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Chapter 4 - Indigenous Festivals

from Part I - Contexts and Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2020

Ric Knowles
Affiliation:
University of Guelph, Ontario
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Summary

From long before recorded Western history to the present, the Indigenous peoples of the world have engaged in ceremonies and communal performance activities – the White Earth scroll, the corroboree, the potlach – that could not without diminishment be called ‘theatre’, but are certainly performative and might, from a Western perspective, be called festivals. This chapter asks what it might mean for scholars to consider festivals to have begun, not in the competitive framework of the Festival of Dionysus in ancient Greece, but in the relational context of Indigenous ‘internation’ exchange. It traces the history of trans-Indigenous festivals, interrupted by colonization, to the present day, visiting Indigenous cultural festivals in Australia and the Pacific, and ending with accounts of Native Earth Performing Arts’ Weesageechak Begins to Dance (Toronto), Full Circle Performing Arts’ Talking Stick Festival (Toronto), and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s Living Ritual Festival (Toronto).

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Indigenous Festivals
  • Edited by Ric Knowles, University of Guelph, Ontario
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to International Theatre Festivals
  • Online publication: 22 May 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108348447.005
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  • Indigenous Festivals
  • Edited by Ric Knowles, University of Guelph, Ontario
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to International Theatre Festivals
  • Online publication: 22 May 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108348447.005
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Indigenous Festivals
  • Edited by Ric Knowles, University of Guelph, Ontario
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to International Theatre Festivals
  • Online publication: 22 May 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108348447.005
Available formats
×