Location: Zoom Room B
Moderator: Michelle MacArthur
Sponsored by The Cole Foundation
Transatlantic dialogues between Indigenous theatre artists, theorists and scholars from Canada and Upper Silesia, Poland.
The paper reflects first on the developments in scholarship and educational activities in the last two decades at the University of Silesia (Poland), which resulted from transatlantic encounters between Indigenous and Upper Silesian writers/scholars/artists. These were diverse embodied physical, as well as online and textual contacts, via workshops, lectures, conferences and many educational projects which created spaces for exchanging ideas focusing on Indigenous cultures and theatre in Canada. They eventually developed into the exploration of theatrical practices of Upper Silesians, who represent the biggest unrecognized minority by the Polish state, with its own distinct language and culture.
I discuss the impact of these encounters both on research methodologies and teaching on Indigenous cultures and theatre at the University of Silesia, as well as on the analysis of the Upper Silesian Cultural Awakening, particularly the developments in Upper Silesian theatre. The Indigenous critical paradigms turn out to be conducive not only to reading the developments in the Upper Silesian minority theatre in Poland but also have the potential to foster the development of Upper Silesian theatrical sovereignty by foregrounding the importance of staging plays that challenge the mainstream efforts of polonizing the region, and which foreground Silesian perspectives. The politicized dialogues of Indigenous and minoritized East European theatre scholars/artists, who are indigenous to their specific cultural locations (e.g. Favel points out the indigeneity of Grotowski and of Polish scholars collaborating with him), show the importance of performance as a form of agency in the face of dominant cultures, and its role in the re-indigenization of the world.
Eugenia Sojka, Ph.D., D. Litt., Associate Professor at the Institute of Literary Studies, and Institute of Culture, University of Silesia Poland, Adjunct Professor at the Department of English, University of the Fraser Valley, Canada.
Bio: Her interests focus on Canadian Indigenous and Diasporic literatures and cultures, specifically on Indigenous drama, theatre and performance. She is the author of numerous publications in the area of Canadian Studies. Her recent co-edited monograph Piszący z ziemi. Teatr Indygenny Floyda Favela [Writing from the Earth. Indigenous theatre of Floyd Favel and other essays], includes her critical text and co-translations of Favel’s theoretical essays, play and poetry.
Performance as a tool for the reappropriation of urban public spaces by Indigenous people: the relationship to the St. Lawrence River
Public spaces in Montreal are increasingly inhabited by performances by Indigenous members, often featuring dances from the pan-Indianist movement and pow-wows, these large annual gatherings of the various Indigenous Nations combining dances, songs and the wearing of traditional clothing. The body of the dancer or actor is at the center of creation in the performing arts, and theatre and dance have the unique quality of bringing together actors and spectators in a common space to witness an event at a given time.
One of the objectives of my thesis was, through a performative approach, to produce a collaborative methodology anchored in collective action. An approach to research that is in tune with Indigenous realities can allow for implementing a method of co-creating spatial knowledge connected to performance. Thus, after gaining a better understanding of what an Indigenous perception of space might be through pow-wows and nurturing a reflection on the indigenization of the city with key actors, I assembled a team to set up collaborative laboratories, referred to here as “collaboratories.” These “collaboratories” led to meetings with the whole group and to sensory explorations of public spaces with the dancers. This process allowed us to grasp how performance, and more particularly dance, can become a tool for rethinking urban public space according to a perception of space that reflects the Indigenous worldviews.
In this presentation, I will discuss the theme of water, present in the celebration of pow-wows through the recurring reference to motherhood. I will also discuss the relationship to the St. Lawrence River of the urban Indigenous community of Montreal, revealed through the “collaboratories”.
Cassandre Chatonnier – Theatre Designer and Researcher
Cassandre Chatonnier has a diploma from the École Boulle in Interior Design, Landscape Design and Exhibition Design in France. She graduated from Concordia University in Design for the Theatre in January 2011. Since graduation, she has designed sets, props and costumes for plays in English and French. She is also teaching at l’École de théâtre du Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe. Having worked in interior design, Cassandre Chatonnier’s work is largely influenced by architecture. She is also interested in the relationship between the actor and the space and how it can feed her practice. She holds a master’s degree in theatre from UQAM on this subject, which she obtained with honours. She has just finished her PhD in Urban Studies at INRS, where she is interested in the relationship between Indigenous performance and appropriation of space and in co-creating a methodology for rethinking urban public spaces through dance.
