had a reverse effect: It re-traumatized them.”
“I wanted to express my gratitude, and my acknowledgment of what my people did, by having something that could really get your hands dirty,” he added. “Touching the soil gives us a direct connection to the earth.”
Bart “Standing Elk” Cartwright is a member of the Lenape tribe and part of the Turtle Clan signifying the original people of the Philadelphia area. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY) 
Jacob Dolson, who gave…
