From 30 November to 20 December 2023, you can participate in online meetings on the Zoom platform with representatives of indigenous cultures from the Northwest Coast of Canada.
A lecture ”Dancing Sovereignty: Politics and Protocol in Northwest Coast First Nations Dance” by Mique’l Dangeli, PhD, will be held on 14 December 2023 on the Zoom platform.
The lecture focuses on the ways in which First Nations artists on the Northwest Coast continue and expand upon ancient practices of asserting land claims through the creation and performance of new songs and dances. Through their negotiation and assertation of protocol (bodies of law which form Indigenous legal systems), these artists carry forward a powerful form of Indigenous governance and activism.
The case study for this lecture is Grease Trail Song composed in 1999 by Wa̱x̱awidi (William Wasden Jr.) to commemorate the journey that he and three other ‘Na̱mg̱ismen took to reclaim a ancient trade route that connected their community of Alert Bay to Tahsis Inlet in Mowachaht territory. For Wa̱x̱awidi, and others Northwest Coast First Nations dance composer and choreographers, protocol constitutes the creative lens through which they enact dancing sovereignty. I define dancing sovereignty as self-determination carried out through the creation of performances, which both adheres to and expands upon protocol, in order to reify Indigenous land rights, epistemologies, and ceremonial privileges to diverse audiences and collaborators.