MRPJ5253

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Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53, October 2019

Published by Movement Research, Inc.
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Dear Readers,
The cover and back cover of this issue beckons the history and intentionality of the Two Row representation around Native and Indigenous communities. This must end, and it is ending,
Wampum Treaty from 1613 made between the Haudenosaunee and Dutch settlers. Two Row through the strategies and practices of the artists and scholars in the Native community and their
Wampum is a living treaty—a way for people to live together in peace and respect and to ensure investment in performance and activist work to increase cultural understanding and cultivate
that people meet to discuss issues that emerge. Two Row treaty, and subsequent communication, leadership. Rosy Simas is one such artist with choreographic and activist practices. She, and
were the result of time, patience and commitment towards community. many other artists in the issue, propose alternative artistic models to probe the roles of art and
Every issue of the Performance Journal is an exercise in community and relation. So, in artist in society towards a more expansive constellation that fundamentally critiques the Western
continuity with PJ 51, we invited artist Rosy Simas to be the guest editor of the issue. Rosy then reward system in culture as well as the often celebrated cult of authorship.
asked writer Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán to join her, and together they have assembled the voices Artists shift historical frames by working to transform conditions and socio-political
and points of view in Sovereign Movements: Native Dance and Performance. This particular structures that uphold logics of understanding as well as ways of conceiving dance, art, and
issue took time, almost a year, and is full of nearly eighty pages of content. Given this quantity performance. In the past three years, land acknowledgements have become part of our habits
of content, it is, therefore, appearing as a double issue—PJ 52/53. and protocol of announcements in cultural spaces in New York City, but let’s ensure they are
Throughout this issue, dance and movement is posited as a powerful strategy against not mere lip service. As we move to create a more equitable and intersectional performance
settler-colonial mindsets and an effective tool against erasure of Native and Indigenous cultural community, let’s recall this oral history from Haudesaunee and the Two Row Wampum treaty:
traditions. Through poem, prose, essay, narrative, image and interview, these pages discuss “Together we will travel in Friendship and in Peace Forever; as long as the grass is green, as
the importance of Native sovereignty. The contributors analyze various histories of resistance long as the water runs downhill, as long as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and as
to settler-colonialism, all the while acknowledging the complexities of representation as long as our Mother Earth will last.”
Native artists. Historically, systemic oppression and violence have inscribed the history of — Moriah
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Foundation; Marta Heflin Foundation; 2
Sovereign Movements: Native Dance and Performance
Edited by Rosy Simas & Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán
4 Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán & 34 María Regina Firmino Castillo,

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53
Rosy Simas Daniel Fernando Guarcax González &

Sovereign Movements: Building and Tohil Fidel Brito Bernal
Sustaining Native Dance and Performance Beyond The Border: Embodied
Communities—A Dialogue Mesoamerican Transmotions
7 Iakowi:he’ne’ (Melissa) Oakes 42 Pelenakeke Brown

When We Dance: Decolonizing Movements Provocation
Across Generations A Travelling Practice
8 T. Lulani Arquette 44 Postcommodity

This Place We All Inhabit: A Shared Kuleana 2043: No Es Un Sueño
8 Anastasia Ski um talx McAllister 50 Max Wolf Valerio

ode to all the displaced cyber Natives Exile: Vision Quest at the Edge of Identity (excerpt)
kełłexíls Language to Visions (excerpts)
šnp̓ əšqʷáw̓ šəxʷ a poet lost in transition
10 Gerald Clarke & 52 Merritt Johnson

Michelle H. Raheja Voiceover Text for Videos (Listen; Exorcizing America:
Provocative Moves: Building Lines of Communication; Exorcising America:
Remembering James Luna Table Exercises; Exorcizing America: Water Safety)
12 Anna Tsouhlarakis 54 Merritt Johnson &

Breath of Wind Nicholas Galanin
Exorcizing America: Survival Exercises /
13 Laura Ortman Oh Nenié:iere’ ne Aierèn:nha’ ne Aiakónhnheke’ /
Someday We’ll Be Together g̱ asaniex̱ daa.itnagóowu
14 Maria Hupfield with 56 Heid E. Erdrich

John Hupfield (Waaseyaabin) and Responses to Weave from Native Community Writers
Deanne Hupfield &
Sm Łoodm ’Nüüsm 56 Melissa Olson
(Dr. Mique’l Dangeli) and Impressions at a Weave Rehearsal
Goothl Ts’imilx (Mike Dangeli) for Rosy Simas Danse
Dancing for Spirit, Family,
Community, and Culture 56 Jamie Randall
Witnessing Weave
18 Karyn Recollet & Entwined
Emily Johnson
Kin-dling and Other Radical Relationalities 57 Marcie Rendon
creating existence
24 Tanya Lukin Linklater Weave
How we mark land and how land marks us, 2017
57 Sarah Agaton Howes
25 Tanya Lukin Linklater & Breathing into Injury
Megan MacLaurin
A Conversation with Tanya Lukin Linklater 57 Anthony Ceballos
Unsettling
27 Andrea Carlson
Grandmothers Talking on the Shore 58 Dakota Camacho
Ink Babel Matao: Queerly Navigating Indigenizing
Forked Tongues Creative Practice
Vaster Ink Empire
Lust of Gold 62 Jewelle Gomez
The Naming: Ka Ana Tuk Amuk
29 Heid E. Erdrich Alcatraz Reunion
Skins, Forms, Flows, Tones
Bodies of Water 63 Zoë Klein &
The Cleansing After Sam Aros Mitchell
Close Your Eyes and Listen Neither White Nor Surface: A Dialogue Between
Listening with the Body the Spaces of Dance, Indigeneity, and Adoption
31 Rosy Simas & 66 Anthony Aiu &

Christopher K. Morgan Kaina Quenga
Longer Scores: Native Choreographic Turns, Polynesian Talk Story: Indigenous Pacific
Curatorial Visions, and Community Engagement Dancers and Choreographers in Dialogue
3
Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán & Rosy Simas
Sovereign Movements: Building and Sustaining Native Dance

and Performance Communities—A Dialogue
This is an abridged transcription of a longer conversation between the Native, global Indigenous—have been mobile, either traditionally

co-editors that occurred on November 3, 2018. through different territories, and/or forcibly relocated? Migration
patterns of ironworkers working in major cities away from reserva
Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán: How about we both begin by talking tions. Wanting not only Native performing artists to be able to pick
about how we came to this project and how it fits within our lifework up this issue of the journal and feel represented, or at least engaged,
and our knowing and working with each other? but also for all Native folks to pick up the issue and be like, yes, I do
Rosy Simas: This project began as a suggestion that I made to move! My body is a valuable body. My body can be thought of in
Moriah Evans, Jamie Shearn Coan, and Barbara Bryan. In January terms of these conversations and Native bodies should be the first
2017, I was in New York City, leading a dialogue on Native choreog bodies that are thought of in terms of movement on this continent.
raphy and protesting the work of French performance artist, Latifa If you weren’t bound by the print page, what else would you
Laâbissi, being presented at MoMA PS1, who in her performance like to include and gather for this issue? Are there themes, aesthet
wore a fake Native headdress while dancing nude. The Movement ics, genres, media, modes of artistic expression and engagement
Research Performance Journal team asked me if I would write a you wish were a part of the issue and that you see as a part of your
response to an interview with Laâbissi that had been published in understanding of dance, movement, and performance?
MRPJ 49 with a reproduction of Laâbissi, nude in the fake Native RS: Well, that is interesting. For some of the people who could
headdress. As a choreographer who has been making work since have been a part of the journal, it would have been easier to present
1992, but never published in nor asked to contribute to the Movement something from them in video format. We could have (with permis
Research Performance Journal, I did not want the first thing that I sion) added, for instance, a video of Mohawk choreographer Santee
was contributing to the Performance Journal to be about Laâbissi’s Smith’s new project Re-Quickening. And video as well in the case
offensive work. I made it clear that the Performance Journal was of Muriel Miguel, who was just super busy and didn’t have time
severely lacking in its history of Native presence, and I suggested to contribute something in written form. It is not feasible when
that, rather than write a single article as a response to a non-Native you work in a body-based form, or when you are a performer, and
artist’s work, they dedicate an entire issue to Native dance and transcribing your work into the written form is an extra step and
performance. Of course, they wanted to do it, so that is how it began. difficult commitment to make regardless of whether or not the end
ATB: How will I begin? I want to step back a bit. We met May 19th, result in some way benefits the whole artistic community. I think we
2014. I had seen advertised on the American Indian Community would have created an even broader picture of who has historically
House there was a Haudenosaunee choreographer coming. You were and is currently making Native choreography. There just needs to
sharing from We Wait In The Darkness at Movement Research at be a wider/broader commitment in the field to presenting multiple
the Judson Church. That night, afterwards, I asked if it would be artists—and not just this idea like, let’s have the “Native show” once
possible to thank you for your performance by taking you to dinner. in a decade, where they put all the Native artists in the same show.
So, we went with part of your team and some friends to a nearby We did do that though at the Ordway Center for the Performing
restaurant in the Village. Arts, with Oyate Okodakiciyapi: An Evening of Native Contemporary
I wanted to start there because that is the context of my knowing Dance. We brought Native and non-Native dance artists together
you, and I feel like this entire project is tied to that personal relation for performance, workshops, community gatherings, and discus
ship of knowing you now for almost four and a half years. Knowing sions. The Ordway and I also collaborated with local gallery All
you first, being a friend, and from there slowly supporting a friend My Relations Arts to bring First Nations choreographer Tanya
in terms of work you might be doing, and then beginning to work Lukin Linklater to do an installation of her work. Because Oyate
more formally together. I remember you approaching me about was directed by a Native person, I didn’t have that feeling of “Oh,
Movement Research Performance Journal and being excited about it’s the Native show.” I guess I try to do as much as I can because I
the idea because I had already edited one journal, Yellow Medicine feel like it’s the one chance to say everything I can on topic and then
Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought’s the door closes again. So, that does feel disappointing to not be able
Fall 2010 issue, “The Ancestors We Were Looking for We Have to have some voices—especially more people who have been in the
Become: International Queer Indigenous Voices.” So, I was excited field for a really long time.
about this project, and that was how I came into it, through our ATB: I am really deeply grateful for the range of what people shared
knowing each other. with us. It was part of our invitational call for submissions, and where
Did you want to talk about how you see this journal issue fitting the title for this dialogue comes from, our tentative organizing title
in with your larger lifework? How do you see the labor of this, which at the time for this issue. Our vision was to have even a wider range
I consider not only community building and activist, but also an than we were able to include: choreographic sketches, set designs,
act of creating space and responding to some of the dynamics both song lyrics, sound and video recordings, interactive web-based
in the larger dance world and art world, and the history or lack of pieces, more multimedia possibilities, and ephemera, some of the
history of Native artists in the journal? traces that are left after Native performance.
RS: One of the things I have continually witnessed in the dance I want to mention some of the people we invited and were really
world is that people lack understanding that when we create space excited about potentially being part of the issue, but for one reason
for other people’s voices, we actually lift up our own as well. I see or another weren’t able to make that materialize—Ty Defoe, Dio
that as a more Native or community-based way of thinking and so Ganhdih, JP Longboat, Kiley May, Vaimoana Niumeitolu, Cody
it’s just ingrained in me: who I am and how I grew up and who my Pueo Pata, Jackson Polys, Sheldon Raymore, Quita Sullivan, Vicky
family is. The only way we are going to have more presence and Holt Takamine, Storme Webber, Hinaleimoana Wong, and Rhiana
impact in the field is by utilizing our resources and our opportuni Yazzie—all important voices.
ties to help other people have voices. Multiple perspectives from I’m glad to include the work that’s here. I would’ve loved to
many different Native/Indigenous people are going to give a wider have had more queer/trans Indigenous contributors, more Indigenous
view and a more, I think, real view, than one perspective from one folk with disabilities, and additional elders. We have some very
artist, to the greater population of who Native people are. Even strong representation. I’m grateful for what we have, and hopefully
within Native/Indigenous populations, as well, we have our own we build from here towards more inclusive and intersectional
lack of knowledge about each other. If we want there to be space for community building.
ourselves, we have to utilize the resources and opportunities that Can we talk more about your life’s work, and how this journal
we have to create space for others. issue fits into that? What are current projects and issues you are
ATB: What were and are your goals and dreams for the issue? Was engaged in? And what do you see in the future?
there anything you were really hoping for? RS: I am thinking about advocacy, and I would say I use this label
RS: Yes! I definitely was hoping to include voices of people who “advocate” for people who are not Native to understand what I do.
would not have access to and/or who have no relationship with the Many Native and Indigenous artists express their life/work through
Performance Journal. multiple ways of being—as artists, advocates, activists. I feel that
ATB: I was really interested in what it would mean if we honored and in western thought, we unnaturally compartmentalize—artist,
reframed things in terms of thinking about Native movement writ advocate, activist, etc. The compartmentalizing of those roles is
large. So, definitely being interested in and committed to making for me unnatural. To call myself an advocate of other Native artists
sure that Native dance, movement, and performance are centered feels highfalutin and almost self-serving.
in this issue is key, and within that, also wanting to think about ATB: But it’s true; you are an advocate! (laughs)
movement in a very broad way. I think about the choreography of RS: But it’s part of the work as a whole. Christopher K. Morgan is
activist protest and the bodies that are most vulnerable in terms of obviously a great representation of this—as a choreographer who
police or state violent response. How do we choreograph to be at our is also now the director of Dance Place in Washington, D.C., one
safest? Migrational patterns of plants, animals. The movement of of his roles is advocating for more Native/Indigenous presence on
hands when people are doing beadwork or basketry, so many forms dance stages. I do advocacy work, but it’s not all of my work. I don’t
of creativity. What does it mean so many people—Haudenosaunee, run my organization to solely advocate for other artists, although 4
that is a part of the work, just as being an activist is a part of being a circle. How can we support each other in ways that don’t shy away
Native artist for me. I think being a member of a nation—being an from asking the work to do more or to go deeper—not something
enrolled member of the Seneca nation—automatically makes me a that is performatively decorative or something that is produced for
warrior of sovereignty. Fighting to retain our sovereignty is fighting dominant audiences in a way that only they might think is amazing,
for Native survival. So, many of these things are linked to basic but for those of us in our communities, not so much. What happens
things like survival, not just this idea of survival, but also thriving. when we’re not so eager to give work a standing ovation, because
Survival implies some sort of status quo, but I think of that word as in our minds, our heart, our spirits, our souls, it wasn’t something
survival and exponential growth of culture. One of the things that so deeply moving or deeply crafted? That is something that I want
always has been super clear to me is that there are a lot of Native to make space for, those conversations, but in a loving way, not in
people (and this is true of a lot of artists of color I know, too) who, a shady way that tears everyone down.
when you ask them about their work, they start talking about their Is there something pressing going on in Native arts communities
community. They don’t dive right into “I’m making a piece about or Native communities more broadly that you have been a part of
x, y, z.” Some people do, but most don’t. that you would like people to pay more attention to?
My work right now brings the value of advocating for others into RS: I don’t feel like the broader issues are separate from existing within
everything I do. I try to support the people who are in my creative community. As an urban Native person right now in Minneapolis,
work, to not only individually express themselves through the work, I am constantly aware that people are suffering in my community.
but to benefit individually from the business end of it, which can be There is a very large encampment of homeless Native people, sort
via speaking on panels, leading workshops, community teaching, of unprecedented here because there is a crisis in our city of unaf
presenting their own work. I think it is also really important to have fordable housing that even I am impacted by. The strain to pay rent
a little bit of selfishness and just be in my creative space, making my is really difficult. I don’t know how it’s going to play out even next
work. There has to be a balance between being creative and fighting year: The insecurities range from not knowing how you are going
for sovereignty and advocating for others. to pay your rent to being homeless. There is whole range of issues
There is just so much to do if you are a Native choreographer impacting basic needs in our community, always. So many are
because there is a certain level of constantly creating a broader constantly struggling to survive.
understanding around the work for presenters, audiences, community. The idea that what we are doing is not enough is interesting
I always have the sense that there is this sort of general understand to me: as if the labor that I am already doing as a Native person in
ing of contemporary or staged dance, mostly post-modern, white, my community, as an artist—advocacy, teaching, administration,
euro…so there is not a lot of explanation that has to go with the giving advice to institutions, organizations, individuals about
presentation of that work. If it’s different than that, people want everything and anything Native—is not enough. “Rosy, what are
things to be contextualized for them so they can understand it. It’s you doing about the encampment?” Well, I’m doing my work. This
a double-edged sword—wanting people understanding and not idea that Native artists must address the most critical things going
playing into their entitled desires to consume the work. Someone on in their community, and must stop everything they are doing,
said to me recently they wanted to “devour” my work. Now we need because somehow the art is not related, because it’s not address
to talk about something else because I do not want to go down that ing the social/political need in a way that is visible to people with
road right now. western ideas about how you do things. It is just wrong to lay that
ATB: The work of Native people and many oppressed and margin on Native artists. It is because we are visible that it gets laid on us,
alized peoples is often seen as suspect—as if we are folk who are like we aren’t doing enough.
supposedly included just for our diversity rather than our work’s What is activism? How do you respond to social crisis? Political
quality, brilliance, creativity, labor, craft, aesthetics, daring, nar crisis? Oh, you get out on the street and you do x, y, and z. That is,
rativity, innovation, vision, praxis, analysis, engagement, impact. actually, in my opinion, a very western idea about activism. It does
Arts organizations need to work with Native people in sustained not encompass the whole picture of what it is to cultivate leadership
ways to make sure Indigenous work, voices, and perspectives are in the community. How do we support individuals so they don’t
centered and not mistreated in any way. Where are Native people become homeless? What actions are we are taking to try to prevent
in this? Are they present? Are they centralized? Is their leadership the situation from happening? I think the best thing I can do is create
supported? Are their perspectives integrated? Have we actually art and work at making that work visible. And if my work, in some
done work around this? Are we ready to do work around this? Or way, creates more economic stability, cultural understanding, or
can we begin to do work around this? peace for other people, great!
I think a lot about our conversations about Native community ATB: I appreciate that. There are so many issues in Native arts
engagement. What does it mean to engage communities to develop communities and Native communities more broadly that matter to
sustainable long-term relationships with Native artists and larger me, including, as someone who came up as a youth activist, was
Native communities? Thinking about the possibilities of this journal homeless, and had to leave toxic/abusive situations, so many different
issue, and other artistic/activist/critical/educational projects I’m a part intersectional issues affecting queer/trans/Two-Spirit Native youth
of, these are the commitments I make to working intersectionally in and queer/trans youth of color, such as high rates of homelessness;
community. Working with people, I want to have not only beautiful high suicide and attempted-suicide rates; high substance abuse rates;
products, but hopefully transformative processes. I wouldn’t want to high rates of sexually transmitted illnesses; high rates of domestic
do this journal issue, if everyone in the issue hated us by the time we violence, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and various hate
were done. I want this to be something people feel encouraged and crimes along many different lines of human difference targeting
supported by, as well as seen and heard to whatever degree we can our youth and communities in general.
offer. I hope it encourages Native artists to consider writing about There is this expectation that we, as activists, artists, educators,
their work, circulating it in other circles, and getting it out there. or people somehow involved in our various communities in some
Sometimes doing collective and community work can be very particular way that is visible, are the ones, maybe exclusively, who
challenging and exhausting. We talk a lot about the work needing to should be dealing with issues. Rather than “What are you doing?”
go deeper, about the stakes needing to be higher, about how lifework You, the person who is asking the question, what are you doing?
needs to have a deeper impact. And/or what could we, collectively, do? That is actually a much
RS: Deeper impact on whom? more exciting question. And not just Native communities, but all
ATB: However we want to interpret that—community, the world, people wanting to be on this earth in a good way in relation to each
perhaps even artists making the work ourselves. other. What are we doing? What can we do about these issues? And
RS: I don’t think that Native artists need to do anything more than might the arts be a part of it? Might activism, health initiatives,
they are already doing, but I think that the art world needs to put really looking at the parts of the various colonial systems, and how
99% more effort into paying attention. When you said “have a they are structured, what can we do, in ways that are effective, that
deeper impact,” I immediately went to the labor, as if we need to address things directly, more obliquely, or just create other beautiful,
do any more labor. We don’t. We are already doing enough labor. affirming life opportunities in our communities and the world that
I get a lot of questions from presenters like, how can you help me renew us, keep us going, and keep us focused on our good and how
connect to the Native community in my area? Or, how can we to expand the good?
present a Native festival? Do the homework yourself and don’t ask For those of us who are already deeply involved in our com
Native artists to do it for you—and/or do the work with them, and munities and doing so much, I think it is more about how we get more
pay them to mentor you! folks activated into their own power, their own ability to respond,
ATB: One of the things I deeply appreciate about knowing you and to support, to transform, to exist. How can we move collectively,
working with you is your ability to dive into the heart of something and not just within our communities but with folks who are deeply
and reframe things in powerful ways. With this question, I wanted privileged across these lines? How do we get everyone to be involved
to talk about artists pushing themselves harder to go deeper and, in a in transforming these situations in ways that are effective rather
5 loving way, be part of what bell hooks might call a critically-affirming than just putting an additional burden or expectation on already
oppressed peoples? Particularly, burdens and expectations are placed

on women of color and queer/trans people of color, Native women
and queer/trans/Two-Spirit Native folk, who are sometimes doing
so much and are so deeply overworked and taking care of everyone,
often to the exclusion of ourselves.
What calls to you about collaborative, collective, and community-
based work? What are lessons you’ve learned and other insights you
can share about how to do this work effectively, ethically, joyfully,
and transformatively?
RS: Wow, I don’t know if I can answer that question right now.
ATB: I can go first. I’m really interested in having deeper dialogues
with women of color and queer/trans folks of color about the labor
of community building and caretaking. A disproportionate amount
of collaborative, collective, and community-based work falls on our
intersectional multiply-oppressed communities. Either we choose
to do that work, and/or we are expected to do that work, and/or are
normalized to do that work, and/or there are pressures to do that work.
As people building community, I want to talk about how we
take care of ourselves when we’re taking care of others. How do
we nurture and support ourselves, what are sustainable models,
and can we actually get men and straight folks to do a lot more of
this work? Can men and straight folks really start doing more of
the collective, community-based, community-sustaining work,
rather than just—which often is the case, but not always—focusing
on their individual careers and individual well-being, sometimes
to the detriment of our larger communities? How can we shift and
transform the distribution of that labor? How can we take care of Rosy Simas in Weave. Photo by Imranda Ward. Design by Rosy Simas. McKnight Fellowship/MANCC Residency, 2018.
ourselves better, individually and collectively, as we do this work?
We do such hard work, to make sure people are treated well, truly
included and honored, taken care of and mentored. We know what Who is paying for the healthcare, taxes, retirement of artists?
exclusion feels like. We know what it means to not be mentored. We Artists aren’t valued like salaried employees in the arts. The system
know what it means for someone to not put that time into us. Maybe is structured to benefit the institutions and not the individual artist.
we have had beautiful experiences of being mentored, supported, and Stability of the institution is more important to foundations and
cared for, and we want to honor that, too. But we also know the deep society than the stability of individual artists. And artists do most
ways we’ve been kept outside of things, ignored, while others more of the labor. Not just the art making, obviously. I’m talking about
privileged have much easier access to things, and are showered with everything else that is required around presenting, exhibiting, con
attention. I think that is one of the reasons why I put so much time textualizing, working with community, building audience, creating
into supporting and being there for other folk. I know what it’s like understanding between people. I am weary and tired of having this
to be deeply lonely. I know what it is like to not understand a system. conversation and pointing this out, over and over and over again.
When I was 19, I had to put my first résumé together to apply There has to be a point at which the dance world needs to become
to serve on the LGBT Advisory Committee for the San Francisco culturally competent—or it will just become totally irrelevant.
Human Rights Commission. No one in my family had a résumé. So, I grew up in a dance community where people didn’t share things
here I was crying, with friends supporting me, while trying to type and didn’t help each other. My response to that was the opposite:
one up. Because we were manual laborers, you know? Someone asks me (and maybe this is stupid of me), “Can I see your
Because of painful times like that, when I didn’t have previous application that you put together for a grant you received, so I can
experience or guidance, but thankfully did have love and support, just look at how you put it together as I’m putting mine together?”
that is why I put so much into being there, caring for, mentoring, Usually for a fellowship, something that I have already received,
and supporting others. I don’t ever want us to be alone as we face I’m happy to share that, and I’m not just talking about sharing with
this world; it’s too hard enough as it is. We need each other. Native artists, I’m happy to share that with all my colleagues because
RS: A little bit in response to this: How do we get men and other I don’t think that that information should be secret. Of course, we
people to do some of that work? Part of the problem is the western have intellectual property rights, but ultimately the concept that
reward system. I do “x” and I get “y”. Many people are motivated an idea belongs to any one individual is not something that I even
by rewards: What is the reward to doing something and how does understand, because that isn’t a value system that I grew up in, or
it directly benefit me? One of the most difficult things is that the art existed within. We are the accumulation of many generations of
world, just like the rest of the world, is completely dominated with people, but also of the people that are around us, whether we like
this concept. People don’t do things without personal gain. them or not. We all absorb and secrete ideas and images. We are
We are stuck in a time of extreme gender and racial bias in this only going to create more community if we share with each other.
country. Reality is that men are just questioned less. Their work is
good until proven not good, whatever the field is. They’re competent
until proven not competent. Whereas women, trans folks, and many
people of color have to prove that their work is good against societal
conditioning that their work is less competent, of poor quality, and
lacking substance. This is true in almost all fields, and art is no
exception, although we think it is. The art world is a good example
of how colonialism, racism, and gender bias persist in spite of good
intentions to be a force for change.
I do the work we are talking about because I know that I can
do the work well. It is not my job to have more conversations with
the people who are not doing their work about how they can do
the work that needs to be done. That again is just more labor I am
harvested for. For me, working collaboratively means I’m going to
work with people, for the most part, who are able to do the work and
be responsible for their part of the work, whatever that is. I can work
collaboratively with an institution, but it is challenging.
My struggle is mostly with institutions and that process of
constantly asking the artists to do the work for them. There’s just
so much conditioning around: We’re gonna make a budget; we’re
gonna pay half to the artists that we do the salaried employees
because we have to cover the benefits and taxes of the employees.
That makes sense to them. Artists fees are, just, all they need. They
don’t get benefits and pay their own taxes. And boy, $20,000 is a lot
of money for an artist. 6
Iakowi:he’ne’ (Melissa) Oakes
When We Dance: Decolonizing Movements Across Generations
My name is Iakowi:he’ne’. I am Kanien’kehá:ka, meaning Mohawk, the People home on the rez starving and living in severe poverty. They both left on a train
of the Flint. I am of the Snipe Clan family. I was given my name through and made their way ironworking thereafter. My tota came back when he was
ceremony in the longhouse, in Akwesasne, at age nineteen. Traditions have twenty-two, and that’s when he met my grandmother. She experienced her
taught me the Creator only recognizes one Iakowi:he’ne’ at a time. After I education and assimilation in a convent on the reserve. She left the convent
pass on to the next world, my name will be woven onto another within the at the age of fifteen.
next generation. Iakowi:he’ne’ means “She Gathers and Organizes People.” They birthed twelve children, one being my father.
Clan mothers choose who gets what name, and they chose this name for me. Can you imagine someone beating you, starving you, telling you your
I thought it was interesting that they chose this name for me. It was like way of life is illegal and worthless? Just imagine. Their laws and systems were
they saw something in me and my spirit before I did. I have always had issues put in place to strip us of our identity, our culture, language, and ceremonies.
speaking publicly, but I am finding that my existence is demanding it. It seems And when they could no longer just kill us off, they created laws and systems
to have become my role, and charges at me with great purpose. Speaking up to destroy us from within—tear at our spirit, break us down, till we were
has become a responsibility, and responsibility is my driver. You can’t gather empty vessels ready to be filled up with Christianity. In my family, I am the
and organize unless you speak, right? first generation to not be abused and beaten in school. But this does not mean I
My lifeways navigate what it is to be an Indigenous woman in movement, was not abused or beaten. I, like most others, endure intergenerational trauma
actively refusing colonial frameworks, and all their injustices and inequities. from all directions. But like my totas, and my parents, I, too, am resilient.
I am going to tell you about my life, family, and experience. My family’s Oppressive laws such as the potlatch ban, the Sixties Scoop, residential
journey. My journey through decolonizing my mind in as many ways as I can. schools, and the Indian Act were strategically created to destroy our culture
Through these experiences you will hopefully appreciate the significance in and systematically assimilate us into a melting pot of western civilization.
our journey—a journey endured by most Indigenous communities. Know that For us, movement, dance, song, and ceremony were our religion. They
our perspectives differ. You may see us as victims, but I see us as resilient, as were our medicine. They were our prayer, and what you may consider church.
warriors. We are people stronger than colonization and so-called “western Dance, songs, stories, potlatching, and ceremonies are our way of life.
civilization.” With everything I just told you, I hope you realize that it was illegal for us
I want to say that my life, since I was a child, has been in the constant to dance. And that’s why now, in my generation it is so significant for us to
process of decolonization. dance, in ceremonies, and in powwows; it is medicine for our spirit. It is
“I am the grandchild of the Onkwehonwe (Indians) you were not able to medicine to move freely across our land, Turtle Island. Movement and dance
remove.” A saying, a common truth, in First Nations communities in North give us strength and reaffirm our strength in recognition with the Creator.
America and Canada, preferably known as Turtle Island. We reaffirm our cohesion and kinship with not only our fellow humans, but
I’m going to give you a timeline of my grandparents. On my mom’s side, also the land, with our brothers and sisters in the animal family and all things
my tota/my grandfather was born September 30, 1914; he was Wolf Clan. My living in nature.
grandmother was born February 17, 1927, and she was Snipe Clan. Dance is not so easy for us. Shame has been conditioned upon our ways.
We are a matrilineal society, so my clan comes from my mother, and her So, when we dance, we are proclaiming not only our identity with prowess but
mother, and is carried by my daughters. This is our family title, comparable also reverence. When we dance at powwows and ceremonies, we are letting
to your last name passed on from your father, through marriage perhaps. the oppressors know that our existence is resistance. And our resilience, Great
To understand people, you must first start with their roots. These are Peace, and identity are stronger than all settler-colonizer sins combined.
mine. My tota or grandfather, Johnny Jacobs, never went to school. He and Iakowi:he’ne’ of the Snipe Clan. I am Onkwehonwe, the people and
his sisters tirelessly made traditional sweetgrass baskets to survive. My aunt, protectors of Turtle Island. Through a long painful journey of decolonizing
Mary, his sister, eventually became a world-renowned Mohawk sweetgrass my mind, I am also decolonizing my movement, navigating through the land
basketmaker. She has works in the Smithsonian and created the Pope Basket, which is rightfully Onkwehonwe, as well as dancing in powwows and creating
a gift and symbol in recognition of Kateri Tekawitha’s sainthood. a path for my daughters to follow and dance upon too.
Whilst making baskets, my grandfather, as a young teenager, would trade
the baskets for cigarettes, and bring those cigarettes to Cornwall, a town that
was close by. He would then sell them for cash, so he and his sisters could
buy food. My grandfather would hop on his boat and begin his journey of
trading the baskets, so he and his sisters could survive. He eventually, at age
fourteen, went away to ironwork, building skyscrapers and bridges in New
York City. He, in the midst of all this, managed to be a lacrosse player and
recognized legend in the sport. Lacrosse is an Iroquois medicine sport gifted
by the Creator. I believe lacrosse is what kept him and his spirit strong. But
not just him, all Onkwehonwe men that played and practiced this medicine
while navigating the violence of settler colonialism.
My grandmother was born in 1927. At age eleven, she was scooped up
and brought to a residential school in Smiths Falls. If you don’t know anything
about residential schools, you should know this: The goal was to kill the Indian;
keep the body. Strip them of all language, ceremony, or identification of what
they know to be tradition and their way of life. Children were murdered, raped,
physically, sexually, and emotionally abused. Not only did they cut their hair,
but they also burned it in front of them. Children were kidnapped by the church
and Canadian government and brought to these residential schools 200–300
miles away from home. Many that escaped, such as my grandparents, as small
children, travelled aimlessly through the territory against all odds, such as
violent settlers and the strain of winter, alone. Small children.
At age fifteen, my grandmother ran away from the residential school
along with other children from Akwesasne. Who knows the horrors those
children faced individually. It’s hard to imagine, but imagine we must. She then
travelled to Syracuse to work, because if you don’t know by now, reservations
are designed to keep our people in poverty. She, like my grandfather, went
away to work in order to survive.
They eventually met and had eleven kids together, my mom being one.
I was raised by my totas, spent most of my childhood with them. This is
why I start with their story.
On to my parents, my mom and dad also endured schools run by nuns
and missionaries on our reserve. I always heard whispers about physical and
sexual abuse. But this was never a discussion. It is very sensitive. Recently, I
asked my mom if she or any of my aunts and uncles were abused. It took her
some time to answer. And she then said, “We all were abused,” and I knew
not to ask any more questions, because I was triggering painful memories
for her. So, I left it at that.
Moving onto my totas on my father’s side. My grandfather, also named
Johnny, Johnny Oakes, never attended school. He started out trapping in
Summerstown, a town nearby. He also began jumping trains and ended up in
Detroit. There he learned how to do ironwork and labour through odd jobs on
7 his journey. He eventually came back to get his brother, Tickets. He was back
T. Lulani Arquette
This Place We All Inhabit: A Shared Kuleana
My kupuna (elders) would take me to the ocean and they would point out

across its turquoise waters and refer to her as the blue continent and the
life-giving force.
We are all part of this great family of life and there is a dance between
all the elemental parts. Papa (mother earth) and Wākea (sky father) make up
the air, land, and water that gives rise to the plants, animals, and first humans.
The rising and setting of the sun, the cycles of the moon, the movement of
the ocean and tides are the source of life on this planet from the single-celled
organism to the most complex human being. We owe our creation to the
interplay between these essential elements, thus we share a responsibility
for the stewardship and care for all of it.
We have an exceptional relationship with “Mother” Earth, our natural
habitat, and other nonhuman lifeforms. This reverence and respect for our
relatives of the natural world is deeply ingrained in Native Hawaiian conscious
ness and practice. Historically, people took only what they needed to survive
to ensure the health of the natural habitat and the perpetuation of animal and
plant species. A healthy, thriving environment led to abundance and physical
well-being and produced a spirit-filled life.
Many Indigenous creation stories and numerous legends speak to the
transformation of humans into natural phenomena or animal beings. There
is this reciprocal exchange of form occurring where “life force” is physically
mutable and changing. A grandmother becomes the moon; thwarted lovers
become two sacred mountains in close proximity; a beloved baby who dies
young becomes a nourishing plant. The Native world is alive and filled with
the spirit of cherished ancestors. What we call the land and natural habitat
are actually an extension of oneself and part of the greater ‘ohana’ (family
of life) . This deep “sense of place” forms the core of Native knowledge and
intelligence. If you mālama ‘āina or aloha ‘āina, care for and nurture the land
(both physically and spiritually), she will care for you.
In Hawaiian practice, generations of families had such an intimate
relationship with the environment that they gave names to winds and rains that
pertained only to specific places. For example, where my great-grandfather
comes from in a place called Waimea on the largest island in Hawai‘i, there
is a wind-and-rain called Kipu‘upu‘u, which is a cold wind or rain that pelts
the skin. Waimea is often shrouded in misty clouds and colder than most
other parts of the islands, particularly in the mornings and evenings. But its
rolling hills and fields are green due to the abundance of the life-giving rain.
In Hawai‘i, there are over one hundred names for different kinds of rain, and
seventy-five names for various winds across the islands.
In Hawai‘i, and across the continent, Native peoples have lost most
of our original homelands. By 1880, Native Nations of North America had
ceded nearly two billion acres of land to the United States in forced land loss
and what would become broken treaties. By 1962, Native people had lost an
additional one hundred million acres of land due to federal policies to terminate
or assimilate Native people and their Nations.
I feel a deep responsibility to do whatever I can to help recover the
magnificence of Papa and Wākea, bring our planet forward to a sustainable
state, and help others to understand the importance of this place we all inhabit.
8
Anastasia Ski um talx McAllister
ode to all the displaced cyber Natives

The word “kełłexíls” roughly translates to “I will do what I want and there is
no force that can stop me” in my language, Interior Salish / n’səl’xcin’. I do
not know my language fluently and I find myself often scouring dictionaries
trying to learn and absorb as much as possible while living far away from
the land my people come from. Finding this word has guided me through
creating this piece.
I come from salmon people. There is an unfortunate history of my people’s
land and rivers being flooded by dams and pollution. This has largely disrupted
our way of life; villages have been lost; salmon have been dying and losing
their traditional migration pathways. In spite of all this though, of course, we
have been resilient. We still fish. We still have our salmon ceremonies. There
are now movements to protect the salmon.
As I said, I am far away from home; one night I found myself watching
videos of our fisherman using traditional fishing techniques. As I was watching,
I picked one hand of each of the fisherman and followed the movement, creating
continuous lines. And after doing this many times, I noticed how similar in
shape their movements were to salmon.
This thought process is seen in a collage I made from materials I found
at my work office desk. Yeah, I was at work, but kełłexíls.
kełłexíls, 2018, 9 × 11 inches, collage; ink on paper, cardboard.
I explored this further and turned my physical collage into a digital collage.
This piece explores not only the history and presence of salmon, but also
the pain of my distance to my family, my people, and the land. My connections
are mostly digital: dictionaries on the internet, videos on social media, phone
calls, and texts home. This piece is an ode to all the displaced cyber Natives.
9 šnp̓ əšqʷáw̓ šəxʷ, 2018, 2400 × 3000 pixels, digital collage from ink on paper pieces.
Gerald Clarke & Michelle H. Raheja
Provocative Moves: Remembering James Luna
I N T RODUC T ION this Native artist performing at the Dallas Museum of Art. It would be cool

Gerald Clarke, a Cahuilla artist, professor, and cattle rancher and I recently if you could check it out.” It wasn’t very important to me. I must have had
sat down in my office at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), on a the weekend off, so I drove the two hours over to Dallas. The Museum is this
characteristically warm southern California autumn afternoon to reminisce big white cathedral of white culture and James’s talk was in the auditorium
and honor the memory of James Luna, the Payómkawichum, Ipi, and Mexican with its stark, white walls. In the end, it wasn’t a performance that James was
American performance artist, poet, photographer, academic counselor, musician, doing; it was a slide lecture of his work, but he turned it into a performance.
activist, multimedia installation artist, professor, important community member, The audience was a mixture of white museum-type people and white grad
and honorary doctoral degree holder from the La Jolla Indian Reservation less students—it was a pretty homogenous group. And there I was in the crowd,
than a year after his untimely death. Luna was a self-styled “Culture Warrior,” kind of like checking it all out. And he comes out and he walks up to the
whose thirty-plus-year career immeasurably and indelibly changed the fields podium and asks everyone to stand. So, everyone stands. Some people even
of Native American and settler art, dance, literature, and performance. Luna took off their hats. And then he starts doing this kind of movement and dance,
was one of a handful of Indigenous community and academic scholars and a kind of mime thing to a Prince song. And I’m kind of cracking up because it
artists who moved the conversation in the early 1980s away from tired, worn was kind of awkward. But at the same time all these people were eating it up,
clichés of the vanishing, romantic Indian to a more nuanced understanding you know, like it was real Indianness. It wasn’t a rocking Prince song; it was
of contemporary, vibrant, complex Native experience. Arguably one of the kind of an ethereal kind of love thing. Then, at its conclusion, he said, “Okay,
most critically and internationally acclaimed and well-known contemporary thank you, you can sit down,” followed by “that was just something I thought
performance, installation, and visual artists, Luna was also a profoundly warm, of,” puncturing the audience’s expectations of a deeply spiritual ceremonial
funny, brilliant, generous human being whose work will be remembered as opening. And you get the sense he knew who he was talking to and he knew
fiercely original, subversive, painful, and humorous. what their motivation was for being there and so he goes on and talks about
In a beautifully written tribute to Luna’s work, his long-time friend his work. But it was the same weekend Texas and the University of Oklahoma
and collaborator Paul Chaat Smith called him “one of the most dangerous were playing football. That’s like this huge rivalry, right? So, every now and
Indians alive.” 1 And now he joins the esteemed ranks of the most dangerous then in the middle of the lecture he’d put his ear buds in and he’d say, “Score!
Indians in memory, alongside fellow California Indians Toypurina, Ishi, and Texas up 17/14 in the third quarter!” and then he’d go back to lecturing.
Rupert Costo. He was dangerous because he took risks and said and did things So, it was kind of performative and seemingly unscripted in that way,
very few, if any, other Native artists, were willing or able to do. He was, to even in a context like a museum space that requires solemnity and measured,
cite Smith again, an “expert in the fine art of staging jailbreaks” from the scholarly speech. And he’d say things that I thought were just funnier than
“ideological prison that confines Indian agency.” 2 Not only did he puncture hell and I’d be the only one in there laughing, right? So, it was very powerful.
an over five-hundred-year settler colonial script that obsessively situates And it was the first Native artist I encountered who came across to me as being
Indigenous peoples in the past with no possible present or future, he teased real and not just playing the schtick of being a Native artist. To be honest with
out and confronted stereotypes that some Native artists have found seductive. you, I went into the bathroom afterwards and I just bawled my eyes out. It’s
Luna’s Wet Dream Catcher, a horizontal tennis racket with four condoms emotional even today, right? It was like, he was real. You could relate to him.
affixed to the strings with several objects, including a rabbit’s foot and So, afterwards, of course, plenty of white people were lined up to shake his
dice, hanging from the racquet head, comes to mind here. It exemplifies hand and give him a hug. And so, I hung out back a bit, then I walked up. I
Luna’s wry sense of humor through a critique of the commodification and was like, “Hey, what’s up, I’m Gerald blah blah blah from Cahuilla” and he’s
decontextualization of tribally-specific ceremonial objects, both by settlers like, ‘Oh,’ and gave me a hug. Apparently, our families knew each other (our
and Native people who make and sell them. His work was dangerous in its reservations are across the mountain from each other) and had for a long time.
ability to cause audience members to laugh so hard they cried and to cry so And, you know, nobody in his family bothered to tell him about me, although
hard at his devastating humor. I was just in grad school. And nobody in my family bothered to tell me about
him either. That just started the whole thing, our friendship. James kind of
came across when someone wanted to meet him as, you know, the very serious
I N T E RV I E W “Mr. Luna.” We’d always tease him by calling him “Mr. Luna.” He kind of
The following should be read as a conversation between two fans, friends, came across as, you know, “kiss my ring.” But in actuality he helped so many
and colleagues of Luna’s, a conversation filled with laughter and shout-outs people and was a genuine mentor, possibly because of his experiences as an
to our favorite performances, memories, and installation pieces, but also academic guidance counselor. When I’d come home from grad school, he’d
one marked by brief silences as one or both of us choked up and paused until invite me over to barbeques and we did that, you know, forever, for years. So
we could speak again without wavering voices. For Gerald, The History of that was when I first met him.
the Luiseño People: La Jolla Reservation, Christmas 1990, was off limits He was a hero who eventually became my mentor who eventually became
for discussion. This 1993 performance, filmed by Isaac Artenstein, features my friend. We spent hours talking together. You know, what’s the goal of the
Luna’s persona drunk dialing friends and relatives alone in front of his internationally acclaimed visual artist? Well, you get a piece in the MoMA.
television on Christmas—a vision of profound loneliness and alienation. You have a retrospective at the Whitney. And maybe a show at the Venice
For me, discussing Ishi: The Archive Performance and the photo of Luna in Biennale and all these things. And he did pretty much all those things, as well
a black t-shirt that reads “Fuck You” next to an archival photograph of Ishi as winning a Guggenheim. But, like me and my relationship to my work, he
in a similar pose—an image that radically confronts settler narratives of Ishi understood what was really important was the people back home, you know?
as victim—makes my eyes well up with tears and is one about which I have a And yet I remember in the film, Bringing It All Back Home, when he performs
hard time talking. And he shared those tears with all of us. Not the Iron Eyes in the tribal hall and he says, “You know, I’ve presented all over the world,
Cody Keep America Beautiful Crying Indian caricature of Indigenous pain, but that was the place that was so meaningful because it’s your people right
but the deeper, empathetic tears that represent the very human experiences there. Those are the ones who can really judge you, right?”
of being a Native person in the early twenty-first century. In an interview As I wrote in the News from Native California piece, “twenty-five years
with the Smithsonian about Ishi: The Archive Performance, James confided: later and having learned of his passing, it’s not just his art that is most in my
One evening as I began to script at my kitchen table, I realized that many mind. I think of his friendly and welcoming demeanor, willingness to help and
of these ideas, thoughts, and feelings were not mine but his. I had entered a mentor young people, and his ability to recognize and say what needed to be
spiritual space. There are moments when I have presented the performance said. Most of all, I think of his humanity, his generosity, and his lust for life.” 5
that I do all I can not to become overwhelmed with emotions of sadness and Michelle: I didn’t have that kind of close personal relationship with
loss to complete work. Then there comes the feeling of relief and accomplish James, but was a huge fan of his work when I first came across it in grad school
ment that I have shared an important story on behalf of the Native peoples of when I read his poetry in Greg Sarris’ The Sound of Rattles and Clappers. I
California and the phenomenal story of Ishi.3 was like, mind blown. Not only have California Indians had a vexed, mostly
Michelle H. Raheja: Could you say a few words about how you got to invisibilized presence in Native American Studies until relatively recently,
know James Luna and what your impressions were of him? Also, how do here was this artist critiquing the ways museums, universities, and pop culture
1 — Smith, Paul Chaat,
we talk about him in both an academic and community setting; what are the have dehumanized Indigenous bodies as artifacts by using his own body to “Luna Remembers”
protocols in the wake of his untimely death? launch that critique in works like The Artifact Piece (1986) and Take a Picture (https://www.paulchaatsmith.
Gerald Clarke: I don’t know if you saw the Gordon Johnson, myself, Lewis With a Real Indian (1991–1993). Most of my interactions with him were in my com/luna-remembers.html)
DeSoto, and Lindsie Bear issue of News from Native California last Spring? capacity as a campus events co-organizer. What really struck me was how 2 — Ibid
We all wrote a little something in memoriam.4 Haha, I think some people easy it was to work with him. He had all of these lovely diva-esque, larger
thought I was just using the opportunity to talk about myself or whatever. But than life personas on stage, but was in fact incredibly down to earth, flexible, 3 — Smithsonian National Portrait
Gallery Blog, “IDENTIFY: James
in actuality, for Cahuillas, when you have someone close to you pass away, in and generous. I wrote a bit about his work in Reservation Reelism and sent Luna.” January 15, 2016. http://npg.
particular, blood relatives, then you sit out a year. You don’t sing. You don’t him a copy of the book when it was published. A few weeks later I received a si.edu/blog/identify-james-luna
dance. And you don’t go to birthday parties or community events. You take a big cardboard tube in my mailbox. Inside were two signed posters featuring
4 — Gordon Johnson, Lewis
year off to collect, heal, and mourn. So, I was very apprehensive about talking eight different photographs from various performances. They’re in frames DeSoto, Lindsie Bear, and Gerald
about anything specific about him. in our living room and my two daughters refer to them as “the naked guy in Clarke, “With Respect: James
I met James at the Dallas Museum of Art. I was in grad school in Texas our house.” In some perverse way, I like thinking of him exposing himself, Luna.” News from Native California.
31(Spring 2018)3: 55–58.
and this hippy, New Agey grad student in my program who was all into Indian exposing ourselves, exposing the amnestic nature of American culture. What
spirituality and shit like that, he said, “Hey, man, I hear there’s going to be really struck me about him, though, was that while his work was bitingly 5 — Clarke, 58. 10
in counseling, so I think that served to keep him grounded and as a way of

preserving his humanity.

Michelle: Yeah, he was very empathetic. I mean, he had different personas
and some of those personas were harsher and seemed impenetrable in some
ways, but he was such a deeply empathetic person and really sweet.
Gerald: He very much prided himself on being a professional in his field,
right? And he had very high expectations and he would jump on you if you
weren’t living up to them. And, I think, that too was another aspect of him as
an artist and a person. He had high expectations of himself and he expected
that of the people around him.
Michelle: I heard James kind of get a little upset a few times when he was
asked during Q&As about his work as a Native artist without understanding the
broader American art context in which he was also incredibly successful and
groundbreaking. What do you think of that, even in terms of your own work?
Gerald: Well, we kind of got into this a little bit in the documentary
film, Native Art Now, coming out this month on PBS.7 They brought all of us
Eiteljorg fellows back, around twenty of us. The directors also included some
Native art historians and scholars and such. I think it’s a generational thing
myself. So, he and Kay WalkingStick that I remember the most weighed in
on this issue. I presented at the Nelson Atkins Art Museum in Kansas City
last year and I had a Native artist panel whose topic was “Belonging”—an
important topic right now with this whole anti-immigration thing. While I was
there, I visited the Native American art collection. There were display cases
with a contemporary object right next a 5,000-year-old pot. And, of course,
I wondered why the contemporary art piece wasn’t down in the American or
Transitions, a collaborative performance by Denise Uyehara and James Luna which premiered November 10, 2012, at Los Angeles contemporary art wings. It tells you more about society’s views of Natives
Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), in Los Angeles, California, as part of the J. Paul Getty Trust’s Pacific Standard Time initiative. than anything else, I think. So, Kay and James were, like, why are we in the
Photography and design by Adam Cooper-Terán.
NMAI, but not in these iconic American or contemporary art museums? I
notice at many of these museums that the captions on paintings and other art
objects will read “so and so artist, American” and “so and so artist, Polish,”
but then others would read “so and so, Chickasaw.”
critical, I never saw or heard him put down other individual Native artists or Michelle: And they probably weren’t making a more complex case for
public figures in his performances, our conversations, or published interviews. Chickasaw nationhood and sovereignty, right, haha?
He was a class act in that way. Gerald: No, they certainly weren’t, haha! The point Kay and James were
He came to campus for the first time in 2006 to give a talk/performance, making was why aren’t we in these big museum collections? We need to be
Sage, Dreams, Rock and Roll: Installation and Performance Works, and included in the mainstream museum context. I disagree, actually. I’m fine if
then again in 2008 when he gave the keynote performance, Four Ways, at they want to do it or whatever, but what concerns me more is the exportation of
the California Indian Conference hosted at UCR Palm Desert (which was, our artworks out of our communities through the market system and such. As
according to him, the first time he performed for a mostly Native audience). In far as I know, there are no contemporary art museums on Indian reservations.
this piece, Luna adopted the persona, Uncle Jimmy, a grouchy Indian everyman So, there’s a generational thing, I think. That generation had been fighting
struggling with diabetes and addiction, who fried up a Spam sandwich on that battle of inclusion.
stage, tested his insulin levels, and criticized his relatives for their apathy. I Michelle: Although not generally known as a dancer or choreographer,
was so honored to have a very small role in that piece. Although I had no idea James took provocative risks with his body in works like The Artifact Piece,
I would be part of the performance, he invited me on stage as one of his nieces Petroglyphs in Motion, and in the many photographs James took displaying
and presented me with a “medicine bag” (a paper bag from the Indian Health his body in all of its perfection and what the dominant culture would read
Council Pharmacy in Pauma) filled with salted cashews and a can of Spam. as imperfections. What did you make of those kinds of performances of
In 2009 he returned as part of the You Belong to Me: Art and the Ethics of vulnerability and strength?
Presence Symposium and Performance Series (where he performed alongside Gerald: My relationship with James inspired me to do my first performance
Ursula Rucker and Ron Athey) organized by Jennifer Doyle, a UCR faculty piece, Task. I’ve reworked it several different times and in it I iron for eight
member and friend and fan of James’s work. And in 2018, a week before he died, hours straight. I did that on the very first anniversary of 9/11. I was desperate
he returned to campus as part of Writers Week at poet, musician, filmmaker, to do something different than what humanity was doing at the time and I
performance artist, and UCR professor Allison Hedge Coke’s invitation to remember I was terrified. In painting and in sculpture, you express yourself.
read from his work in the anthology, Red Indian Road West (2016), and give And you put your piece in the museum and then you leave. But when you’re
four performances from his most recent projects. This standing-room-only in the piece, right, if you’re spouting bullshit, people can call you out right to
performance on campus may very well have been his last public presentation. your face. You’re invested; you are the piece—what happens when you are the
Over breakfast, Allison says that James indicated that he wanted to be known piece? I learned that with my first performance piece and I was terrified. The
less for his work in The Artifact Piece and more for his work in its evolving body, for James, was central to his work, and his experiences as a musician,
entirety, including his newer performances, like Jackson Luna, something his performance homages to 1950s pop culture figures, and his deep interest
she found so poignant in retrospect given that he passed on a few weeks after. in both his own community’s art forms and global Indigenous art forms (he
“I don’t want that to be my glory,” he claimed, “I’ve done lots of work since was especially inspired by his trip to Aotearoa/New Zealand and visit with
then and I have work I’m still developing,” four pieces of which he performed Māori people) no doubt helped foster his body performance practice. He
on campus. One can only imagine how these new pieces, especially his art used his body as a way of breaking down stereotypes that the mainstream
that critiqued the current political climate, would have impacted the role of had, humanizing Natives out of the abstract, out of the historic, out of the
Native American and American art, and what kinds of new work he would romanticized Noble Savage and into the flesh and blood. As an inspiration to
continue to produce. Indigenous dancers and choreographers, he put his body on the line, a body
One of the fascinating things about performance art generally is that it marked by fragility and strength, resilience, and suffering.
doesn’t offer up consumable objects to purchase, collect, and hang on a museum
wall necessarily. Although James was paid an honorarium or performance fee
for his labor, he didn’t produce many objects that were permanent or could be
sold at an art market. His work was ephemeral, in the sense that José Esteban
Muñoz argues for aspects of the ephemeral in performance as something that
doesn’t disappear, but retains a sense of materiality in its “traces, glimmers,
residues, and specks of things.” 6 How did you see James’s work in that aspect?
Gerald: The non-capitalist aspect of James’s work, not producing art as
a commodity so much, I think can be attributed to his background. He grew
up in Orange County, right? That was back when Orange County still had
6 — Muõz, José Esteban, “Ephemera oranges and gardens and farms and chickens and stuff. Then there was his
as Evidence: Introductory Notes
to Queer Acts,” in Women and life on the rez, too. So, I think that was more important than his art education
Performance: A Journal of Feminist so far as defining the work. The accessibility of it was key. You can go to his
Theory. 8 (1996) 2: 5–18, 10. website and you can find a lot of his videos for free.
7 — PBS, Native Art Now (https:// I think I’d go crazy if all I did was art. But I’ve got cows and all this
11 www.pbs.org/show/native-art-now/) other stuff that keeps me sane. And as far as James goes, his degree was
Anna Tsouhlarakis
Breath of Wind
These three stills are from a three-minute video titled Breath of Wind. It was made for an exhibition dealing with

issues surrounding abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation. The video is comprised of overlaid channels of
imagery—one of my body and the other of my family land which is adjacent to the Church Rock uranium mine. While
not much visible evidence remains of the Church Rock uranium disaster, the catastrophe resurfaces every time the
wind blows and sends radioactive particles to the homes and corrals of local residents. The wind speaks to the forgotten
and diminished stories of the land and people. It is invisible, constant, and unrelenting.
Anna Tsouhlarakis, Breath of Wind,

2017, digital video, 3:15 min. (3 stills). 12
Laura Ortman
Laura Ortman, Someday We’ll Be

Together, 2011, album cover.
Laura Ortman, Someday We’ll Be

Together, 2011, photo, wood burn
13 drawing, installation.
Maria Hupfield
with John Hupfield (Waaseyaabin) and Deanne Hupfield &
Sm Łoodm ’Nüüsm (Dr. Mique’l Dangeli) and Goothl Ts’imilx (Mike Dangeli)
Dancing for Spirit, Family, Community, and Culture
PA R T I on the powwow trail. I really enjoy watching that style of dance but

An Interview by Maria Hupfield find myself gravitating more towards “old style” grass dancers who
with John Hupfield (Waaseyaabin) and Deanne Hupfield are a bit more grounded, but still very fluid with lots of footwork.
New York and Toronto, June 2018 There are too many to name, and I think that’s what is so cool—is
that they are all grass dancers but have their own styles and I guess
Maria: As one of your older sisters, we are in constant conversation. what you would call ‘signature moves.’
Ever since I invited the two of you to work together on my project Maria: What was your most memorable dance experience that you
and exhibition The One Who Keeps on Giving, at The Power Plant, would like to share?
in January 2017, dance and its connection to interdisciplinary John: There are lots of places we’ve been asked to dance over the
performance art has been on my mind. While all three of us work years and I am thankful for them all. One that meant a lot to me
with contemporary culture, the body, and movement, we are also was at an outdoor concert in downtown Toronto for A Tribe Called
committed to Anishinaabe cultural knowledge, and material culture. Red. Dancing in front of so many people at a high-profile event was
As part of my family the two of you make both my art work and spirit a huge rush for sure, but it was actually after the show, when we
richer. There is so much to be learned about how dance functions were walking off the stage and headed to change out of our regalia.
in your lives and shapes your lifestyle. How do you prefer to be A lot of Indigenous people in the crowd came over and said they
introduced? How do you describe your style of dance? were proud to see us out there. It made them feel pride in who they
John: Waaseyaabin ndishnikaaz. Waabshensheen Dodem. Wasauksing were. Just hearing that was like “wow!” I never considered how my
Doonjibaa. Anishinaabe ndow. My given name is John Hupfield and dancing can make others feel and I was very humbled to hear that.
my spirit name is Waaseyaabin. I’m Anishinaabe from Wasauksing Deanne: Recently it was watching my daughter Niimin dance
First Nation, Ontario, Canada and Marten Clan. I’m a grass dancer for her first time in competition. She made me so proud doing her
and have been dancing and feasting my outfit for about eight years best and lining up to be judged. I try to teach her to do her best and
now. Growing up we always went to our community powwows in forget the rest. Also dancing with Biidaaban and John for her first
the area, but I never had the opportunity to learn how to dance until Tiny Tot dance. Being with them and dancing as a family is where
I was older and met my wife and partner Deanne. I am happiest.
Deanne: Deanne Hupfield from Temagami First Nation, Ontario Maria: What is your self-defined biggest accomplishment as a dancer?
Canada—Women’s Fancy Shawl. I learned my dance as a child. My Deanne: Being able to share dance teachings with others. Helping
mother couldn’t teach me to dance because she didn’t learn growing others learn to dance. While teaching them Canadian politics at
up. Which I later learned was because she was a 1960s scoop kid and the same time, haha.
her parents went to residential school. But when I was a small girl, my John: I think my favourite moments now are seeing my kids put on
mom told me to follow the women dancers, so I did; I was their shadow their own regalia and dancing at powwows. For them to be able to
and over time they taught me steps and teachings about the dances. feel welcome and like they belong in that circle is what I find most
Maria: Do you create your own dance choreography or have you rewarding because for me, growing up, I never thought it would be
created choreography for others? possible. Because Deanne and I have spent years on the powwow
John: In terms of choreography, I don’t normally hear that term applied trail, our kids will always have that and I think that’s my biggest
to powwow dance styles, but I suppose there are core movements accomplishment as a dancer.
and steps involved with grass dance that make it recognizable. What Maria: Why do you dance? What keeps you dancing? What function
is really interesting to me, is once you have those core pieces down, does it serve in your life?
it’s finding your own ‘style’ that expresses who you are as a dancer. Deanne: Dancing is so beautiful and fun. I meet people from all
I’ve seen hundreds of dancers over the years and no two dancers are over the world and I get to travel and hang out with others who love
the exact same. That’s really amazing to think about and see. I’ve had dancing as well. It’s how I connect with my greater Indigenous
someone tell me that my dancing is choreographed, but I don’t see it community. On a personal level, I dance because of my family’s
that way. I think there are patterns of movement that my body wants intergenerational trauma. Because of that trauma I have had a
to do and that I’ve perhaps programmed into my muscle memory over hard life. Dancing helps me outrun the depression that comes with
the years, but to me that’s just my own dance style as a grass dancer carrying hurt. It keeps me happy and moving through colonization
that has evolved. One thing I was taught early on in my journey was and the oppression of my community. If I stop dancing or working
to think about symmetry in my movements, so if I do a certain pattern out often, I get depressed quickly. Dancing saved my life and that’s
of footwork on my left side, I would then mimic that onto my right not an exaggeration. I hope to share those gifts with others who
side as well. There are some conventions to the style that are based in struggle/struggled like I have.
the story and responsibilities of grass dancers—but how individuals Maria: When you dance are there other items you use? What role do
take those up and interpret them is what makes every dancer unique. they serve and can you describe your most necessary performance
When I’m out there at a powwow and I get a really good grass accessory (do you call them accessories)?
dance song, sometimes something a little bit upbeat but not too fast Deanne: I dance with my beadwork (head to toe), eagle feather,
[laughs] when I can just get into a song and focus on keeping the and shawl, and dress. My feather is the pride and joy of my regalia,
beat and dancing, I think that’s the closest I feel to being free. I’ve along with my beadwork made by the Gustafsons in Thunder Bay,
heard some people say that’s when you’re connecting or dancing Ontario. They represent how hard I have worked to get to where I am
from your spirit, and I suppose that’s what it feels like to kind of today. I danced until I was fifteen with no regalia. I came to Toronto
let go? So for me it’s more than just a workout, it helps me with my just to attend fashion school, so that I could make better regalia.
wellbeing, stress relief, and is a really positive outlet in life. John: All the pieces of my regalia, my grass outfit, my beadwork,
Maria: How long have you been dancing together? Do you dance my moccasins, my porcupine roach, they are all parts of the process
together or independently? for helping me prepare to dance. I suppose if you called dance a
Deanne: We have danced together for seven years. We compete ceremony, then getting dressed and putting on my regalia helps me
independently but we travel to many places to dance at powwows prepare and get into the mind frame to dance. I can do the dance
together. My favourite is dancing with John, and our children Niimin steps and movements without my outfit, but it feels weird, I guess
and now Biidaaban. it’s an extension of who I am and it helps ground me.
Maria: Who are some other dancers you look to and who keep you Maria: What is your dream venue to perform in and who would
pushing to be your best? it be with?
Deanne: Because I dance competitively, I always enjoying doing my John: My favourite places to dance are at big powwows where there
best. I watch the other women dance and it inspires me. I see how are hundreds of dancers and it’s just community there, just powwow
these women are leaders and hard workers. They make beautiful people and their families. Where the songs are jamming and the
regalia and are very strong. So I go to Crossfit, haha. energy of the space is just so alive you can’t help but get caught up in
John: Deanne really pushed me to get out there and dance more, so it. Those are my favourite places to dance, not so much a ‘show’ or a
I would say she was not just a supporter, but one of my first powwow ‘performance,’ but to dance for healing, wellness, and to hopefully
dance teachers. We dance different styles, so normally there are bring a smile to one of those kookum’s faces at the powwow and
specific songs that drum groups will sing for us at powwows. I hear someone say, “Good dancing out there.”
would say most of the time we dance independently from each Deanne: My dream place to dance would be on the powwow trail
other. I really enjoy watching other grass dancers, I used to have a all summer long out west (Alberta/Saskatchewan/British Columbia)
favourite—Trae Little Sky—when I first started dancing because and in the Ojibway/Dakota/Lakota territories in the U.S.
he was so fluid and looked effortless in his movements. What I’ve Maria: Can you share something about our experience working
learned is that to dance at a high of a level like Trae, it takes a very together for the first time to create the video The One Who Keeps
high level of fitness and energy which can be tough to maintain as On Giving?
you get older, haha. The majority of younger grass dancers have more Deanne: It was very special to be a part of The One Who Keeps On
bounce in their step and their style is called more “contemporary” Giving because it was for Peggy. I miss her and I wish she could have 14
John Hupfield (Waaseyaabin) at Akwesasne International Powwow, A'nowara'ko:wa Arena, on Kawehno:ke (Cornwall Island), in Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, Sep. 9th, 2018. Photo by Moontee Sinquah.
gotten to see her grandbabies. It was very emotional performing with PA R T I I

all of us and I was six or seven months pregnant with Biidaaban. An Interview by Maria Hupfield with Sm Łoodm ’Nüüsm
During the performance Biidaaban was just moving in my belly, (Dr. Mique’l Dangeli) and Goothl Ts’imilx (Mike Dangeli)
like she was dancing, haha. But it felt very special to be a part of it. New York and Vancouver, June 2018
John: I was very thankful to spend time with my siblings and my
partner to think of ways to bring our gifts together in a way that Maria: Last time I saw the two of you in person was in New York
honours our mother and her fiery, creative, beautiful spirit. Biidaasage where we both performed for DoublePlus, Gibney Dance, December
kwe, my mom, and I used to talk about starting our regalias and 2017, when choreographer Emily Johnson programmed us together.
going to powwows together so it only made sense that I wear a piece I remember during our first studio visit I said, “Just to make this
of her beadwork on my regalia and that I dance for her, not only clear, as far as I am concerned, we are all contemporary artists.” The
for the art show performance and video, but every time I dance. I distinction between being a visual artist and dancer are not separate
think the most challenging aspect, other than the emotional feels in our respective Native cultures. Although I am formally trained as
and thinking of my mom, was making sure that I could hear a drum an artist, as a cultural insider, I move confidently through multiple
and take my mind to that powwow. That’s why I felt I had to wear spaces and communities much like the two of you. It is rare to work
earphones and listen to a really good grass song in order to dance in together in mainstream institutions because of the way they break
that setting. I’m just glad I was able to do it and afterwards my dad everything down into disciplines yet there are so many benefits
told me “you really danced hard” and that’s when I knew it worked. when it happens. To be able to connect Indigenous-to-Indigenous
across media and art forms provides complementary insight into
the cultural wealth and specificity of each nation. How do you prefer
to be introduced?
Mike: Mike Dangeli (Nisga’a, Tsimshian, Tlingit, Tsetsaut)
Mique’l: Dr. Mique’l Dangeli (Tsimshian)
Maria: How do you describe your style of dance?
Mike and Mique’l: Our style of dance is a hereditary right of
Indigenous people from the Northern Northwest Coast, specifically
the Nisga’a, Tsimshian, Tlingit, and Tsetsaut Nations. As we are
matrilineal peoples, we’ve inherited these rights through our mothers.
We are primarily Na̱ x Nox mask dancers. Our masks express our
highest form of spiritual and supernatural power.
Maria: Do you create your own dance choreography or have you
created choreography for others?
Mique’l: Yes, I’ve created both, as well as creating new choreography
for ancient songs. Many of our songs and dances survived the cultural,
physical, and spiritual genocide attempted upon our ancestors in both
Canada and the U.S. Mike and I are fortunate to be of one of the first
generations to be born after the Canadian law—the potlach ban that
criminalized our songs, dances, and ceremonies was dropped. We’ve
learned many of our songs and dances from our families and communi
ties. From this foundational knowledge of our people’s dance practices,
we’ve also created new choreography—both songs and dances—
to record and reflect upon our lives as Indigenous people today.
We’ve seen quite often where ancient songs have survived our
oppression through subversive acts where our people used them for
reasons that differ from their original purpose. It was harder to do
so for the dances, however, because of its embodied nature. Thus,
there are many songs that have survived without their dance. I’ve
had the honor of creating new dances for ancient songs that have
survived in Mike’s family without their dance. I feel that these
dances most powerfully express the strength and resistance of our
people in the past and today.
Mike: My form of choreography is primarily song composition and
mask-making. That might sound strange, but for our people it’s all
interwoven in a way that makes it one and the same. Mique’l creates
the dances for our songs which are further strengthened by my
creation of masks in their meaning, motions, and transformations.
The songs that I write are also a part of this process. The creation of
Deanne Hupfield at Manito Ahbee Festival’s Pow Wow in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a performance for us begins first with the song, the energy of which
15 Canada, May 2018. Photo by Dan Gooden. brings forward the dance, and then the masks and other regalia.

Git Hayetsk with Goothl Ts'imilx (Mike Dangeli) and Sm Łoodm ’Nüüsm (Dr. Mique'l Dangeli), at Full Circle: First Nations Performance’s Talking Stick Festival, in Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, Feb. 27, 2014. Photo by Chris Randel.
Git Hayetsk with Sm Łoodm ’Nüüsm (Dr. Mique'l Dangeli) at Full Circle: First Nations Performance’s Talking Stick Festival, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Feb. 27, 2014. Photo by Chris Randel. 16
Maria: How long have you been dancing together? Do you dance them. In the dance, the Northwind blows through masks worn by four
together or independently? dancers. When we performed it for Mike’s canoe naming ceremony,
Mique’l: We’ve been dancing together since 1998. Our people’s witnesses commented that the wind blew them back in the chairs.
practice of dance is collective-based. These collectives are referred I was in awe at their response.
to as “dance groups.” Mike and I were first members of the same Maria: Why do you dance? What keeps you dancing? What function
Tsimshian dance groups in Seattle, Washington. We started our does it serve in your life?
own dance group, Git Hayetsk (people of the Copper Shield) when Mike: I dance for my grandfather Reggie Dangeli. He was my absolute
we started dating in 2003. We based Git Hayetsk out of our home in hero. I dance for my ancestors; some of them, on the Canadian side
Vancouver from that time until we moved to Terrace, B.C. last year. especially, were not allowed to dance; on the Alaska side, the laws
When we first started the group, it was just the two of us. Mike did were more lenient. A lot of time I dance for myself, especially that
the majority of the singing and drumming and I danced. We quickly little kid inside of me who growing up in Juneau, Alaska, used
grew to sixty-five dancers within the first five years of having our to get beat up for “Indian dancing.” I dance for my sons, whose
dance group, which is way too big. Too many people to organize mothers did not allow them to dance because they were so insecure
especially when it comes to choreography and travel. Now we’re with their own Indigenous identities. I sing and dance with all my
trying to keep it down to thirty. We generally like to dance with strength because we have survived. The colonial policies aimed at
at least five people—the two of us and three other dancers—as it our assimilation and the eradication of our Indigenous ways did not
allows us to share more complicated mask dances. Now when we work. We are not just surviving. Every day I see the ways we are
get an opportunity for just the two of us to perform, it’s a treat as thriving and dance is how I celebrate this victory.
we just get to enjoy each other’s company on the floor. Mique’l: I dance to connect, to feel grounded, to be whole. I dance
Maria: What are some other dancers you look to and who keep you to perpetuate our ancient ways of being and, as my ancestors have
pushing to be your best? always done, to contribute newness that keeps our practices vibrant,
Mike: For me it’s watching our young ones dance. Mique’l and I diverse, and relevant to the time and space that it exists. Our ancient
teach our style of dance to sixty-five First Nations students—who songs were once new and the new dances I create will someday
are mainly Tsimshian and Nisga’a—from grades K–12 at ‘Na Aksa be carried forth by future generations as the old ones. I bring to
Gyila̱ k’yoo School in Kitsumkalum, B.C. Seeing their pure love and life new songs to ensure that our time will be embodied then just
enthusiasm for our songs and dance pushes us to create more! Also, as we embody the time and experiences of our ancestors. Dance
now that we are living in our people’s territories again, it’s become holds multiple spaces—past, present, and future—and it’s in the
our family and the drive to keep practicing our hereditary rights. intersections that I feel most uplifted by its power to heal, renew,
Mique’l: I completely agree with Mike. I’m inspired on a daily basis and transform our people and nations.
by the students in our school. Their love for learning new songs and Maria: When you dance are there other items you use? What role do
dances pushes me to create more. As for other Indigenous dance and they serve and can you describe your most necessary performance
performance artists, the ones that are constant sources of inspira accessory (do you call them accessories)?
tion are: Margaret Grenier of the Dancers of Damelahamid, Emily Mike: It’s hard to say which is more important—our drums, regalia
Johnson, and you Maria. (ceremonial clothing), and masks. As a singer it’s my drum. Dancing
Maria: What was your most memorable dance experience that you without regalia, feels inappropriate at times, as we wish to represent
would like to share? our families, Nations, clans, and communities to the best of our
Mique’l: The first time that I saw my gram (grandmother) Corrine abilities. That means wear our finest.
Reeve dance. I was twenty-two-years-old and I just graduated from Mique’l: I agree with Mike, but I would also say bare feet. It’s not
University of Washington with my Bachelor’s. My family held a necessarily an accessory, but in the area of the Southeast Alaska
feast in our community’s longhouse to celebrate. My gram was in that I’m from moccasins are typically worn when dancing. The
her late 70s and this was the first time in her entire life that she got more dances that I create, the more moccasins feel like speaking
up to dance with our clan. It brought me right back to when I was with a scarf over my mouth. It inhibits expression and creates a
eight years old and she asked me “Why do you Indian dance?” I barrier between me and those who I am communicating with. I had
found her question very confusing. She was a proud Tsimshian and my feet tattooed with my clan design in 2009 after bringing to life
taught me to be one. I told her that “I loved it.” She looked at me just my tenth new dance. The tattoos honor my feet for the gift of dance
as confused, but even more so concerned. It wasn’t until I was older and I haven’t performed with moccasins since.
and learned of the abuse she suffered in Sheldon Jackson Boarding Maria: What is your dream venue to perform in and who would
school for speaking our language that I started to understand where it be with?
her concern came from. She was concerned for my safety. My gram Mike: We have performed in black boxes and major theaters across
witnessed throughout my life how our people’s songs, dances, and the U.S., Japan, and Canada. At this point in our lives our dream
ceremonies gave me the strength and focus to achieve my education. venues have more to do with engaging in ancient ways. One of our
When she joined in on our clan dance that day, the healing power of dream venues is to land two or more canoes on the beach of our
our people’s ways shined brighter than I have ever seen. home villages with planks connecting them for our dancers to dance
Maria: What is your self-defined biggest accomplishment as a dancer? upon. This is an old practice that continues in many communities
Mike: My biggest accomplishment as a dancer is also my most on the coast today as a way of entering into the territory peacefully.
memorable dance experience. I was fifteen or sixteen-years-old Another one is dancing in a longhouse that belongs to the two of us.
when my grandfather was once again sharing with me the teachings Maria: Please share something about your recent performance in
our aamhalaayt (chief’s headdress) and how to dance it in a way NY and working together?
where my head and neck movement would cause the air to pick up Mike: We haven’t been able to dance with just the two of us in a
the eagle down and move it in a circular motion like a whirlpool. He long time. It was amazing!
went over this with me for many, many, years and I was unsure if Mique’l: I loved the time that we had to create a new piece within the
I had the ability. Then during a feast, we were honoring our chiefs space and to work with pre-recorded audio of our family speaking
and matriarchs with this dance and I felt the whirlpool above my our language and singing, which is something we never do as we
head and I was able to use its energy to propel the feathers forward always perform live. The piece itself was cathartic for both of us
to bless (land upon) them. It was a beautiful manifestation of my in our transition to leave our lives in the city and move back to our
grandfather’s teachings. peoples’ territories to dedicate our work to learning and teaching
Mique’l: It’s a huge responsibility to create new dances for an our language, art, and dance to sixty-five youths from our Nations.
ancient song as you have to consider the family, the history of It was the spiritual shift we needed to realign our energy for the
the song, its meaning, and our protocols. This might sound like work ahead.
constraints to choreographers of other practices, but for me it’s
a creative framework that produces more meaningful work. The
very first new dance for an ancient song that I created was in 2009.
It was for the Northwind song that has been passed down on my
husband’s matrilineal line for generations untold. It became his
Na̱ x Nox (spiritual song) in 1992. The choreography that I created
for this dance still feels like my biggest accomplishment as it quite
often gets mistaken for an old dance. In the process of creating this
dance, I felt myself overcome with a sense of reclamation so much
so that it took over my physicality. It was such a different process
of creation for me as I felt that the dance itself wanted so badly to
come back. Visions of it came through dreams that I shared with
17 my husband and dancers as I worked through the movements with
Karyn Recollet & Emily Johnson 1
Kin-dling and Other Radical Relationalities
Sister of forest fire, sister who dwells in the wreckage. she who forages/for the As a form of relational practice, we continue to learn about occupying 1 — We would like to acknowledge

Jon Johnson and Cheryl L’Hirondelle
right things in the wrong places. nothing is utopia and so she/prays to a god in-between spaces, and have gained insight into how to move within rupture. for their generous feedback and
for a back that can bend like a tree splitting open to/make room for the heat 2 Ongoing tensions we experience include navigating complicated assumptions editorial support for this article.
Kinship, like love, like creation, like sex, is a messy thing. It’s about what of Indigeneity, and gendered restrictions impacting our fire keeping practice.
2 — Billy-Ray Belcourt, “The
happens when bodies and imaginations come together in-relationship, when Also, we acknowledge our positionality as visitors on Indigenous territories,
Rez Sisters II,” in This Wound
boundaries are breached and something else comes into being, for good or as neither of us consider many of the spaces on which we create work—our Is a World (Calgary, AB:
ill- or, sometimes for both…Kinship also comes into being through the lived homelands. Nehiyaw Métis scholar/lawyer Chelsea Vowel asks us to consider Frontenac House, 2017), 15.
interplay between bodies, minds, and spirits—living, dead, and other-than- the ethics of guest-ing well on Indigenous territories:
3 — Daniel Heath Justice, Why
human—and makes possible the living link between the past and the future Are guests only those people who are invited? Or are they anyone who Indigenous Literatures Matter
within the bodies of present. And like all things that are powerful, it’s also finds themselves within the physical territory of their hosts?...to what extent was (Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier
complex, untidy, and disruptive.3 permission actually sought to be in these territories, and conduct the affairs Press, 2018), 104–105.
Indigenous philosophers from the Western Hemisphere seem to agree that that Indigenous nations are thanked for ‘hosting’? What if an Indigenous 4 — Carol Edelman Warrior,
all contents of the cosmos are related to one another—and some suggest that person stood up and revoked that assumed permission? 14 “Indigenous Collectives: A Meditation
all things are each other. That is, they suggest that all ‘things’ are not things on Fixity and Flexibility,” American
Indian Quarterly 41, no. 4 (2017): 368.
so much as process or movement. Beings and other ‘things’ are in a continual
process of becoming and un-becoming—of trans-formation.4 K I N S T I L L A T O R Y G LY P H I N G : 5 — Karyn Recollet, “Gesturing
J U M PI NG SCA L E I N T O T H E AT MO SPH E R IC S Indigenous Futurity through the
Remix,” Dance Research Journal
We are Emily Johnson (Director, Emily Johnson/Catalyst) and Karyn Recollet Kinstillatory describes a) a choreography of relationality with land, ancestors
48, no. 1 (2016). Glyphing describes
(Assistant professor, Women and Gender Studies). In this article we expand (including future ancestors and more-than-human kin) and possibilities; and the ways in which music, dances,
Recollet’s writing on glyphing 5 through reflecting, challenging, and holding b) a technology to spatially orient a collective to think, dream, and activate and other forms of persistent
space for her concept kinstillatory glyphing. We also engage Johnson’s view community futures through forms of dance, song, feasting, and witnessing. and necessary Indigenous
motion—activate spatial/ temporal
of dance as everything: culture, history, past, present, future; as vital spaces The concept Kinstillatory coalesced through witnessing the choreography cartographies in much the same
of gathering meant for shifts of consciousness, awareness, and responsibility.6 of Starr Muranko’s Spine of the Mother.15 This piece created visual and sonic way that petroglyphs imprint
As artists/ scholars it is important for Recollet and Johnson to build relation glyphs centering the sounds of stars in relationship with one another captured through activating Indigenous
presence on land/ sky spaces.
ships with the land upon which they visit and live—these relationships extend through the aural vibrations of two rocks rubbing against each others bodies- In this work, glyphing produces
to responsibility, care, reciprocity, and anti-colonial understandings of love. thus sounding each others grooves and textures. Within the choreographic forms of Indigenous motion/
An urban Cree, Recollet was removed from her home community at vocabulary of Spine of the Mother, dancemaker Tasha Faye Evans gestures shapes of remapping as a result of
mobilizing multiple geographical,
Sturgeon Lake, Saskatchewan. In foster care for the first six months of her towards a projected image of the cosmos, wielding precious rocks in her hands
atmospheric and terrestrial scales.
life, she was adopted by a mostly British family and raised by her beloved which she then places on fellow dancemaker Andrea Patriau’s spine. This
grandparents and mother in Southern Ontario. She met her beautiful extended activation is an embodied alignment between body and land, gesturing lands’ 6 — Emily Johnson, “Then a
Cunning Voice and A Night We
family in Sturgeon Lake when she was eighteen. As a consequence, Recollet overflow into sky/space. This piece offers an otherwise orientation where
Spend Gazing at Stars,” in Imagined
creates her grounding as celestial/ her kinships manifest in relationship with our grounding can be considered more celestially rooted, thus evoking the Theatres: Writing for a Theoretical
the stars.7 Emily Johnson is a dancemaker of Yup'ik descent. She makes dances possibility that constellations (for instance the pleiades) are simultaneously Stage, ed. Daniel Sack (New
for every body and is trying to make a world where performance is part of life; futuristic maps and ancestral portals to our spaces of origin. York: Routledge, 2017), 219.
where performance is an integral connection to each other, our environment, Kinstillatory describes a relational practice of being grounded when 7 — Karyn Recollet, “Choreographies
our stories, our pasts, present, and futures. Emily grew up in Alaska with her you are not of this place, and considers the possibilities of rooting/routing of the Fall: Futurity Bundles &
extended family in close proximity. Family gatherings centered on harvests towards the sky. This concept also refers to falling in love with rupture to Landing When Future Falls Are
Immanent,” Theatre Magazine 50
of salmon, moose, and berries frame her worldview and work ethic.8 We work mimic the practices of supernovas exploding to expel mass/consciousness, (Forthcoming). Indigenous sociality
together in many forms as sisters and colleagues. We work from ground to thus providing a framework to jump scale through extending the potentials includes these choreographies of the
sky and beyond; through love and rupture, with word, thought and action. for multi-variant grounding practices.16 Kinstillatory informs a complex, fall, where Indigenous children’s roots
may not be solely terrestrial (given
We help focus each other’s curiosity, intuition and research; and together we more celestially- rooted form of land pedagogy, wherein gatherings create
a displacement from homelands)
create offerings through dance, writing, star activations, fire gatherings, all possibilities to enter into what Grace Dillon has conceptualized to be Indigenous but have had to also include more
night performances, seven-hour long Umyuangviqak’s—which are endurance slipstream space/time17. We perceive the need for methodologies to accom atmospheric relations. These
based round-table discussions held by councils of Indigenous women.9 We also modate rupture, as Indigenous artists/scholars/activists are brilliantly and atmospheric relations are narrated
and remembered through these
hike, or have hiked—and send messages to one another across space/time. necessarily articulating these orientations towards the future. For example, creation stories which embody these
We tend to notions of radical relationality, kinships, care, and our com Nehiyaw scholar/multidisciplinary artist Kirsten Linquist asks, “how do choreographies of the fall, a concept
prehension of star worlds. By radical relationality, we are thinking with the we form relationships and communicate in times of stress?”.18 Kinstillatory that Recollet describes elsewhere.
idea of ‘relations of care’ as a concept and idea shared by Donna Haraway gatherings are more than think tanks, they are perhaps spaces for “a new 8 — Emily Johnson, “Salmon Brings
and Maria Puig de la Bellacasa. Drawing upon Haraway’s relational ontology, generation emerging into the heartbreak”.19 In these moments, young people Us Together,” Catalyst, January
that ‘beings do not pre-exist their relatings,’ and Haraway’s thoughts on the experiencing this heartbreak could use a refuge, a stillness from the storm...a 13, 2011, http://www.catalyst-
dance.com/writings/2015/1/29/
situatedness of knowledge,10 Puig de la Bellacasa11 evokes ways of thinking constellation that holds them up and supports them—an incubator for ideas, salmon-brings-us-together.
with care, and how we come to imagine relations as a means of worlding. As renewal, resistance, the gathering together of hearts and minds to create
such, our praxis is necessarily dialogical and relational. The processes that futurity maps to activate their gorgeous joy. 9 — Christopher Green, “Against a
Feathered Headdress: A Tale of Two
we evoke in our practice are processual as we gather, collectively witness,
Performance Festivals and Native
and provoke—with knowledge holders Indigenous to the territories of which American Voices,” Hyperallergic,
we are visitors. K I N S T I L L AT O RY M A P P I N G S I N L I G H T A N D January 17, 2017, https://hyperallergic.
We ask of this collective work, how do we make consensual, nurturing, D A R K M A T T E R : A M O N T H LY F I R E - S I D E G A T H E R I N G com/352026/against-a-feathered-
headdress-two-performance-
respectful, and loving relationships with one another, the lands we occupy, our ON T H E L OW E R E A ST SI DE
festivals-native-american-voices/.
more-than-human kin on earth, with stars and constellations, ancestors, and The SilverCloud Singers were drumming and Lucien was grilling vegetables—we
beings yet to come? Our collaborative process is rooted in the understanding all shared the intimacy of song, food, dancing, waiting… the kids asking 10 — Donna Haraway, “Situated
Knowledges: The Science Question
that we do not activate land; rather, land activates us—therefore, curation12 is Lucien about the ingredients as the fire marshall and I took turns lifting the in Feminism and the Privilege of
light and open to possibilities. What are some points of departure kinstillatory security lid off the fire in order to roast tomatoes—holding the heat together, Partial Perspective,” Feminist
gatherings can offer to activate territories and explore dialogical, movement- eventually passing the plate of vegetables, then meringues, then tea...how the Studies 14, no. 3 (1988).
based spaces? And, further, what have we been learning and witnessing as kids were over the moon and how the drummers led us through the night—at 11 — Maria Puig de la Bellacasa,
part of this process? the fire and with the food—and the collective gathering of strangers and Matters of Care: Speculative
Our intentions are to think with fire as a technology and be-ing that embodies families and how we round danced! And how the kids kept dancing. It seemed Ethics in the More than Human
Worlds (Minneapolis: University
and explicates forms of Indigenous sociality, a concept whose inspiration was an important fire. It seemed, thus far, the most PLACED.
of Arizona Press, 2017).
drawn from Ashon Crawley’s insightful writing in Blackpentecostal Breath:
The Aesthetics of Possibility.13 We ruminate on the possibilities of fire as a 12 — For us, the act of curation
conduit for expressions of love and intimacy toward place and each other. We is a space of care, tenderness
and keeping, in relationship to
describe the potential of fire as kinship—a be-ing that renders possible futures our activations of kinstillatory
for Indigenous folx; and we evoke a conversation which centers kinstillatory ethics that encompass witnessing
gatherings as a methodology. in our gatherings.
Kinstillatory Mappings in Light and Dark Matter are monthly fire-side 13 — Ashon Crawley,
gatherings held on the Lower East Side of Manhahtaan in the amphitheater of Blackpentecostal Breath: The
Abrons Arts Center. With careful attention, Kinstillatory Mappings are spaces Aesthetics of Possibility (New York:
Fordham University Press, 2016).
wherein Indigenous folx have the capacity for sharing in joy; while providing
an opportunity for non-Indigenous folx to witness interruptions of normative 14 — Chelsea Vowel, “Beyond
space/time. Within these fire gatherings non-Indigenous settlers are expected Territorial Acknowledgments,”
Âpihtawikosisân (blog),
to challenge each other’s appropriative actions, and focus on responsibility,
September 23, 2016, https://
accountability, and care. This is achieved through sensorial activations alongside apihtawikosisan.com/2016/09/
meaningful conversation, witnessing, and potential accomplicing. beyond-territorial-acknowledgments/. 18
Composer Brent Michael Davids (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape) at First Nations Dialogues’

Kinstillatory Gatherings in Light and Dark Matter, January 2019. Photo by Ian Douglas.
Activating within and alongside urban Indigenous Lenape land space, Johnson
hosts and tends these fires with a careful consideration of fire as central be-ing.
The fire creates the opportunity for kin-in the making, opening portal spaces
and generating kinstillatory glyphs in space/time continuums. Lightly curated,
Johnson mobilizes the forms of these gatherings: visiting, witnessing, sharing,
tending, drumming—all in the presence of fire and one another—on, within,
and alongside Lenape land and water.
Fire determines the shapes of these gatherings—embodying and offering
ethical and generative forms of gathering, witnessing, and accomplacing.
Kinstillatory gatherings are thus cyphers:20 interventions encouraging the
collective untangling of settler colonial choreographies of space-making.
Kinstillatory Mappings in Light and Dark Matter have fostered further thinking
about kinstillatory as a praxis of Indigenous care to create space for more nuanced
discussions of Indigenous radical relations. Fire’s capacities as a relative/kin First kinstillatory fire on Grand Street at Abrons Arts Center. Pictured: Muriel Miguel, Carole
specifically situated on Lenape homelands, creates a hub space for Indigenous Johnson, Deborah Ratelle, Murielle Borst Tarrant, Kevin Tarrant, Lily Bo Shapiro, Ali Rosa-Salas.
sociality through forms of intimacy. As the fire is cared for, the fire in-turn
creates space and calls people in. The fire’s sound, gestures, movement, and
warmth become the technologies for kin-in-the-making: neighbor meeting
neighbor, child meeting fire, settler meeting round dance—an Indigenously “ L I V E W E L L W H I L E YO U A R E H E R E ”: L A N D
defined space. The space itself, filled at times with drum or song, poem, story, AC K N OW L E D G M E N T S A S A N E M B O DI E D PR A X I S
and silence becomes an in-between space full of care, welcome, pause and During these gatherings, the SilverCloud Singers, an inter-tribal drum group,
15 — Spine of the Mother, choreo- eclipse. Just off busy Grand Street in Lower Manhahtaan, the intention is for often brings the big drum. I offer Head Singer Kevin Tarrant (Hopi/ HoChunk)
graphed by Starr Muranko in collabora- people to walk into this space off the sidewalk, to come knowing there is a tobacco and at some point in the night he tells a story or two about the songs
tion with dancers Tasha Faye Evans, gathering or to join it in surprise. This is otherworlding, this is futurity building. being sung to the crowd of people sitting on the quilts that have been laid out on
Andrea Patriau (Peru), Olivia Shaffer
and Sarah Formosa, Weesageechak 27 The intentions/wishes of this essay are for our readers to walk alongside us the concrete steps of the outdoor amphitheater of Abrons Arts Center. George
Festival, Native Earth Performing Arts, as we enter these territories of other worlding in metaphor, sound, possibility Stonefish (Lenape) has begun leading the crowd in a round dance each night.
Toronto, Canada, December 17, 2014. and sometimes—revelling in the necessary pauses and stillness. People have started bringing food to share. One night the SilverCloud Singers
16 — Laura Harjo, “Indigenous drummed a birthday song. The fire in July 2018 hosted the American Indian
Scales of Sovereignty: Transcending Community House Social. Jingle Dress and Fancy Shawl were danced, a feast
Settler Geographies” (Conference offered. The fire is prepared and I light the fire, offer medicine and prayer to
presentation, May 2014).
the fire before people arrive. When people have come we open the night with
17 — Grace Dillon, ed., Walking the acknowledgment and an offering of gratitude and commitment to Lenape
Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous elders, ancestors, people; and to the land and water of Lenapehoking. I have
Science Fiction (Tucson, Arizona:
University of Arizona Press, 2012). been taught these words by Joe Baker, Hadrien Coumens, and Curtis Zunigha
of the Lenape Center and I sometimes speak them, too: “Nulelìntàmuhëna gli
18 — Kirsten Linquist, “Using paèkw Lenapehoking. Kulawsihëmo ènta ahpièkw. / We are glad because you
Digital Media Arts and Technology
for Decolonial Truth-Telling Across people came to Lenapehoking. Live well when you are here.” 21
Temporal/Spatial Layers and Networks” Kinstillatory gatherings that center fire as a technology extend territorial
(Conference presentation, 2018). acknowledgments by moving people into relation—into forms of Indigenous
19 — Mylan Tootoosis, “The System sociality, necessitating the accompanying responsibilities embedded within
Isn’t Broken, It Was Built This Way: these formations. Let us think alongside these provocations to “live well when
Seeking Justice for Colten Boushie you are here.” Echoing this call, Vowel asks us to imagine “a constellation of
and Tina Fontaine” (Conference
roundtable, May 2018). relationships that must be entered into beyond territorial acknowledgments”.22
We consider more sustaining and challenging land activations rather than
20 — Imani Kai Johnson, “Dark Matter simple reproductions of theoretical frameworks that accommodate activists
in B-Boying Cyphers: Race and Global
Connection in Hip Hop” (Doctoral with an already leftist politic.23 Consequently, our provocations deeply engage
Dissertation, University of Southern land acknowledgments as an embodied practice. We ask, can embodied forms
California, 2009). Hip-hop scholar of dance making and gathering bring us out of this trap of a superficial land
Imani Kai Johnson’s groundbreaking
work on the formative impact of a acknowledgment and into a space of land-ing with each other—into a space
‘cypher’s’ energy in B-Boy culture where equity and balance are possible?
has stated the possibilities of ‘dark
matter’ as an invisible yet compelling
force—a worlding device.
21 — “Abrons Arts Centre,”

Zeitcaster, accessed August
7, 2019, https://zeitcaster.com/
events/poi/abrons-art-center/.
22 — Vowel, Beyond Territorial
19 23 — Ibid.

Round Dance during American Indian Community House Social at Kinstillatory Mappings in Light
and Dark Matter.
Quilt from Johnson’s performance project, Then a Cunning Voice and A Night We Spend Gazing
at Stars. During the provocation: This is Lenapehoking: Countering Perceived Invisibility during
Umyuangvigkaq at the ACE Hotel in NYC with PS122 (2017), Georgia Lucas—who was then 11
½ years old and the youngest person in the room, looked up from her sewing and said, “I was
born here. But now I understand. This land does not belong to me, but I belong to the land.” The collective is an important hub for kinstillatory gatherings whereby
“thinking-with makes the work of thought stronger: it both supports singularity
by the situated contingencies it draws upon and fosters contagious potential
with its reaching out.” 26 These reaching out gestures, extending...calling...
Gestures and provocations center fire as an ongoing, sustaining technology that with human and more-than-human kin, produces spaces where speculative
can accomodate the rupturous terrain of deep explorations into continual acts (connecting) worldings can take form. We learn that the shapes of our gatherings
of violence against Indigenous and POC folx in New York City. Kinstillatory in New York City are speculative in that they are thinking with and through
gatherings create space for shared intimacies and understandings of land and fire as a genderless more-than-human kin form.
belonging that produce a sociality of deeper, more sustainable relations; as well, As accountability is activated—for instance, through the building of
they facilitate the creation of meaningful experiences centering accountable a fire in New York City that creates a set of relations through processes of
forms of relationality. For example, we are learning about technologies of attending, witnessing and accomplacing—we are centering everyday acts
fire from within a Yup’ik cosmogenetic worldview—which has a particular that value relationality, encourage attention, growth, and listening. Within
understanding about the precise moment a fire catches flame. We are under Indigenous communities, gestures of relationality can encompass the shaking
standing this moment as medicine and that transformation from hurt to joy and of hands, attention and care to elders, the offering of tobacco as gratitude or
healing occurs within the technologies of the flame. Our collective gatherings a commitment (as in the promise to attend the next round dance). We suggest
are built out of our commitments for the multiple layerings of experiences, that these gestures house, embody, and produce forms of consent and joy- and
orientations, and the unfoldings of love stories toward the lands and each function as spatial liberatory gestures rendered through small everyday
other in their various manifestations—our work is very much rooted and acts. The prioritization of these acts and our Indigenous relations in spaces
situated in lands’ overflow. “That knowledge is situated means that knowing that welcome all people connects to liberation—to balance and equity. The
and thinking are inconceivable without the multitude of relations that make prioritization of these acts challenges territorial acknowledgments that our
possible the worlds we think with”.24 Like cyphers, kinstillatory gatherings “settler moves to innocence,” 27 unsustaining provocations without commitment
accommodate these layers and help to hold space for all our complexities. towards future relationships with Indigenous folx.
In order for these practices to avoid co-optation by the liberal white gaze, We are thinking through Vowel’s suggestions that, initially, territorial
kinstillatory gatherings strive for more nuanced patterns of relationality that acknowledgments were gesturing towards centering Indigenous priority
are open to pauses and breaks. We think alongside others who speak to forms on lands, and that some are still evoked to disrupt and discomfort settler
of solidarity that do not strive towards sameness as its desired end point.25 colonialism.28 She describes,
Tactics of change need to include a robust acceptance of incommensurability What may start out as a radical push-back against the denial of Indigenous
as an active site within the framework of kinstillatory, so that kinstillatory priority and continued presence, may end up repurposed as ‘box-ticking’
gatherings become a critical site of land pedagogical practice that challenges inclusion without any commitment to any sort of real change. In fact, I believe
the on-goingness of settler coloniality. this is the inevitable progression, a situation of familiarity breeding contempt 24 — Puig de la Bellacasa,
Matters of Care.
The fires are meant to be the center being, center force of gathering. (or at least apathy).29
To hold a fire on Grand Street at Abrons Arts Center in New York City is a A community-rooted interventionist practice comes to us in the form 25 — Eve Tuck and Wayne Yang,
radically simple act and a radically relational act. of the spoken provocation “live well while you are here”—which produces a “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor,”
Decolonization: Indigeneity,
The fires on the Lower East Side are medicine. People come on purpose and moment of reflective accountability. “Live well while you are here” mobilizes Education and Society 1, no. 1 (2012);
others come because they are walking by, see the gathering, become interested, and embodies being in good relation within Lenape homelands through Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández,
and stay. Fires have not been common here for a long time. Permissions and principles of care, visiting, and witnessing. “Decolonization and the Pedagogy of
Solidarity,” Decolonization: Indigeneity,
certificates requested and granted, inspections by the New York City Fire Education & Society 1, no. 1 (2012).
Department (all passed), and protocols for fire safety followed—these are
elements adhered to in order that the fire can happen, that it physically can be 26 — Puig de la Bellacasa,
Matters of Care, 77.
lit. Following these rules is a bit outside the scope of kinstillatory relationality,
though I suppose a kinstillatory relation exists now between these fires, this 27 — Tuck and Yang, Decolonization
portal space the fire opens, and the New York City Fire Department. The
28 — Vowel, Beyond Territorial
inspector said she likes these fires. She understood them.
29 — Vowel, Beyond Territorial 20
F I R E I N T I M A C I E S : H O L D I N G S PA C E F O R O T H E R - and distance, proximity and approach, the capacity for encounter. This
W O R L D I N G P R A C T I C E S O F K I N - I N -T H E - M A K I N G brokenness is an occasion for celebration such that it is in break, the pause

and broken discontinuity that assembling, that gathering together, happens
and this broken break, this pause, is anoriginal.32
Our formations pull in, and embody alignments with Lenape homelands
and its overflow that extends beyond settler colonial/nation state boundaries.
These gatherings become more nuanced through the practice of feasting,
cooking, drumming, conversing, dancing—all forms of finding our collective
joy. These processes necessarily include carving out space for our ruptures as
well. For example, during our monthly fire-side gatherings we consider the
challenge of creating a sustaining practice of territorial acknowledgments
in New York City amongst competing Indigenous claims. Given that fire has
the capacity to hold tension, kinstillatory gatherings allow for conversations
about Indigenous belonging amongst impositions of colonial boundaries and
dispossessions. Technologies of fire allow for sitting with rupture; holding
space for the necessary stillness—and the eventual transformation of pain
into joy. This rupture is an important fire teaching, particularly within fire’s
capacity for combustion and the negotiation of in between atmospherics.
As Guatemalan dance scholar María Regina Firmino-Castillo shared with
Recollet, “fire speaks through metaphor, the kindling is sacred it is alive—a
being because it has this potential combustion.” 33
Meeting the technologies of fire. Photo by Emily Johnson.
One fire in the spring of 2018, Madison came to the fire with her dad. They
live in the neighborhood and growing up in the city, she had never seen a real
fire. She and her dad came just as I was laying my kindling together and she
thought the wood, not lit, was already hot. I showed her how to lay the sticks
and twigs, how to prop them up against one another, how to leave space for
air flow. I told her it would not be hot until it was lit, until the tinder caught.
She helped me build that fire and I lit it and she stood back, in genuine awe,
the medicine of that fire clear on her face. She spent the evening dancing and
playing with the other kids, but she would come back, put her hand on my SilverCloud Singers at Kinstillatory Mappings in Light and Dark Matter.
back or my leg, and look at the fire. She started to carry the larger pieces of
wood—the ones she thought were originally hot—up and down the stairs.
In this section we think alongside the technologies of fire as a gravitational
force, interpellating productive forms of relationship building within the space Fire’s capacity as a kin-making technology (glyph) resides in the ephemeral
of the monthly fire-side gatherings in Lenape homelands. We collaboratively effect, the pauses and breaks of the in-between spaces created by the flames. In
ruminate on kinstillatory’s capacity as a technology to spatially orient a order to grasp these relational technologies, let us think alongside the land/sky
collective to think, dream, and activate community futures through forms activation, Yahkȃskwan Mîkiwahp (‘light’ pole tipi). Created, co-curated, and
of dance, song, feasting, and witnessing. activated by Cheryl L’Hirondelle (Cree/Halfbreed; German/Polish) and Joseph
There is a Yup’ik name for the moment a fire catches. The moment it Naytowhow (Cree), Yahkȃskwan Mîkiwahp is a site specific, community-based
flares from the tinder, from the drill hole, from the pile of dry leaves. Yup’ik performance installation. Often activated in urban Indigenous territories,
dancer and elder Chuna McIntyre taught me this word as he was teaching me Recollet has experienced these land/sky activations in Toronto, Winnipeg,
about ayu—or labrador tea—a medicine of ours. As he spoke in relation to and Vancouver. Creating what we could call a kinstillatory glyph, flash-lit
the start of the flame of the fire, his dancer arms and hands gestured upward, sky lines manifest tipi poles created through the extension of illuminated sage
his hands close to one another as if holding the space of ignition, as if holding smoke gesturing outwards towards a central point in the night sky. Flashlights
a handful of tinder and he thrust it all upward. And so to me, this says that create beams of light to form the poles of the tipi, while sage smudge (rolled
this word—and the moment the flame catches—is medicine, and goes up.30 bundles lit, and wafted into the light) create a multi-sensorial smoke trail
Within constellations, dark matter pulls and holds space between the ascending towards the peak to the pole’s convergence. This smoke cypher
lighted orbs of gas. In a similar fashion, we consider fire’s gestures of futurity- is a form of fire wielding through the smudging of sage medicine through
building through the ‘pull’ which incites forms of Indigenous sociality. As a which we can collectively curate our futures. The glyphing in Yahkȃskwan
30 — I spoke a second time with verb, glyphing creates collective meaning through signifying gestures which, Mîkiwahp becomes an extension, or overflow of lands’ multi-scalar design
Chuna to make sure I understood likened to dark matter, wield a gravitational pull to gather (and extend) the into the atmospheric patterns embedded in smoke from more-than-human
and had permission to talk about
this word, this moment with fire. basic atoms of relationality. As a glyph, fire productively wields its own energy kin (sage plant medicine). As a glyph, Yahkȃskwan Mîkiwahp synchronizes
While my learning is ongoing, I do in relationship with the matter around it relative to its weight. Fire embodies a smoke and light to activate a cypher of collective hopes and dreams entering
not yet have enough knowledge potential site for deeply considering the rhizomatic rooting between rupture a collective into a slipstream space/time centering on Indigenous joy.
to share more about this word.
and joy as a release and pull of dense matter. In Blackpentecostal Breath: Evocative of Cree sociality, a precious pause becomes activated in the
31 — Crawley, Blackpentecostal The Aesthetics of Possibility, Ashon Crawley highlights breath and gesture breaks and the spaces in-between Yahkȃskwan Mîkiwahp’s medicine sky-lines,
Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility as extensional movements reaching out for sociality.31 We perceive these thus, it is in the discontinuity, that space between the tipi poles—that the
32 — Crawley, Blackpentecostal Breath: technologies to be in relationship with fire’s atmospheric densities, gestures of gathering together happens. Our collaborative work engaging the urban brings
The Aesthetics of Possibility, 62 extensions, and the creation of in-between spaces. In the following description, forward the potential for conversations centered around decolonial connections
Crawley describes the import of the spaces in between as source of sociality. to territory/space/place and belonging. Using smoke, fire, and medicine as
33 — María Regina Firmino-
Castillo, personal communica- It was the space between, in the pause and eclipse, that experience technologies to code the atmospherics, Yahkȃskwan Mîkiwahp brings us into
21 tion, August 2nd, 2018. manifested. This is true for the entire range of sensual experience. Nearness deep, embodied relation with each other and the overflows of land/sky. Further,
these forms of jumping scale 34 accommodate more nuanced conversation of W H AT W E C O N T I N U E T O L E A R N: K I N S T I L L AT O RY

land acknowledgment to include the expansivity of the celestial and to move R E L AT IONA L I T Y W I T H L A N D, A NC E ST OR S
from spoken words to acts of true relation, exchange, care, and reciprocity ( I N C L U D I N G F U T U R E A N C E S T O R S A N D M O R E -T H A N -
expressed in the provocation “live well while you are here?” HUMAN KIN)
On another night, a young boy from the neighborhood and his mom stopped
by as they were on their way home. They hadn’t known or meant to come to
the fire, but they joined in, cozied up on the quilts. The mom had had a long
day and the boy was rambunctious and wanting for attention. We talked
about camping and played a bit and the three of us lay down on the quilts, on
our backs and everything, after a few moments, settled. On a regular basis,
I spend a fair bit of time looking for and counting the stars I can see in New
York City and as I lay there, I counted five—quite a high number for such a
bright town. I said, “wow, there are five stars I can see up there.” “Yep,” the
boy said. “Five stars.” He had already counted them.
We include light and dark matter in the activations in Lenape homelands
because of the interest in, and capacity these gathering have to generate future
worldings. It is not flippant to say we are trying to encompass everything because
we are. We acknowledge the possibility and activation of fire as transmutation, a
glitch space that transforms—from dark to light, from light to dark, from stable
to unstable and back. We actively seek greater relation, greater understanding
and shift toward a future that is just, that is good—whether that good at any one
time is weighed more heavily in the light or the dark. In our way of working,
there is not a judgment on the light or dark matter, it is an acknowledgment of
Land-ing, joy. Thomas E.S. Kelly (Bundjalung-Yugambeh/Wiradjuri/Ni-Vanuatu) leads a dance everything present. As we move into kinstillatory relationship with land, with
during First Nations Dialogues’ Kinstillatory Mapping in Light and Dark Matter, January 2019. star, with one another, we activate change in space, in time, and in our bodies.
Photo by Ian Douglas.
When embodied, a relationship to land is a relationship that moves into
knowledge and felt understanding of what stories, histories, bones, blood,
roots, toxins, and nourishments that land holds—often rupturous. It is our
position that to bypass this process of pain and acknowledgment only leads to
F I R E A S K I N: R E L AT IONA L A N D I N T I M AT E the kind of “taking from” or extractive form of relation to land that has become
PR AC T IC E OF F I R E K E E PI NG prevalent and disastrous. To be in true relation with the land, in this case the
Processes of radical relationality, being with fire-as-kin, have developed over Lenape land beneath the concrete on the Lower East Side in Manhahtaan,
generations of intimacies with fire, centering perhaps the queer atmospherics one’s body can and most likely does undergo a process whereby you move
of kinstillatory gatherings. During our monthly fire-side gatherings Emily through painful understanding. It is the movement through—the welling of
has experienced push back for being a cis female presenting human and pain in stomach and heart, the felt nausea in and through limbs that comes
taking on this role (which in some Indigenous and non-Indigenous circles with the acknowledgment of truth that leads to the sparks of energy, the calm
is the domain of cis men). We are reminded of the deep relational practice of land-time our bodies do not usually take time to feel. It is in this space that
and knowledge of firekeepering/wielding embodied by Annie Kruger as she we glyph the incommensurable—the unsettling that is required for decolonial
created natural fire guards 35 through the practice of keeping fire where “lines futures. These processes, through rupture, generate the consciousness shift
of Kou-skelowh people walked beating drums to warn wildlife before setting that situates our bodies in true conversation, true relation to land and it is
fire to what’s now called Sylix territory.” 36 Perhaps Annie’s story, alongside what opens the possibility for other forms of knowledge, communication,
queer relations within and towards fire, gestures towards a radical relationality kinships and futures. We deeply feel that kinstillatory gatherings are forms
between Indigenous women, trans, and queer folx with fire’s capacities as of intimacies that are grounded in otherwise modalities—intimate in that
technologies of weilding, holding, rupturing, and bending. We also consider they hold the capacity for both heartbreak and joy, and the spaces in between,
that the Nehiyaw word ‘Iskwew’ is rooted in a system of intelligence that thereby intervening normative space/time.
conceptualizes fire (Iskotew) in radical relationality with women, and is in And I think about constellatory relations, the connections our ancestors
relationship with iskwêhkân (IS-gwayh-gahn), one who acts/lives as a woman.37 made between stars to form stories and meanings; and I think about connec
Cheryl L’Hirondelle shared with us that the late Neyihaw knowledge holder tions our ancestors made between stars and ground and sea to form maps and
Tyrone Tootoosis helped many to understand that iskwew is fire-heart (iskotêw guides of navigation. Constellatory relations include us humans seeing star
+ otawêw). Neyihaw scholar/organizer/activist Melody Wood describes: relationship—their proximity or distance (constellation)—to one another.
The Plains Cree word for fire is iskotêw. The otawêw or otêh ‘heart’ of our And constellatory relations include us navigating the earth space via the
lodges/tipis is always the iskotêw. Without fire, we would not have survived. star place, above. The boy and I didn’t move once we laid down on the quilts, 34 — Harjo, “Indigenous
As such, fire is seen and understood as pimâtisiwin (life). The keeper of the but he and his mom had navigated their day, which brought them to the fire, Scales of Sovereignty.”
lodge fire is iskwêw (woman).38 which brought us to lay on our backs, rest for a moment and count stars. Us 35 — Some would call this practice
Fire wields space/time as a slipstream—a time travel disrupting singularity; in relation to those five stars. ‘controlled burns’ but we like to
as such it allows for an expansive space/time thinking of queer possibilities. Choreographically I think about how the fire, the moment it is lit, the think of this more along the lines of
technologies of radical relationality.
Fire weiding/keeping can be a “kind of intimacy grounded in otherwise medicine, the smoke, the intention goes up—and I think about how we, laying
modalities”—a pathway to considering the atmospheric of joy as an Indigenous on the quilts, perceived the stars shining down. There would be a meeting 36 — Yvette Brend, “Forget Smokey the
land-ing practice. Crawley’s writing provocates these forms of thought. space then, wouldn’t there? Land layers of atmospheric and ancestral space Bear: How First Nation Fire Wisdom
Is Key to Megafire Prevention,”
This is what blackqueer heartbreak announces, a kind of impossibility where the fire medicine is moving up and the starlight is shining down. CBCvNews, July 15, 2017, https://
with normative spacetime. But this is what blackqueer flourishing—thinking, On a night in the woods north of Tallahassee at Pine Arbor Tribal www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-
imagining, and interrogating our lifeworlds with queer potential—has the Community, Mvskoke scholar, linguist and elder Sakim told me that in columbia/fire-fighting-first-nations-
firekeepers-annie-kruger-penticton-
capacity to introduce, the possibility for a kind of intimacy that is grounded in Muscogee (Creek) cosmology, what we know of as the Milky Way is the path bc-wildfire-mega-fire-1.4205506.
otherwise modalities, something other than normative striving for normative of ancestors—and he said, “I think we all know, our bodies are stars.” And
Man. It is an intimacy grounded in the capacity for and the sharing in joy.39 the belt of Orion? It isn’t a belt. And it isn’t Orion. It’s a butterfly. And the belt 37 — Chelsea Vowel, “Language,
Culture, and Two-Spirit Identity,”
Vogue dance scholar Dante Omé Lauren reminds us of the importance of part is actually the juicy middle part of the butterfly. And the top wing is this Âpihtawikosisân (blog), March
the migratory possibilities of fires wherein we center folx as fire carriers, as world and the bottom wing is a reflection of this world. And then there’s that 29, 2012, https://apihtawikosisan.
is a traditional practice of those traveling long distances carrying embers to liminal, juicy line. So there’s always you, and there’s always the reflection com/2012/03/language-culture-
and-two-spirit-identity/.
bring survivance to other territories/spatial formations. This is meaningful to of you, in play.41
us as a way of expressing fire’s capacity of holding space for both Indigenous Kinstillatory describes choreographies of the fall, such as those embodied 38 — Melody Wood, Personal
heartbreak and joy. Fire is potentiality and possibility through its practices of in the practice of fire keeping—referring to the push and pull, leaning toward communication, April 15, 2019.
being in motion, witnessing and moving, holding heartbreak and releasing—a and away, as gestures that happen in between sky and terrestrial spaces. 39 — Ashon Crawley, “Ghosts,” The
‘refusal of being stilled.’40 Within these gathering spaces created in Lenape homelands, atmospheric New Inquiry (blog), May 29, 2018,
relations (those that were rooted in stars) are kinships. These relations are https://thenewinquiry.com/ghosts/.
glyphed through the production of rising flame and smoke shaping Indigenous 40 — Ashon Crawley, “Otherwise
bodies into cypher-like configurations of assembling and visiting with fire as Movements,” The New Inquiry (blog),
their axis point. The gatherings in Lenape homelands extend the possibility January 19, 2015, https://thenewinquiry.
com/otherwise-movements/.
for an expansion of homeland to include celestial. Cherokee scholar/author
Daniel Heath Justice’s idea of “Speculative Tribology” 42 attends to these 41 — Sakim, personal com-
relationships, describing our relations with rock ancestors that continue to munication, March 2016.
jump scale from celestial to terrestrial and sub-aqueous, into the Indigenous 42 — Daniel Heath Justice,
atmospheric sets of relationships. Indigenous Literatures. 22
Similar to Kinstillatory Gatherings in Light and Dark Matter, Yahkȃskwan BI BLIOGR A PH Y

Mîkiwahp (Light tipi) activates Indigenous relationality in multiple urban, • “Abrons Arts Centre.” • Johnson, Emily. “Salmon
citified Indigenous territories mobilizing fire and sage to create intimacy with Zeitcaster. Accessed August Brings Us Together.”
urban Indigenous lands. The installation maintains community collective 7, 2019. https://zeitcaster.com/ Catalyst, January 13, 2011.
praxis in that it requires a shifting community of bodies to create. Both Light events/poi/abrons-art-center/. http://www.catalystdance.
and Dark Matter and Yahkâskwan Mîkiwahp, hold space for productive time/ • Belcourt, Billy-Ray. “The com/writings/2015/1/29/
space shifts generative of kin-in-the-making. These land/sky activations Rez Sisters II.” In This Wound salmon-brings-us-together.
remind us that the kinstillatory happens when we are in that interstice, the Is a World, 15. Calgary, AB: • ———. “Then a Cunning
spaces in between—the sometimes incommensurable, shifting, fluid, and Frontenac House, 2017. Voice and A Night We Spend
generative slip stream. • Brend, Yvette. “Forget Smokey Gazing at Stars.” In Imagined
What does it mean for us to gather as Indigenous and non-Indigenous the Bear: How First Nation Fire Theatres: Writing for a
people on Lenape lands and territory? We invite you to consider how land Wisdom Is Key to Megafire Theoretical Stage, edited by
and water experience our gathering in this city in Lenapehoking, and we look Prevention.” CBCvNews, July Daniel Sack, 219. New York:
forward to future imaginings, possibilities and worldings with you. Since 15, 2017. https://www.cbc.ca/ Routledge, 2017.
the star ancestors are watching, we hope that the shape of this gathering news/canada/british-columbia/ • Justice, Daniel Heath. Why
makes them happy and hopeful for us. We acknowledge our relationships fire-fighting-first-nations- Indigenous Literatures Matter.
with the standing people, those plant and more than human kinships, and that firekeepers-annie-kruger- Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier
we continue to learn how, together to develop relationships with them. We penticton-bc-wildfire-mega- Press, 2018.
extend our love to those Black and Indigenous food sovereigntists and plant fire-1.4205506. • Kai Johnson, Imani. “Dark
knowledge holders to continue to maintain these relationships so that we can • Buck, Wilfred. “Atchakosuk: Matter in B-Boying Cyphers:
do the work that we need to do. Ininewuk Stories of the Stars.” Race and Global Connection
Fire gatherings wield an otherwise source of potentiality—whereby First Nations Perspectives 2, in Hip Hop.” Doctoral
the rendering of a cypher in the form of a fire in spaces such as Manhahtaan no. 1 (2009): 71–83. Dissertation, University of
activate relationality on multiple scales to include celestial. In order to offer • Crawley, Ashon. Southern California, 2009.
this conversation into the future, we would like to describe for you what we Blackpentecostal Breath: The • Lindquist, Kirsten. “Using
continue to learn about fire’s technologies through the lens of kinstillatory Aesthetics of Possibility. New Digital Media Arts and
relationality. Fire evokes a set of relations for thinking with others…. York: Fordham University Technology for Decolonial
shared intimacies that also transpire love stories, perhaps relatedness- Press, 2016. Truth-Telling Across
in-the-making as forms of decolonial love. Fire brings us into closer relation • ———. “Ghosts.” The New Temporal/Spatial Layers
to lands’ possibilities—accentuating the breath of fire, the fractals and light, Inquiry (blog), May 29, and Networks.” Conference
the sounds—the crackling, the reverb, the sonic capacities of fire to create 2018. https://thenewinquiry. presentation presented at
and suspend time and space that might be deemed ‘otherwise.’ In considering com/ghosts/. the Native American and
the depth of our monthy fire-side gatherings we spend time carefully thinking • ———. “Otherwise Indigenous Studies Association
through queer potentials with human and more-than-human kin. Kinstillatory Movements.” The New Inquiry Conference, Los Angeles,
gatherings can be hub spaces to create sets of relationships that thinking with, (blog), January 19, 2015. California, May 2018.
and alongside make possible; for instance, we continue to think alongside https://thenewinquiry.com/ • Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria.
Daniel Heath Justice who recently asked us to consider how we send the otherwise-movements/. Matters of Care: Speculative
spirits and ancestors that we have gathered back into their space carefully • Dillon, Grace, ed. Walking Ethics in the More than
and thoughtfully? the Clouds: An Anthology of Human Worlds. Minneapolis:
Kinstillatory gatherings are hub space activated through land’s overflow Indigenous Science Fiction. University of Arizona
into the celestial—the kindling catches, the smoke rises, the dancing, the Tucson, Arizona: University of Press, 2017.
activating begins. Fire as a more-than-human being, teaches us that we are Arizona Press, 2012. • Recollet, Karyn.
to make room for the combustion and rupture in our methodological practice. • Edelman Warrior, Carol. “Choreographies of the Fall:
There are moments in our choreographies of the fall that feel like we are “Indigenous Collectives: Futurity Bundles & Landing
entering into the unintentional and the unknown, a slip stream. Things burn A Meditation on Fixity When Future Falls Are
up, sometimes as a slow burn—and we make room for other kin-dling to catch. and Flexibility.” American Immanent.” Theatre Magazine
Sometimes, like the choreographies of the Northern lights—we are taught Indian Quarterly 41, no. 4 50 (Forthcoming).
not to stare, not to ruminate too long for fear of calling those spirits back. We (2017): 368–92. • Recollet, Karyn. “Gesturing
are open to the possibility of the Otherwise as encompassing it all—rupture, • Gaztambide-Fernández, Indigenous Futurity
love, desire, hope, fear—a space of Indigenous sociality that includes stillness Rubén. “Decolonization and through the Remix.” Dance
and gestures towards all of our capacities as kin-in-the-making. the Pedagogy of Solidarity.” Research Journal 48, no. 1
Fire has taught us to fall in love with our rupture as we strive for joy. Decolonization: Indigeneity, (2016): 91–105.
Fire is alive, it has the ability to combust, much as we do—we can burn up/ Education & Society 1, no. 1 • Tootoosis, Mylan. “The
burn out. Perhaps there is something to an ending, a stopping place, a restive (2012): 41–67. System Isn’t Broken, It Was
quality because the slip stream reminds us of the importance of stillness. • Green, Christopher. “Against Built This Way: Seeking
This conjures some of the star stories or atayokewina (sacred stories) of the a Feathered Headdress: A Justice for Colten Boushie and
constellations, such as Ehkakachit Athchakos—commonly known as Polaris Tale of Two Performance Tina Fontaine.” Conference
or the North Star—within the Little Dipper. This is the standing still star, that Festivals and Native American roundtable presented at
which takes on that restive quality of the between spaces—a slipstream star. Voices.” Hyperallergic, the Native American and
Given this star’s positioning above the Northern axis of the earth, Ehkakachit January 17, 2017. https:// Indigenous Studies Association
Atchakos seems to stand still while all other stars dance around it 43. Like hyperallergic.com/352026/ Conference, Los Angeles,
the northern lights (the dancing spirit stars), fire extends, overflows, and against-a-feathered-headdress- California, May 2018.
propels themselves into the cosmos as a future ancestral being. We were two-performance-festivals- • Tuck, Eve, and Wayne Yang.
meant to think in relationship, perhaps this means that we have provided native-american-voices/. “Decolonization Is Not a
more questions than we have answers. Perhaps this is just the beginning for • Haraway, Donna. “Situated Metaphor.” Decolonization:
us—our kinstillations are just revealing themselves to us—we are learning Knowledges: The Science Indigeneity, Education and
that kin-in-the-making also holds space for rupture, as much as it gestures Question in Feminism and Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 1–40.
towards joy. We fall in love—over and over again—with the provocations the Privilege of Partial • Vowel, Chelsea. “Beyond
of Nehiyaw scholar/poet Billy-Ray Belcourt, “nothing is utopia and so she Perspective.” Feminist Studies Territorial Acknowledgments.”
prays to a god for a back that can bend like a tree splitting open to make room 14, no. 3 (1988): 575–99. Âpihtawikosisân (blog),
for the heat.” 44 • Harjo, Laura. “Indigenous September 23, 2016. https://
Scales of Sovereignty: apihtawikosisan.com/2016/09/
Transcending Settler beyond-territorial-
Geographies.” Conference acknowledgments/.
43 — Wilfred Buck, “Atchakosuk:
Ininewuk Stories of the Stars,” First presentation presented at • Vowel, Chelsea. “Language,
Nations Perspectives 2, no. 1 (2009): the Native American and Culture, and Two-Spirit
71–83. Indigenous star knowledge Indigenous Studies Association Identity.” Âpihtawikosisân
carriers such as Wilfred Buck (Swampy
Cree) help us to continue to build on Conference, Austin, (blog), March 29, 2012. https://
our ideas of kinstillatory, grounded Texas, May 2014. apihtawikosisan.com/2012/03/
in Indigenous celestial knowledge. language-culture-and-two-
Of this we are very grateful.
spirit-identity/.
23 44 — Belcourt, This Wound is a World.
Tanya Lukin Linklater
How we mark land and how land marks us

Performance Documentation & Description
How we mark land and how land marks us, 2017 Within Indigenous knowledges and understandings of treaty transmitted through

orality, treaty is held within the body and speaks to our ancestors’ agency and
Performance by Tanya Lukin Linklater with Laura Ortman, sovereignty, to the land, to sharing, and to a sense of urgent futurity. In this
Elisa Harkins and Hanako Hoshimi-Caines. residency, the artist gathered women together for rigorous conversation and
Curated by Tania Willard practice in relation to the Saint Lawrence River, to land, and to one another
With support from LandMarks/Reperes 2017 and Queens University. for the development of a performance, an action on the land.
Documentation of performance How

we mark land and how land marks
us, 2017. Performance by Tanya Lukin
Linklater with Laura Ortman, Elisa
Harkins and Hanako Hoshimi-Caines. 24
Tanya Lukin Linklater & Megan MacLaurin
A Conversation with Tanya Lukin Linklater
Megan MacLaurin: In the summer of 2017, in the midst of Canada’s park’s land base has grown over time. In preparation for this project,
150th anniversary celebrations, you created the performance How I thought about the ways in which the national park system has
we mark land and how land marks us for LandMarks/Reperes 2017. gained land, displacing Indigenous peoples from their territories.
Can you tell me a bit about your motivation for this project? It is interesting how land can be set aside for the Canadian public to
Tanya Lukin Linklater: I decided that if I were to produce work enjoy nature, to camp or hike or experience the St. Lawrence River,
in this particular year, I had to speak to treaty and how treaty is to preserve the land, which I am not opposed to, but there has been a
central to the foundation of Canada. We cannot talk about Canada continual attempt to displace Indigenous peoples, as our land base
as a nation or a project without considering Indigenous peoples. has continued to shrink over time. So, our ability to sustain ourselves
Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary film, Trick or Treaty,1 and some in the ways that we have for thousands of years has been diminished.
scholarly texts 2 speak to the Crown’s deceptive intention to force In addition to hunting and trapping, our ceremonial practices and
Indigenous peoples to cede or surrender their land in the treaty- traditional medicines are often completely dependent on what we
making process. My understanding of treaty, having learned about gather from the land and being in the land.
1 — Obamsawin, Alanis, director. Trick treaty from Indigenous perspectives since about 2000, is complex. Generally my performance work is responsive to site. I wondered,
or Treaty. National Film Board, 2014. Within Indigenous understandings, transmitted between genera what can we do with the violin and the amp and a tarp in this place?
2 — Long, John. Treaty No. 9: Making tions often through oral traditions, treaty as a practice is both pre- What is possible? How can we make art with our bodies and with
the Agreement to Share the Land confederate and pre-contact. Treaties existed between Indigenous this instrument in this location? There was a Canadian flag in close
in Far Northern Ontario in 1905. peoples and Indigenous nations as a central practice to share the land. proximity and some red Muskoka chairs. These are signifiers. These
McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010.
Within Indigenous frameworks, treaty is connected to ceremony, are very specific objects that have significant meaning for different
3 — Please see Cardinal, Harold and to Indigenous knowledge and to Indigenous values which have to folks depending on their relationship to Canada as a nation-state.
Walter Hildebrandt, Treaty Elders do with kindness and sharing. Certainly in some situations treaties MM: Do your performers’ movements differ when working in the
of Saskatchewan: Our Dream Is
That Our Peoples Will One Day Be were signed out of duress, but that is not the case across the board. land versus working in a gallery or museum?
Clearly Recognized as Nations, When we look at archival photographs of treaty-making there are TLL: This performance was quite pedestrian in some ways. At the
University of Calgary Press, 2000. indicators that this was done within Indigenous ceremonies, with beginning of the performance two women lie in opposite directions
4 — Lukin Linklater, Tanya. “Slow feasting, gift-giving, and pipe-smoking, actions that have very specific on rock. One gets up and then the other, and they repeat this gesture
Scrape (2012–2015).” Indigenous meanings for Indigenous peoples, placing Indigenous peoples in a because they are embodying the Two Row Wampum. They are lying
Dance Today – Motion, Connection, specific kind of relationship with the Crown 3. parallel to one another and they are repeating this gesture. They are
Relation special issue of Dance
Research Journal, Volume 48, Last year I also produced The treaty is in the body, two video signifying that the treaty is in the body. The body gestures towards
No. 1, April 2016, pp. 24–28. commissions, and The Harvest Sturdies in Minneapolis. All of these the treaty and is in relation to another body, in this land, near the river,
projects arose out of years of thinking about Chief Spence’s hunger at this time. They are activating or enacting [the treaty]. Indigenous
5 — Maurice Switzer has provided a
number of public lectures on wampum strike, a political, cultural, ceremonial action for 44 days in Ottawa peoples continuously enact our relationship to the treaty on the land.
and treaty at Nipissing University centered on treaty in the winter of 2012 and 2013.4 It has been an We also enact our inherent rights.
since 2014, including at Maadookhiwin: ongoing project for me, and it has taken different forms including In Alaska, our land claims settlement is not a treaty, and that has
Sharing, A Treaty Learning Centre
Symposium in partnership with installations, videos, and performances. been problematic for our sovereignty. And yet, my dad continues to
Anishnabek/Union of Ontario Indians, MM: Was How we mark the land also coming from this line of enact what it means to be an Alutiiq person on the land on a daily basis.
Nipissing First Nation, and Canadore thinking? How important was treaty to this site and to this par It’s a little complex, but what I mean to say is that yes, performance
College, for the Enji Giigdoyang
Speaker Series 2017, Indigenous Week, ticular work? on the land is different from performance in a museum because I’m
the Treaty Education Mentorship TLL: This was a site-specific performance that specifically addressed partly thinking about how the body moves in a place. I am impacted
Program in 2018, a partnership the Two Row Wampum. In my understanding of the Two Row by 1970s postmodern dance and the interest in postmodern dance
between Near North Schools and
Nipissing University with support Wampum, it is a foundational treaty for the relationship between in pedestrian movement. In the work, the dancers run, they jump in
from the Ministry of Education, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada, and perhaps Turtle place. They interact with a tarp, as I am interested in the tarp as a kind
at other events. His work has been Island. It is a Haudenosaunee treaty and takes a specific cultural of materiality. The tarp is something we use to build shelter on the
instrumental in the activation of the
Treaty Learning Centre on campus, a form, which is wampum. I am not an expert in wampum but am quite land. The movement is impacted by the land, by our surroundings.
space “to acknowledge the significant interested, mostly through my contact with Maurice Switzer 5, which I am always thinking about the constraints of the space or a sense
history of treaty-making between First I speak about in my publications about The Harvest Sturdies and of relationality: how is the body in relation to...?
Nations and the Crown in Canada.
The statement that “We are all treaty Slow Scrape 6. He has drawn my attention to wampum over time. MM: You had previously mentioned your project The treaty is in
people” acknowledges treaty-making In the Two Row Wampum, there are two lines that are parallel the body. Can you speak more to this? How is this concept related
as a foundational relationship in to one another. It is purple and white, made from wampum shells to How we mark land?
Canada. The Treaty Learning Centre
is activated through materials and with specific meanings, but this particular wampum belt symbolizes TLL: I’ve said elsewhere that dancers perform specialized labour over
resources and knowledge shared the Dutch European ship and the canoe. The image signifies these a period of time and they work with the body as a way to investigate
through talks and traditional cultural two vessels in the St. Lawrence River, moving forward across time, a question or a concept.8 Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, dancer, has said
teachings. It is a place of learning that
values traditional cultural knowledge paddling forward into the future. It is a compelling image because to me, “It is less interesting to allow a concept to drop into the body
and oral histories of treaty-making it is in a specific place, but imagines time. The vessels are traveling and more interesting to allow a question.” I think that if a concept
equally with historical understandings parallel to one another but are not interfering with one another. drops into the body then it becomes an object, and the dancer looks
of treaty. The Treaty Learning Centre
is a space to learn about the continued The idea extended between them is peace and friendship. Within at the object and it is very hard to find a way in; it is like a noun
significance of treaty today.” Retrieved their vessels they have their own ways of being, their own ways of versus a verb or a question. A question allows space for something to
June 17, 2018 from: http://www. governing, their own ways of attending to their respective peoples. occur. So, I have said The treaty is in the body as a kind of position.
nipissingu.ca/departments/indigenous-
initiatives/bookings-requests/Pages/ However, archival research has shown7 that the intent on the I have staked a claim in some ways through that statement,9 but it
Treaty-Learning-Centre.aspx part of the representatives of the Crown, in Treaty 9 and elsewhere, is also a way for me to ask those kinds of questions of the dancers
were clearly that they made promises verbally and wrote something that I am working with. Because they have this deep relationship
6 — Lukin Linklater, Tanya. “Slow
Scrape (2012–2015).” Indigenous else in the treaties. Indigenous peoples came together in good faith to their bodies and have ways to ask those questions from the body
Dance Today – Motion, Connection, to think about sharing the land for future generations. to generate movement or stillness or whatever the case may be.
Relation special issue of Dance The site is very significant for this particular project. MM: Is there significance to the gender of your performers? From
Research Journal, Volume 48,
No. 1, April 2016, pp. 24–28. MM: It is also worth addressing that the work took place in Thousand my understanding, you mainly collaborate with women.
Islands National Park, traditionally the territory of the Haudenosaunee TLL: In my positionality as a woman artist interested in process and
7 — John Long’s contributions include and later the Mississauga that was overtaken by the Loyalists in relationality, I am often thinking about the ethics of working with
his published work, Treaty No. 9:
Making the Agreement to Share the the 1770s before being established as a national park in the early dancers and the ways in which we think alongside one another. I am
Land in Far Northern Ontario in 1905 1900s. Is the site’s park designation also significant to the way you also interested in the ethics of working with women and women’s
(McGill-Queen’s University Press, engaged this place? bodies in relation to the gaze that has historically been placed
2010) and his re-telling of this history
in Alanis Obamsawin’s documentary TLL: In Canada and also in the United States I grew up travelling upon our bodies in art and cinema, as well as the ethics of working
film, Trick or Treaty, produced by to national parks and participating in this kind of idea of the land. with Indigenous women and women of colour, or women who are
the National Film Board, 2014. As a child I grew up in “the lower 48” as we call it, but I also grew mixed. I do not always know what language to use because each
8 — Battle, Christina. “There is up in Alaska in a place where land-based practices are just a part of of the women I work with would likely identify differently. But we
something in the way.” Essay for who we are and what we do on a daily basis. My dad is a subsistence do not always read these women as such, as women of colour or
exhibition at Cold Cuts Festival, hunter and fisherman and grew up trapping as well, taught by my Indigenous women. I am interested in their agency, as well as the
Dawson City, Yukon, 2018. https://
coldcutsvideofestival.files.wordpress. great-grandparents and grandparents. He continues to this day to live ways in which audience reads them and the disparity between these
com/2018/03/theres-something-in- and work and be alongside the land and the water in the ways that two views, the space between.
the-way_essay_christina-battle.pdf our ancestors have for thousands of years on Kodiak Island. I grew I am also aware that dancers have been disciplined to listen
9 — Lukin Linklater, Tanya. Interview by up with this way of being informing who I am, but I also traveled and take direction. This has been an investigation of mine through
Brandon Gray, CBC Arts, online video, to national parks with my mother, being in those other landscapes informal conversations with dancers throughout my process for
March 26, 2018, http://www.cbc.ca/arts/ as a visitor to the territory. When I think of this particular project, many years and in a project I produced last year called ...you will
exhibitionists/tanya-lukin-linklater-s-
art-explores-what- LandMarks, and its relation to Thousand Islands National Park, be judged to be going against the flow because you are insistent.
25 it-means-to-be-treaty-people1.4590955 the smallest national park in Canada, it’s important to note that the Orality as method, as way of being, as a way to generate knowledge
is important in relation to the conversations I share with dancers. Anishinaabe way in Nipissing First Nation territory, where I live.

Conversation is significant in my practice and I also connect it to We, in our respective places, have specific knowledges. Some of
Indigenous knowledge production. Language as text is also central that complexity and nuance and deep knowledge is being reduced.
to my practice. In my research of Alutiiq and Yupiaq relationships to the natural
My choice to work with women is informed by my own positional world, they were complex. When we consider the personhood
ity, informed by my own interest in thinking through and alongside of animals, their agency, and our strict protocols for the ways in
women, learning from them and also navigating the idea of authorship. which we interact with animals through hunting practices that
When I think alongside musicians I work with them conceptu were connected with ceremony, these were ways to ensure that our
ally, providing structures and I place them, physically, in the work. relationships to the natural world were sustainable, respectful. We
I sometimes give them feedback about specific sounds they are knew that we could not survive without the generosity and agency
producing, but I am not a musician or composer in the same way of those specific beings. We had entire systems built in our respec
that they are. I do not have the same tools. tive communities over deep time. To me, it is a very complex and
However, when I am working with dancers, I am a choreog loaded question because, in my experience as an Alutiiq person
rapher. I use improvisation as a method for locating movement. I (who has done research, as we do not necessarily practice ceremony
provide a conceptual framework and specific tasks. I provide scores anymore because of the violence of colonialism) I consider the ways
for dancers as well, a structure and a kind of place from which they in which Alutiiq people/Sugpiaq people (that is our original name
can improvise movement. At times I give very specific directions for ourselves)—how we were enslaved by the Russians to hunt the
and actions (with the tarp for example). Other times I outright ask sea otter to near extinction. So, colonialism and imperialism were
them to improvise—within the conditions I have provided, to find mechanisms for the collapse of the sea otter population but also went
movement that we then set. I then edit. hand in hand with the collapse of so much of who we were. This
However, I am cognizant of the power dynamic between us. active resource extraction was harming the sea otter, who within
I want to work in ways that acknowledge the work of the dancers. our worldview, we understood to be a relative, and as such we were
I want to honour how the work could not be produced in the same also harming our own people. We were forced to be a part of that.
way without them. It is their active participation and engagement We had no choice. I feel as though when we ask these big questions
and contributions that allows the work to come to be. we have to be ready for a rigorous examination of the specificity of
I am also aware of how easy it might be to erase me as an who we are. My answer is going to be very different from someone
Indigenous woman artist as an author. This is why I moved away else’s due to their pressing concerns and the long history of their
from working solely in performance. As Indigenous people we are specific community, what has happened over time.
dealing with our erasure on a daily basis in the United States and Ongoing controversies about Indigenous peoples’ subsistence
Canada (the purposeful “amnesia” that Marcie Rendon speaks of); harvesting are rooted in an erasure or amnesia of history. It is a
the erasure of our labour, of our histories, of our knowledges, of forgetting that Indigenous peoples have lived here for thousands
our ways of being—through the outlawing of our ceremonies and of years and that these practices are deeply embedded in who we
dances, through the legacy of Indian Residential Schools to erase are. These practices are also protected in treaty or other legislation
our languages and our cultural practices. So, partly this is why I because we negotiated for those rights as a part of who we are. There
struggle with some of these questions about authorship. I do not are ways that we can work together when some animal populations
want to impose a European structure, particularly in dance, of the are failing. Embedded in our Indigenous worldviews and practices,
male author or choreographer upon the bodies of women. I want in our ceremonies in Alaska, was a deep commitment to the return
to problematize that relationship but also leave space for me as an of those animals and the ways in which we prepared ourselves to
Indigenous woman. hunt, the ways in which we honoured each and every single one of
MM: Given your dispersal of authorship, decentering of the role those animals who gave their lives so that we could continue as a
of the artist and confrontation of the gaze, would you characterize community and as a people. This was embedded in who we were.
your position as a feminist one?
TLL: I have been a feminist since I was quite young. At a really
young age I felt, mainly outside my own village in Alaska, very
much gendered, classed, and raced. It was very clear to me at a WOR K S C I T E D
very young age the ways in which I was treated differently based • Battle, Christina. “There • Lukin Linklater, Tanya.
on those three factors. I do not know that I had the language to is something in the way.” “Slow Scrape (2012–2015)”
identify as a feminist, but I was aware of my experiences and was Essay for exhibition on Cold in Indigenous Dance Today –
thinking about the inequities within the spaces that I was in, whether Cuts Festival 2018. https:// Motion, Connection, Relation,
it was in education or in other public spaces. I do not recall learning coldcutsvideofestival.files. special issue of Dance
about feminism in high school, but when I went to university I was wordpress.com/2018/03/theres- Research Journal, Volume 48,
interested in writings by Indigenous women and women of colour. something-in-the-way_essay_ No. 1, April 2016, pp. 24–28.
Very early on, thankfully, I had excellent professors in Indigenous christina-battle.pdf • Obamsawin, Alanis, director.
studies and English who helped me to critique feminism and to think • Cardinal, Harold and Walter Trick or Treaty. National Film
about feminism in relation to Indigenous peoples such as Paula Moya, Hildebrandt, Treaty Elders of Board, 2014.
Sharon Holland, Cherrie Moraga, Robert Warrior, and Mishuana Saskatchewan: Our Dream • Switzer, Maurice. Public talk.
Goeman when she was a graduate student at Stanford. Today many Is That Our Peoples Will One Maadookhiwin: Sharing,
Indigenous women do not identify as feminist, and I respect that. I Day Be Clearly Recognized as A Treaty Learning Centre
respect that there are problems with white feminism. Those problems Nations, University of Calgary Symposium (in partnership
have not gone away. In my experience, I felt intersectionality as a Press, 2000. with Anishnabek/Union of
child. I thought about being othered as a child. While I identify as • Fiskio, Janet. “Dancing Ontario Indians, Nipissing First
a feminist, I am critical of feminism as well. While I continue to at the End of the World: Nation, Nipissing University
think in and through and in relation to my critiques, I do not think The Poetics of the Body and Canadore College with
(feminism) is my primary concern. in Indigenous Protest,” in support from the Ministry
MM: I have noticed writing on Indigenous women artists that Ecocriticism and Indigenous of Indigenous Relations and
relates the body and land as sites and sources of reclamation. For Studies: Conversations from Reconciliation), march 2014,
instance, in her chapter for Ecocriticism and Indigenous Studies: Earth to Cosmos, ed. Salma Nipissing University, North
Conversations from Earth to Cosmos,10 Janet Fiskio uses your work Monani and Joni Adamson. Bay, Ontario.
woman and water (2006) to illustrate how Indigenous women’s bodies (Routledge, 2016). • Switzer, Maurice. Public talk.
are engaged in discourses around land and water to advocate for • Long, John. Treaty No. 9: Treaty Education Mentorship
the environment in a way that is culturally embedded, in contrast to Making the Agreement to Share Program (a partnership
mainstream environmentalism which supports the environment for the Land in Far Northern between Near North Schools
its own sake. Building from these ideas, I am wondering if you see Ontario in 1905. McGill- and Nipissing University with
a connection between Indigenous women, or Alutiiq women more Queen’s University Press, 2010. support from the Ministry of
specifically, and the land as being important to your work, or if you • Lukin Linklater, Tanya. Education), April 2018, Treaty
take this association as being problematic? Interview by Brandon Gray, Learning Centre, Nipissing
TLL: Our relationship to the land is complex and nuanced and CBC Arts, online video, March University, North Bay, Ontario.
10 — Fiskio, Janet. “Dancing at the
depends on our experience and our Indigenous knowledge. I do not 26, 2018, http://www.cbc.ca/ End of the World: The Poetics of
mean to diminish the experiences of urban Indigenous people or arts/exhibitionists/tanya-lukin- the Body in Indigenous Protest,”
folks who have not had access to Indigenous knowledge in specific linklater-s-art-explores- in Ecocriticism and Indigenous
Studies: Conversations from Earth
ways. I mean that an Alutiiq way of understanding the land and the what-it-means-to-be-treaty- to Cosmos, ed. Salma Monani and
water is going to be different from an Omaskeko Cree way or an people1.4590955 Joni Adamson. (Routledge, 2016). 26
Andrea Carlson
Grandmothers Talking on the Shore
While my Ojibwe grandma cared for her dying Swedish mother-in-law, she
would fall asleep each night listening to stories of the “old world.” These
stories revealed Swedish lives, the lives of thieves, missing children, and
family scandals all set to the soundtrack of waves breaking on the shore of
Gichigaming (Lake Superior). My two grandmas were sharing stories in a
cabin on the lake, it is a simple fraction of a larger pattern.
Shores are these liminal spaces where worlds meet, where imagining
and scrying is possible. Listening to the rhythm of the waves while walking
the shore, the sound of footsteps chiseling the sand, and the heartbeat—these
elements work together to create a metered space that encourages the mind
to sing melody. Songs can be pulled out of these rhythms, while images can
be pulled out of the infinite horizon. My art encompasses so many seemingly
disparate ideas, from cultural assimilation and metaphoric cannibalism to
film and museum collections. These varied ideas all converge on imagined
spaces, shores, and portages. They speak to an inner stage that is entered
while walking on imagined shores.
27 Ink Babel, 2014, 115 × 183 inches, ink, oil, acrylic, and other media on paper.
Top to bottom:
Forked Tongues, 2014, one of eight-

piece suite, 15 × 34 inches, ink and oil
on paper (detail).
Vaster Ink Empire, 2014, one of eight-

piece suite, 15 × 34 inches, ink and oil
on paper (detail).
Lust of Gold, 2015, one of eight-piece

suite, 15 × 34 inches, ink and oil on
paper (detail).
Lust of Gold, 2015, one of eight-piece

suite, 15 × 34 inches, ink and oil on
paper (detail). 28
Heid E. Erdrich
Skins, Forms, Flows, Tones
What holds water in a drop You wear your skin no matter where
tension that holds humans in you inherited your tones smooth
between over structure of bone anyone who

their sweet skins looked at you would know No
water holds us Your home of skin

her arms bays Warm cool sleek subtle shag of days
tide of blood steam of work sweat and regret and inked to say
beat so close
just our skins My skin’s a story
between you cannot guess
a history you cannot claim
home and ocean
inland sea Tones songs forms to say
river just between us Let me tell you you won’t know me
just a beat by my blue-black blurred word that bled into fade
between no matter
who you are
who I am My skin’s a story
who we are you cannot guess
We call our own way back My people made me

Climb a liquid ladder My water claims me
Pour ourselves into
Various and fluid forms You cannot guess
I swim a liquid ladder
Between Distance no matter no home too far
Bluegreen bays
Gray lakes Skins skin kin kindred
River feeding life into our bodies kind red kind
kin skin
We flow across continents
flow through peoples Carry me across dry days
one water no matter My skin my own sweet home for water
our drift the rifts Beating blood of history
And rips of tides
We water walking we skins
Our skins vibrate afire
Concordant a blood current sounding
Just us
Just this skin between us
Skins skin kin kindred

kind red kind
kin skin
What holds water in a drop

tension that holds humans
between their sweet skins
her arms bays

tide of blood
beat so close
just our skins
between
home and body of water

just between us
just a beat
between
who you are
who I am
who we are
Previously published in the May 2017 issue of World Literature Today,

29 reprinted by permission of the author.
Bodies of Water The Cleansing After Close Your Eyes and Listen Listening with the Body
“Skins, Forms, Flows, Tones” We’re evidence of the crime This poem was written in the Recorded sounds blow out of their

came from the experience of – John Trudell dark while Rosy Simas Danse original proportion—digitally
interviewing dozens of people co-created Weave. It began as an made both larger and smaller than
while working with Rosy Simas Rinsed clear in the tide agitated experiment. Without using vision, they were once. I am immersed
Danse on Skin(s). We visited with coarse river sand I wrote from my other sensations in the sounds of water. As I listen,
three cities and had conversations and, eventually, from a place of dancers before me are co-creating
with Indigenous people of all thrashed on rocks tide-rinsed disembodiment. That triggered an Weave for Rosy Simas Danse. I
kinds. In asking people questions clean of your stains image of Native and First Nations imagine my own body in motion,
for the video that became Skin women left missing or dead, which in the pleasure of expression,
Frequencies (co-created with worn from the wash we cleanse is something I often think of since exploring the sound Rosy choreo
Elizabeth Day), we reconfirmed grow thin transparent we are in the midst of an epidemic. graphs with—a composition of
our lived understanding that obvious as guts As I wrote, I wished for them an heavy vibration.
Native Americans often identify and as blue afterlife cleansed of violation. And, The lights are low and the
themselves in relationship to place. as horrible as it is, I wished their floor creaks with the subtle
Most often, people talked about Our function no longer suspect bodies would be found so there movements of four dancers. There
bodies of water. I began to think of so obvious would be evidence of the crime. are forms coming into view in
how we are bodies of water and our We know we scrub we agitate Later, I thought of the John Trudell the dim light, very slowly arcing
skins are just that fine vessel that we rub wrong poem line, “We are evidence of out—the leading edge of a wave.
allows our waters to walk. Once the crime,” as the answer to why They are co-creating, almost
the poem became a movement, I disturb until our elemental blue Indigenous people continue to sleepily, but actively, so as if
was ready to hand it over to Rosy runs clear through suffer violent oppression. half-awake still making the
for her own use in the work. Writing without using my narrative of a dream even as they
Dead we say our way home eyes was an entirely new practice rise. Except the narrative is within
red dirt for me and the resulting poem, the body of each artist in Weave.
we say words something that came from a voice No one story arches over the work.
of earth I had not heard before with images This is exciting for me because I
so vivid that they frightened me am a woman of words, words are
names of land was a surprise. Watching the my work, and Weave takes me
cleansed bleached artists in Rosy Simas Danse use beyond words.
scrubbed soaked leached various senses and the repression The bodies of the dancers
of sight influenced me to listen are clear now they’ve reached
still we remain carefully to inner voices and the light. Each seems to search,
so gritty so agitated look carefully at inner visions. In but of course I’ve projected that
writing this work, my understand meaning because I want to read
so turgid ing of Rosy’s work grew. gesture in their movements. The
our waters drain music is ringing and taking its own
so very gray-blue direction. The dancers’ bodies
slow to a directional wave—a
so human so woman so pointing of sorts that diminishes as
clearly so not the sound circles down to nothing.
you Then the sound of bubbles
and water rise again with the lights.
This gorgeous composition slowly
builds through waves slowed so
minutely that I hear each bubble
pop upon the shore, fizzling first
like grease on a hot pan, then shell
grains rocked upon the beach.
This sound undoes my ability
to analyze. Takes me from my
critical self. All I can do is watch
each dancer round themselves to
the sound.
My greatest pleasure in
witnessing this work is that
it requires me to listen most
carefully. When my hearing grows
tired, I teach myself to listen dif
ferently, to feel vibration elsewhere
in my body. The music shifts to a
composition of sound projected in
profound humming that brings the
audience into the physical space of
the dance in a direct, even visceral
way. There’s so much—such
hugeness in this soundscape—it
must be the world or all of creation
that it addresses. It must be
something that can free us from
our small selves, if we give over
to it as the dancers do, if we listen
together, we will find ourselves
somehow closer, yet enlarged.
An excerpt from a longer essay-in-

progress from observing Weave
during residencies at Florida State
University’s School of Dance’s
Maggie Allesee National Center
for Choreography (MANCC) and
St. Catherine University’s The
O’Shaughnessy. 30
Rosy Simas & Christopher K. Morgan
Longer Scores: Native Choreographic Turns, Curatorial Visions, and Community Engagement
could see the presence of hula in it. A sort of unconscious embedding

of hula infused in the work.

That was very interesting for me, because for all intents and
purposes the work looks like “contemporary dance,” but as you start
to understand the ethos and the movement vocabulary of hula, you
realize how deeply embedded it is in everything I do. And none of us
had taken the time to look at the work with that lens! It was important
to take the time to reflect on the body of work, and contextualize
the turn the work took with Pōhaku. Now I’m trying to figure out
how to balance the subtlety that has been there all along, with the
directness that is emerging. I think the next work is intentionally
trying to integrate—I don’t know if that’s the right word, but I’ll
use it for now—integrate these differences.
Yeah, I don’t know, I’m not sure if that’s the right start, but this
is what’s on my mind.
This integration also reflects on things I’m grappling with as
a curator.
I feel blessed to have inherited the leadership at an institution
(Dance Place) that so many people think of as “home”. And it’s
lots of very different kinds of people that think of it as their home,
which I love. But there’s a responsibility to hold space for all of
those people, and also make space for more people. This has forced
me to have really long-term vision. For example, in programming
the performance series, I can’t think about one or two seasons at a
time. I have to be thinking about three to five seasons, in order to
envision how everyone can be included. And we’re functioning in
Rosy Simas in Weave. Design by Rosy Simas. McKnight Fellowship/MANCC Residency, 2018. Photo by Imranda Ward. a machine that has annual cycles that are really strong in terms of
funding and touring and how artists are planning their lives. Some
artists are really engaged in that long vision, and are thinking two
and three years out, and some are not, which is okay, but to fold all
June 6, 2018. Los Angeles, California. of that in, I have to see far enough ahead in order to make space
for everyone. That’s been a challenge. And I think, to be honest,
Rosy Simas: I’m interested in discussing what you’re most inter there are people in our Dance Place community who have had their
ested in talking about—your artistic practice as a choreographer, feelings hurt because they’re worried that they don’t have a place
and your role as a director and curator of an established presenting at the table right now. I keep reiterating over and over, a “no” for
organization. I’d like to discuss your personal artistic desires, needs, one season does not mean a “no” forever. It’s a “no” for how it fits
and goals; and how that merges or doesn’t merge with your new job/ into this part of a larger puzzle, or I keep using the phrase, “the
curatorial practice. longer score.” Like an enormous group improvisation score, we’re
Christopher K. Morgan: I’m happy to talk about all the roles! In building a long score that supports lots of different people over a
my artistic role—I’m in a challenging place right now. From some span of time.
of the conversations you and I have had in the past, I think where RS: We were talking about long-term versus short-term goals. I’d
I’m at might be parallel to some of what happened with you after like to talk about your artistic practice after this next question. I’m
you made We Wait In The Darkness. You turned a corner in some interested, do you see things in your new position five years out, ten
way with that work, and I feel that for me, with Pōhaku I turned a years out? What is it about envisioning that sustains you through
new corner about the incorporation of my Native Hawaiian identity the grueling work hours, and all that you have to do?
in a very visible and strong way. That aspect of my identity was CKM: I think the number one thing that sustains me through
always present in my work, because I am Native Hawaiian, and I grueling work hours is that my office at Dance Place shares a wall
grew up with certain cultural values and ways of moving. But when with the theater, and I can hear artists and students in class and in
the subject matter of the work became overtly about that identity in rehearsal and in performance every day. That keeps me focused on
Pōhaku, that turned a corner from which I can’t return. I don’t fully why we’re doing all of the administrative work. It’s ironic because
understand what that means yet and its effect on my work. I have the administrative work in support of my artistic practice I do in
several non-Native collaborators that I work with and with whom I isolation, late at night, home alone, at a computer. Working at Dance
have long histories. They are happy to engage in the searching that Place, I’m constantly next to the youth and adults who are studying
I’m doing, but it’s not necessarily their searching. So how do we dance, and the artists who are working in our theater. That helps
partner together in that search in a way that’s mindful? I think that’s keep me focused.
one of the big questions I have right now about my process; there’s The way I’m thinking about and envisioning the future and
not a lack of interest from them to learn and expand and embrace long-term is very relational. I’m trying to create strong bonds with
new ways of working, but how to do it mindfully. artists that I want to support over a long span of time, and be party
We just had a residency at NCC Akron (The National Center to their curiosity and its satiation. And recognizing that “satiation”
for Choreog raphy at the University of Akron). We significantly is something artists rarely meet quickly. I’ve always been a bit of a
revamped the plan for the residency in the months leading up to planner, but my work at Dance Place has shifted or expanded that in
it. NCC Akron’s director, Christy Bolingbroke, was aware that I a way that requires more maintenance and checking in with many
was not only at this artistic turning point, but that I was also at a people, to understand how their paths are shifting and unfolding. It’s
professional turning point, where my administrative and curatorial a lot of checking in, at a large volume. That volume is a difficult thing
role had shifted the amount of time and focus I had to work on my to keep up with. I want to be really care-filled with each interaction,
art. I saw Christy for a planning meeting in January prior to the but it’s hard to do that when there are so many.
April residency. She proposed we rethink the residency. I had been That sounds a little bit like a complaint, and I don’t mean it
thinking of the residency as early-stage creative research for the to; it’s just the big puzzle that I have to solve right now. We have
next big work. She said, “That’s great, but would you like to analyze well over forty artists in our programming next season. We looked
how you’re working in light of your new role at Dance Place?” I at work by over one-hundred-and-fifty artists. And with my small
was so grateful she asked that question, because I had been simply team of three (Associate Curator, Sarah Greenbaum, and Director
trying to plow ahead with a hard-work ethic, carrying everything of Production, Ben Levine), we have to foster enough dialogue with
and just go for it! And not even take the time for analysis, because each person in the season that they feel like we are truly invested
I didn’t feel like I had the time to analyze. The residency became in them as artists and that we’re not just “putting up” their show.
a really important moment for this. We shifted everything—who Each relationship is different of course, and the volume or the
we invited, the layout of each day. It became equal parts studio and depth of contact varies, but I want to try to make sure that it’s all
conversation. We took time with long-term collaborators to look at quality. At just one year on the job I already feel how difficult that
my work going back more than ten years. is to accomplish.
Something really interesting emerged in that analysis, par I don’t know if I want to say this, but I’m just going to say it,
ticularly from some of the collaborators/dancers that I’ve worked because it’s there. That’s the number one thing that I think is making
with for as much as six years. As they learned more about hula and it difficult to maintain my own art. Because those relationships are
31 Hawaiian culture, and they were looking back at older work, they precious, it’s easiest for me to sacrifice something that I am in control

Pōhaku and Christopher K. Morgan. Christopher K. Morgan & Artists, Pōhaku creation and production residency at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Kahului, Maui, Hawai‘i, September 9, 2015.
Photo by Brian S. Allard.
of, to serve those relationships. So, what I sacrifice is my time, my talking about community engagement with Weave might present an
art. That’s my biggest challenge right now. opportunity to create a foundation for Dance Place to build a strong
RS: Do you think that’s even true when you’re talking about your relationship with local Native partners.
own artistic practice and working with dancers and collaborators? This makes me think about something that I’ve witnessed at
CKM: Definitely. Getting out of my own way is always part of the Dance Place in a different community, the trans community. Sean
work. There was a piece I made in 2009, when I was CityDance’s Dorsey, a trans choreographer from San Francisco, just performed at
resident choreographer, that toured extensively via the U.S. State Dance Place in May. It was Sean’s third presentation at Dance Place
Department. There was no time after the premiere to make any in the last five years. This most recent performance was coordinated
adjustments to the choreography. It premiered; then a couple weeks to happen at the same time as Capital Trans Pride. There was very
later, it was on the road. And I just kept having to look at it over little trans audience present at his two sets of performances a couple
and over again. I was frustrated by it, artistically. The dancers did of years back. This year, because we had gotten additional support for
beautifully, but there are choices that I made choreographically all of our LGBTQ+ artists in their spring season to do added layers
that I wanted to shift, and there was just no time. Then the work sat of community engagement, and the timing with Capital Trans Pride,
for a little while, and we came back to it several months later. I was we had the most trans audience members at Sean’s performances I
working on editing video of it for a work sample, and through the think Dance Place has probably ever had.
detachment of video, I was able to come closer to what I thought That highlighted for me that it takes years to build community
the piece should have been. And in that process, I realized that I relationships. It’s something I know—but then to see it get to
had been prioritizing the collaborators’ feelings, and my worries a point of fruition, in a small way with Sean and the D.C. trans
about them being satisfied in the work, and being cared for in the community—well that gets me excited about reconnecting to com
work—which was all doing a disservice to the work itself. By not munities that you (Rosy) started to build relationships with a few
really listening to where the work was telling me to go, I was letting years ago during We Wait In The Darkness in Washington, D.C.,
the work down. It was an important lesson. I don’t always maintain and see how those are furthered now a couple of years later. And
the learning of that lesson, but it was a lesson that I haven’t been for us to create a space where the Native community feels welcome
able to shake. And I’ve gotten a lot better at, in my own artistic both at your performances and all of its community engagement, as
collaborative teams. Better about saying, “I’m not sure why this is well as in our space. Period. At any time.
happening, but there’s a strong instinct inside of me saying that we RS: I know that Keevin was invited to shows after he worked with us,
need to do this, so let’s try.” And I feel less precious about people’s and he actually told me he went to several. That’s something really
feelings in the room, or in the creative process. interesting to me, how through, I want to say how funding is set up,
So, yes, I think that’s a lesson I learned, and gotten stronger at: but how also the Euro-Western-dominated curatorial practice has set
following what the work tells me. Whereas as an administrator and up this idea of engagement being, “Well, we engaged with this one
curator, when I’m supporting other people’s work and not part of the population for this one show, and then we don’t really continue that
creative process but participating in the presentation of it—caring for work.” And part of that is logistical, in the sense of people power, like
people is such an important part of curation. It’s all a relationship in how much, how many people you have, that can be dedicated to that
service of… or I want to be in service of… And that’s very different kind of thing, in terms of like a continual growing of relationship
than listening to my artistic work leading me through a process. In with different populations over a long period of time.
curatorial work the higher calling is service to others. In my work But also, I think it’s how we shift our ideas about who is worthy
I have to build strong, supportive, healthy relationships so together to engage, or who do we think has that interest, you know? I think
we can be in service of the work. that’s one of the things that is so important in thinking about engaging
RS: Yeah. I’m curious, I know that through my coming to D.C., with Native community, like for me, I only want to work with partners
and us meeting, that we started to meet more people in the Native that are going to continue that work (engaging Native audiences)
community in D.C. We did that interview with Keevin [Lewis], and even if I’m not there. Because when we isolate people into pockets,
you know people we met—Ashley Minner I met through Dance and think of them in pockets, then we’re not only doing a disservice
Place—and I’m curious, for you—I know the community is small to that community, but to all the artists that have the potential to be
and/or it’s spread out—how the community, the Native community, able to benefit from having audiences from different communities,
is either sort of in the back of your mind, or how you are thinking and so it affects the entire artistic process, and not just the numbers
about it in relationship to your role? that foundations are looking for when they give money.
CKM: The Native community is definitely on my mind. I’m looking That’s part of what excites me about you being at Dance Place. I
forward to how we re-engage with you specifically because you started think Colleen [Furukawa] is an interesting curator in thinking about
some initial inroads into the Native community in Washington, D.C., that kind of continual and renewed engagement.
that we need to make stronger, so the Native community knows they CKM: That’s important for me to hear. We started an experi
are welcome in our space. ment this past season that speaks to this, hosting pre-show events
I have not had the time yet to start building relationships to that would bring different community members of the creative
recognize whose land we’re on at Dance Place. It is something that community together that may not normally socialize, but had some
I want to start, but I also want to make sure I do it in a way that kind of overlapping interest with one another. It was really truly
has integrity, and is not just contacting someone from that tribal an experiment, an idea that Sarah Greenbaum and I talked about,
community and saying, “Great, now we’ve had that contact, and and so we just did it.
we’re good to go.” I recognize that it takes more time than I’ve One of our concerns at Dance Place is making sure that the
been able to dedicate to that in my first year. I hope the way we are creative community shows up for the creative community. Sometimes 32
Christopher K. Morgan. Christopher K. Morgan & Artists, Pōhaku creation and production residency at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Kahului, Maui, Hawai‘i, September 9, 2015. Photo by Brian S. Allard.
when I look around the audience at dance performances, I only see Western-Euro curatorial practice, that it can’t just be done through
dancers. That’s not always the case in our theater, and I’m wondering, theoretical, intellectual ideas that come out of academia, although
“Okay, is our dance community showing up for itself?” And where there’s nothing wrong with that, just it has to be done with real
are our musicians, visual artists, and theater friends? Then I started people on the ground making, shifting, and changing, by actually
thinking “Okay, how can we help this?” Through socializing? doing the work itself. I find this really interesting because I feel
So, we focused on the creative community, and an expansive with academia, that’s where most of the talk and thought around
definition of that, including visual artists, sound designers, musicians, shifting the curatorial practice is happening, but I don’t think that
photographers, et cetera. We created lists of people to invite. The we can just expect our white allies to just do this. So, for me, it’s
first one, we invited everyone, and twenty people showed up. There more just knowing you bring all of yourself to that role. And not
were no panels, no talking points. Sometimes if the artist who will so much what I think of as Euro-Western outcomes, which are like
be on stage in an hour is able to come by and say hello, they’ll do numbers. It’s more of the “how,” than the “what,” which I feel is
that, but that’s totally up to that artist. We only did two or three of more culturally specific.
these this past year. We’re going to do more this coming year, and CKM: Definitely.
organize it even more thoughtfully next year. RS: So, that is what excites me about you having this role.
But in fact, you are really asking about THE challenge, that I CKM: That’s great to hear, and that relieves a little of the pressure I feel.
think we all face in the performing arts. We say we want a broad It’s so interesting, too, because in so many ways I think of an
audience, and we really do have that at Dance Place. Every time institution like Dance Place as an intermediary. We are the recipient
I do a curtain speech at Dance Place, I’m amazed at the visible of funding and resources from so many other larger organizations,
differences in our audience members. Of course, there are many then we’re redistributing to artists and in support of artists. We are
differences I cannot see, but I’m grateful that we are a third space poised to effect change that goes up the ladder, up the rungs, and
where lots of different people come together. I think we can be even down the rungs. That’s a really unfortunate hierarchical example,
more intentional about building that broad community, into making but it’s something that I’ve been thinking about, because, as Director
a more expansive and extended one. For example, during our annual of Dance Place I have a different kind of relationship than I had with
DanceAfrica festival this year, I realized there are a lot of artists and funders as an artist.
patrons that don’t attend many other events throughout the season. I think we all can start to effect some institutional change. I think
We need to intentionally invite them to more events. of some shifts that happened at NEFA [New England Foundation
It’s interesting, right after it was announced that I would be the for the Arts] in recent years that are stellar examples, and that was
new Executive Artistic Director of Dance Place; I went to a convening very informed by artists, to my understanding.
that the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation held in Portland with There is a different weight in what I can do via Dance Place to
its current fellows. I was invited with a few other prior fellows to effect change in multiple directions.
share our experiences in the years since we had received our fel There’s something flawed with how I said all of that, that I can’t
lowships. Because my appointment as Executive Artistic Director quite wrap my head around yet, but it’s something in recent months
of Dance Place had just been announced, it ended up becoming the that I’ve been trying to figure out. “Okay, how do we instigate change
topic of conversation at one point. There was a program officer from in these funding institutions, that then allow us as an intermediary
a national foundation in attendance who recognized that it is likely to better do the work we want to do, or have the work be more true
that I am the first Native person to be the director of a performance to mission, and still be able to report back, in a way that satisfies all
space, such as Dance Place, in the United States. of those requirements?”
It was wonderful observation to hear, and it also felt like There are so many funny formulas that different funders have
pressure, pressure that I’m nervous about frankly. Because I want about how much money gets spent where, that I wish there was
to make sure I do right by the Native community, but continue to more relationship trust that you could form between funders and
hold space for all the communities that are part of Dance Place. Do institutions, and that once a bond is formed, a funder can look at
right by the Native community, meaning making sure that they feel an institution and say, “Okay, we understand your intention behind
welcome in our space, and that we’re programming Native artists, this—fulfill it.” And that would be that. I do really appreciate data
while maintaining all of these other types of programming that are reporting, I get it, but there are moments where I think we need
core to who Dance Place is, where we are geographically located. I to really push for more change. And I feel the potential for it with
want to make sure Dance Place continues to reflect the community Dance Place, which is exciting.
that it lives in, and there are parts of its community that we’re not
reflecting yet, that we can do more of, but there are so many that we
are reflecting on stage and in our studios. Yeah, so that felt like an
interesting kind of pressure when that was recognized.
RS: Don’t you think that, for those of us who are professionals in
the field, it’s not so much, “Christopher, we’re going to check on
you, and make sure that you are programming Native artists.” It’s
more that we know you bring the values and cultural aspects of
your Native Hawaiian being to the curatorial process. That is, in my
opinion, almost more important, than necessarily who you curate
from the Native community, because, well, I know that you will,
33 but I think that for us to sort of infiltrate and shift and change the
María Regina Firmino-Castillo,
Daniel Fernando Guarcax González &
Tohil Fidel Brito Bernal
Beyond the Border:

Embodied Mesoamerican Transmotions
18 November 2018 [ DANIEL ]

The presence of natives on this continent is obvious, a natural right of motion, My individuality is composed of Kaqchikel patterns of relationality and
or transmotion, and continuous sovereignty; in other words, natives are my existence has always been rooted in community, beginning with my
neither exiles nor separatists from other nations or territories. The presence family and, for the last eighteen years, as a member of Grupo Sotz’il, a
of natives is an obvious narrative on sovereignty—that is, natural reason collective dedicated to the development of Mayan xajoj q’ojom. Xajoj q’ojom,
and the sovenance of motion, and survivance. —Gerald Vizenor, 1998 a Kaqchikel concept which underscores the interdependence between
movement and sound, means more than movement or sound. Theorizing
xajoj q’ojom, from the collective experience of Grupo Sotz’il, is one of my
JAQ OJ RUC H I’ M E J L E M principal contributions to this text.
Opening Space In the spiraling movement of space and time, my ancestors have
accompanied me and enveloped me, as has death. Both have been my source
[ GROUP ] of energy, making me what I am: due to my xe’el, my root, influenced in a
This is a collective offering of our reflections on movement in Mesoamerica—a thousand ways but also resistant in a thousand other ways. Because of this,
place comprising what is now known as Central America and Mexico as well I stepped onto the path of xajoj q’ojom a bit late. I should have started my
as parts of California and the southwestern United States. We remember and training during the first thirteen year cycle of my life, in my mother’s womb
invoke the land as a being who was once free of checkpoints, walls, and armed and in the tuj.5 But it wasn’t until the second cycle that I started becoming
troops. This land-person with changing names also remembers us, holding the an ajxajonel ajq’ojomanel (practitioner of xajoj q’ojom). Nonetheless, I‘ve
long memory of the transits, exchanges, and movements of all our ancestors. dedicated more than half my life to xajoj q’ojom; it is ruxe’el nuk’aslemal, the
These movements are implied in Gerald Vizenor’s (1998 [2000]) term, root of my life in this space/time. According to the Cholq’ij (ritual calendar),
transmotion. The word refers to an inherent “right” of movement enacted every thirteen years of life, a cycle is completed as a reflection of one’s
through “a reciprocal use of nature,” as he put it, and not the exercise of ch’umilal, or star. We all have a star in the sky; it is our rajawal (protector)
“monotheistic territorial sovereignty” (15). Transmotion is an embodied on the säq b’ey (clear path) that takes us to our destination in the cosmos.
dialogue with the land that enacts what Vizenor (1998 [2000]) referred to as This is the path accomplished by the elders. In its culmination, it is the path
1 — See Fuentes and Guzmán ([2014]
a “sui generis sovereignty” (15); borrowed from the Latin, the term suggests of transcendence: a step towards the Milky Way, the place of our first origin 1690), Chinchilla (1951), Scolieri (2013),
a self-generated self-determination, independent of, and prior to, recognition and our destiny. Therefore, I’ve arrived to this exact moment, already in my de Gandarias (2014), and Ramos Smith
and legitimation by colonial institutions. Along with the functional purposes third cycle of life. And I continue being an ajxajonel ajq’ojomanel, thanks my (2005) for Mesoamerica, and for North
America, see Shea Murphy (2007).
of transmotion (for instance, getting from one place to another for survival), mother and father, my grandparents, the grandparents of my grandparents,
Vizenor’s writings suggest that transmotion also includes extra-ordinary and my teachers, Kaji’ Imox and B’eleje’ K’at, the last Kaqchikel rulers at 2 — Reducciones (also congregaciones
embodied acts—in-situ, or in transit—done not only for production and the time of the Spanish invasion in 1524 and leaders of the anti-colonial and pueblos de indios) were systems of
forced population transfer and control
reproduction, but also out of curiosity, for expression and dialogue, for pleasure, resistance. Thanks to them, and to my ch’umilal (star), and everything that exerted by Spanish and Portuguese
celebration, transformation, and for its own sake. All these transmotions flows around me, today I am here and I continue being ajxajonel ajq’ojomanel, colonizers in the Americas starting in
activate sui generis sovereignties, and often under great risk. thereby fulfilling my political, social, and spiritual commitments. Through the early sixteenth century. Indigenous
peoples were relocated to central-
When colonial taxonomies criminalize transmotions—(mis)construing this, my path, I will continue musicalizing spaces and giving form to ized, grid patterned towns in order
them as trespassing, vagrancy, and alien entry, but also heresy, illicit sexuality, movements in time. I’m one ajxajonel ajq’ojomanel among many others of for colonizers to exercise physical,
perversion, witchcraft, and even dance—transmotions are punished by the past, present, and future. political, economic, and psychological
control over subjugated popula-
expulsion, torture, and death.1 This dynamic has been at play from the time of tions. For this history in Guatemala,
the colonial Reducciones de Indios 2 to the present day’s asylee and immigrant [ TOHIL ] see Solórzano Fonseca (1982).
internment camps along the United States–Mexico border.3 This violent I find it difficult to categorize myself; therefore, I start not with what I am,
3 — See “How the Trump
policing of persons, their bodies, and ways of moving gives form to colonial but what I do. I work with the idea that art is a tool for investigation and Administration Is Normalizing
settler states, with their militarized borders and internal policings of persons communication; I put into use what is necessary, be it drawing, painting, Immigrant Internment
and bodies. It also contributes to the establishment of regimes of knowledge, ceramics, sculpture, and carving, often as a counterpart of arte-acción, or Camps” (Lalami 2018).
as well as aesthetic regimes, that tend toward exclusion, invisibilization, performance. I also plant gardens wherever I am. Although I do this to feed 4 — Terms in indigenous languages
unacknowledged appropriation, and reductions of the transmotional to myself and my family, and to earn a living, I consider it an art, a spiritual of the Americas will not be italicized
incommensurable terms, such as dance. practice, and an act of resistance. in order to counter their historical
marginalization by colonial languages
Through an analytics of metaphor, we juxtapose the violent power of the In my government identification documents, I am Fidel. But Tohil is who such as English and Spanish.
State with what perhaps is a lesser violence, drawing out the similitude in I am. It is the name that I claim, and the name that claims me, as it was given
order to disarm it. This move seemingly contradicts Eve Tuck and K. Wayne to me by my Achi father before his disappearance during the genocidal war 5 — Tuj: Kaqchikel, also referred to
as temascal (Nahuatl), the steam
Yang’s (2012) claim that any effort that calls itself decolonizing but that does the State launched against the indigenous majority of Guatemala. This name bath in which mothers, with the help
not contribute directly to Native peoples’ sovereignty is merely metaphoric. reestablishes a direct connection to the peoples I belong to. I am Ixil and Achi of midwives, prepare themselves
We agree that decolonization cannot happen without the relinquishing of Maya. I complement the teachings of my Ixil mother and grandmother, and of for childbirth through physical
and spiritual revitalization. Use
power and land by descendants of settlers, affirming that “decolonization is my community, with studies in archeology at the University of San Carlos in of the tuj is also a way of relating
not a metaphor” (Tuck and Yang 2012, 10). At the same time, we assert that Guatemala and independent research on Mayan epigraphy and iconography, to the the Earth’s womb.
metaphor is decolonial. Metaphor is the epistemological and ontological core knowing that these archaeological records contain traces of the knowledge
6 — Ladino is a term specific to
of Mesoamerican languages, revealing complex states of being in which things that the colony attempted to destroy. In this text, my contribution is that Guatemala and southern Mexico (not
are more than what they seem or what they are called. of an artist who researches and experiments, and not of an archaeologist to be confused with the language
Along these lines, this text looks to the ontogenetic, that is, the world- or linguist. My practice is dedicated to understanding Mayan art in all its of Sephardic Jews). It was used by
Spanish colonizers of the region
making, power in Mesoamerican movement praxes and terms. Tohil Fidel diversity and not to contribute to archaeology, per se. As such, my practice to refer to ‘latinized’ (baptized and
Brito Bernal discusses ahk’ot,4 a Ch’olti Maya glyph from the fifth century. connects me with the knowledge of my ancestors and I share it with others. Spanish-speaking) indigenous
Translated as dance by epigraphers, it is synonymous with contemporary My art is a political act; it is an obstinate insistence on existence, despite peoples. More recently, the term has
been used in reference to people of
Mayan uses of the word to refer to bodies moving with music, but the term centuries of colonialism, war, and genocide as well as the strategic violence mixed or European origin who identify
also means ceremonial offerings and intercessions. Tohil also reflects on Ixil and impoverishment of the recent postwar period. I understand my history only with their European lineages
practices to consider other possibilities for movement and what it does in the through the art I make. More importantly, my art nurtures the present and while denying indigenous ancestry.
world. Daniel Fernando Guarcax González theorizes xajoj q’ojom, a Kaqchikel contributes, albeit modestly, to the future: my own, that of my people, and 7 — My personal rejection of a Latinx
concept referring to movement and sound as one. He also discusses retal, a word of others who we share this planet with. identity is born of a concern for the
referring to the perception of signs that emerge during embodied relational same denial of indigenous roots and
how this term is applied, especially
exchanges between humans, and other beings, including objects, in the context [ MARÍA ] in the United States, to indigenous
of xajoj q’ojom. This brings forward the dialogic relationship with all matter at With words, objects, light and sounds—and with movements—I make peoples of Latin America in order
the core of sui generis sovereignties. María Regina Firmino-Castillo proffers myself understood (sometimes). Doing what I do, I’ve been called an artist, to accomplish deindigenization and
the assimilationist goals of racist
hybrid terms and praxes born in the diaspora, also a place of transmotion, a researcher, a teacher, organizer and cultural worker, and most recently, a and colonizing States. As a person
and perhaps the only possibility of sui generis sovereignty for many of us, professor. I was born in Guatemala, but I have crossed borders all my life. My with both European and indigenous
especially those with broken ancestries and who have no claim to territory. ancestors from the border between what is now El Salvador and Guatemala Mesoamerican ancestry, my rejection
of the term mestiza/o/@/x—even
This is a collective text born from our artistic, spiritual, and political were probably de-indigenized Nahuas/Pipiles. It is also most probable that I and especially when use of the term
collaborations and exchanges in Kaqchikel and Ixil territories (Guatemala), in have ancestors from the Iberian Peninsula, a place of intense exchanges with centers indigenous roots—responds
Cahuilla and Tongva lands (California), in Piscataway country (Washington, North Africa. I do know that my Italian father emigrated to Guatemala after to the deliberate lack of recognition
of undeserved privilege historically
D.C.), and in the territories of Keres, Tiwa, Tewa, Towa, Zuni, Abaachi, and the Second World War. Writing from Cahuilla and Tongva land, where I now and currently enjoyed by people
Diné peoples (New Mexico). Our shared matrix is Guatemala, but we each have live, I consider myself an ex-ladina,6 ex-latinx, and ex-mestisx 7 because of the with European lineages in a system
differing relationships to our place of birth. In some parts, like this one and the slippery ways these terms can be used for purposes I do not intend. Therefore, dominated by a pale-skin pigmen-
tocracy (Casaús Arzú and Arrazola
previous sections, our three voices coalesce; and in other parts, like the one at this point in time/space, I strive to become a person among persons, both 2017). I am also concerned with
that follows, each of our voices differentiates. Changes in typographical styles human and more-than-human, here on this planet that some call Earth. In this the the potential of a mestizo/a/x
indicate these differences. The text, as a whole, holds together despite—and collaboration, I’m a cross between interlocutor, provocateur, and bricoleur: I identity to usurp, wittingly or not,
the historical claims of indigenous
largely due to—our differences. It is through this oscillation between convergence listen. I ask. I search. I add, delete, and adjust. I translate, but I avoid explaining. peoples still living under military
and divergence that we dialogue, mutually provoke, and collaboratively build. More than anything, I juxtapose in order to conjure. and neocolonial occupation. 34
[ GROUP ] [ TOHIL ]
The three of us, as a collective and individually, practice na’oj (knowledge), To think of space…
an embodied process in which feeling and thinking are one. In this collabora brings to mind, in our bones and flesh, the sajb’eoob’ (Ixil, white roads): They
tion, na’oj has been our epistemology, each one of us starting from their own are named after the mixture of lime and sand with which they were built. They
place, but meeting at the crossroads where feeling and analysis co-exist in spread over thousands of kilometers and interconnected the Mayan world, its
generative tension. cities and communities. Before the colony, sajb’eoob’ afforded movement from
one place to another, from the lowlands to the highlands, and vice versa.The
sajb’eoob’ took us toward the four directions, allowing the flow of people, the
X K I Q ’A J Q A T Z I J , X K I Q ’A J Q A N A’ O J exchange of goods, knowledge, voices, sounds, and movements.
they broke our words, they broke our thoughts Physically, the sajb’eoob’ are still here, but they’re interrupted by cities
of concrete and metal, highways made of petroleum. Militarized borders are
Following the logic of na’oj, a linear argument is neither possible nor desirable: now superimposed over old ways of knowing the land, of visiting each other, of
our thoughts are broken and our words interrupted by events occurring in the making pilgrimage. The sajb’eoob’ are now covered by jungle, which will one
present/past/present spiraling in and around the borders of what some call the day also cover those same cities of concrete and metal, petroleum highways,
Americas. In the epistemology of na’oj, we reveal to each other, and to you, and militarized borders…
the questions that broke us in the writing of this text: Spiritually, the sajb’eoob’ are still here. When in chaj (Ixil, ceremony),
Is it a luxury to speculate on terms in indigenous languages (that at least we ask for clear paths, free of obstacles: that is, a life lived in dignity, a life
one of us doesn’t speak) while volcanoes erupt, burying thousands, very close lived in harmony with one’s Tx’umil (Ixil, star). Subterranean roads also
to where our three umbilical cords are buried and where our mitochondrial exist; they are found in the transit to Xib’alb’a, the place of shadows. They
DNA is supposedly rooted? are, according to the Popol Wuj, roads obstructed by danger and leading to
How can we talk about decolonization while avoiding “settler moves death.10 They are paths that should not be taken, but if one dares, it requires
to innocence” (Tuck and Yang 2012, 10), even if some of us are not settlers? vigilance, concentration, clarity, and cunning. This was exemplified by
On the other hand, how do we avoid misapprehending the lived experience the twins, Ixb’alamkiej and Junajpu, when they travelled the roads of the
of peoples with complex identifications that do not easily conform to colonial underworld and were put to the test by the lords of Xib’alb’a. They passed the
and imperial taxonomies? tests, and defeated Xib’alb’a and death, through their astute use of movement,
How do we honor ancestors erased from memory? At the same time, how sound, and image.
can we adequately respond to the present-day erasures, and ongoing displace
ments, of indigenous peoples by the usurpation of identities, knowledges, and
practices, not to mention lands and sovereignties? X K A J O ’ T A X K I Q ’A J Q A X A J O J X K A J O ’ T A X K I Q ’A J
Do these speculations on Mesoamerican terms for embodied practices R U WÄ C H R I K A J U L E W
matter, while (at the time of this writing) thousands of asylee children, most of they tried to break our movements, they tried to break our worlds
them indigenous or descendants of indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central
America, remain separated from their families, condemned to a labyrinthian [ MARÍA ]
system where they are encaged in shelters for those of “tender age,” where The body in movement is the core of the colonial project in the Americas.
they are raped, drugged, trafficked and murdered—directly or indirectly—by At the same time, it is a main site of decolonial possibility. As both material
agents of the State? 8 and method, the moving body activates specific ways of being, knowing and
What is the importance of all this—especially our concern, which is relating to the world. Through bodies in movement, forms of being/knowing/
possibly frivolous—for what we call things (is it dance or theater, ritual or feeling/relating are made ‘natural’—that is, they are made into the normal, the
something else, xajoj q’ojom, or aririn?) to the more than 100,000 disappeared unquestioned—and reproduced for the benefit of some and to the detriment of
in Guatemala, Mexico, and other countries in Mesoamerica? 9 others. In sum, the body in movement builds relationships and worlds which
Of what consequence is it to Bruno Avendaño, the brother of Zapotec we inhabit in relative degrees of freedom, sovereignty, and self-determination.
muxe artist, Lukas Avendaño? Bruno disappeared on May 10 of this year. A brief outline of this process is in order. At the beginning of the colonial
Days later, on May 24, Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzáles, a twenty-year-old project, the church focused its prohibitions on the bodies and movements of
Mam woman from Guatemala, was extrajudicially assassinated by USCIS indigenous people of the Americas and indigenous people displaced from
agents on the United States–Mexico border. And before that, in 2010 in other lands, for example from the African continent, but also other places. At
Guatemala, we have the murder of Tat Lisandro Guarcax, founder of Grupo the same time that prohibitions were applied against the movements of people
Sotz’il—an assassination that was the byproduct of the violence unravelling outside the limits of the new territorial regimes, a great variety of embodied
after decades of a U.S.-sponsored war. What do these speculations about repertoires—called by the colonial observers “dance”—were criminalized
decolonial art and Western taxonomies of performance matter to them, and and controlled. As Paul Scolieri (2013) has documented for Mesoamerica
all the others whose names we don’t know, killed along other borders and and the Caribbean, the prohibitions of what was considered dance were
places for being on the wrong side of a wall or in the wrong category of the accompanied by impositions of forms of Castilian Catholic dance in which
state’s taxonomies? colonial subjects were forced to exercise their own subjugation over and over
We voice these questions not to offer answers, but to activate na’oj, an again. The Dance of the Conquest (also known as the Dance of the Moors and
epistemological practice in which the perception of our material environment the Christians) is still widely performed in the Americas, in al Andaluz (now
and attention to our relationship to it is an undeniable part of the process known as Andalusia, Spain), what is known as the Philippines, and in a variety
of thinking and feeling. Instead of bracketing the heart’s experience of the of places where these embodied scenarios of domination (Taylor 2003, 28)
present and its embodied memory of the past, together they kindle the fire promoted a project of de-territorialization and ontological destruction that is,
of our thought. We give to the fire what afflicts us, hoping to devise in the a destruction of worlds. Through these means, Catholicism, as a forerunner of
flames more livable futures that we might yet materialize with our words modernity/coloniality, imposed not only its dances, but also its narrow world
8 — See the following sources: https:// and actions. imaginary as the only reality.
www.propublica.org/article/worker- And for this, we must remember, feel, and think about time and space. It is important to underscore that these impositions were attempted through
charged-with-sexually-molesting- a complex interaction between de-territorialization and de-corporalization
eight-children-at-immigrant-shelter;
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
[ DANIEL ] in order to attack transmotions: the pluriverse of expressive-embodied
news/morning-mix/wp/2018/07/31/ To think of time ... movement repertoires as well as other ways of moving in space /time, such as
trump-administration-must-seek-con- time retained travel, migration, visitation, trade, and exchange, to name but a few. In ways
sent-before-giving-drugs-to-migrant-
children-judge-rules/?utm_term=. time torn similar to what is referred to as ‘dance,’ these bodily practices also establish
e24132ebc2e0; https://theintercept. time detained relationships between human and other living beings in the space/time in
com/2018/04/11/immigration-detention- time hindered which we transit. These embodied performances of relationalities, in turn,
sexual-abuse-ice-dhs/; https://www.
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/ lost time construct worlds (Firmino Castillo 2016). This multi-faceted control of land,
may/08/immigrant-detention- time wrenched people, bodies—and their various forms of movement—shaped colonial and
centers-medical-care-deaths. time prohibited neocolonial states, academic disciplines, and aesthetic regimes that tend to
9 — http://www.eluniversal.com. time darkened exclude indigenous peoples while appropriating their knowledge. When we
mx/articulo/mundo/2016/08/31/ static time… degrading the soul. take terms like dance or performance as universal, and commensurable with
centroamerica-sufre-por-desapa- It is the most extreme form of torture for a culture: a creative culture, a free, repertoires of movement rooted in non-European aesthetics and ontologies,
recidos; https://www.jornada.com.
mx/2018/05/11/politica/011n1pol festive, emotional, warrior culture; an experimental, exploring culture that we perpetuate a violence in which innumerable repertoires of movement, but
travels in time and space to infinity. A culture obsessed with existence, because also worlds, are erased and even destroyed.
10 — The Popol Wuj is a K’iche’ Maya being without time is having the mind immobilized, the future put on hold, In conversations during the course of writing this text, Daniel observed
text written in the sixteenth century
and based on the oral tradition and the body paralyzed, sound silenced. It is to reduce our space and world, to that these acts of imposing a particular reality as the only logical and true
the recall of its authors of Mayan texts push us to the edge of the precipice. Knowing that our knowledge was at its world put borders upon our philosophies, our ways of being. It was an attempt,
destroyed during the colony. In this highest splendor, magical and extraordinary, without having felt it as such, he explained, to push us off the precipice, leaving us without any ground to
text, we refer to the direct translation
of the K’iche’ into the Spanish by is very painful for the soul, but inspiring in my dreams when I see the face stand upon. But we do not fall, Daniel reminds us. Often at mortal risk, we
35 Luís Enrique Sam Colop (2008). and gaze of our ancestors. continue to move. Although they are still reduced to performance, or dance,
on the one hand, or illegal transgressions, on the other, our movements, as T O Q N U P I X A N R I Q A X A J O J , N U P I X A N R U WÄ C H

bodily ontological practices, continuously corpo-realize (that is, they bring RI KAJ ULEW
forth into matter) the pluriverse. Rejecting categorization and insisting on when our movements resurge, the face of the sky earth is revealed
their singularities, they point out and materialize worlds in order to undo,
persistently, the attempts at universalization of modernity/coloniality in its
ever changing forms.11 A H K ’ O T: O F F E R I N G / I N T E R C E S S I O N / D A N C E
To explore the potential, as well as the dangers, of applying particular
movement terms universally, we will look at a term at the center of performance See Fig. 1, pg 38
studies. As noted by Diana Taylor (2003), there is no satisfactory translation
of ‘performance’ into Spanish or Portuguese (12–13). Concerned about the [ TOHIL ]
implications for the geopolitics of knowledge in the growing almost-global use Figure 1 is a Mayan glyph carved into limestone on Lintel 4 of Site R near
of the term performance, Taylor asks: “Why, then, not use a term from one of Yaxchilán, an urban center active from the fourth until the ninth centuries
the non-European languages, such as Nahuatl, Maya, Quechua, Aymara, or (C.E.). Yaxchilán is located along the Usumacinta river bordering northwestern
any of the hundreds of indigenous languages still spoken in the Americas?” Guatemala and southeastern Mexico. A battle ground during the Guatemalan
(14). She speculates on the use of the Arawakan term, aririn, which refers to war (1960–1996) and now an active drug trafficking zone, Site R, as well as most
a collective practice that colonial chroniclers in the Caribbean described as of the Yaxchilán complex, is a remote, thickly forested, and mine-strewn site.
a combination of song, dance, worship, celebration and political spectacle Lintel 4, which marked the entrance of what was probably an important
(15). According to Taylor, the aririn does not lend itself to easy categorization building, depicts the ajaw (ruler) Yaxuun B’ahlam IV (Bird Jaguar IV) in
via artistic genres of the West. Moreover, the aririn, in its practice, does not a position characterized by art historian Matthew G. Looper (2009), after
clearly demarcate between actor and spectator. These two resistances to archeologist Nikolai Grube’s description, as being “in an active dancing
Western forms, writes Taylor (2003), challenge the foundations of “Western posture” (16–17).13 To the ajaw’s right is another slightly smaller and less
cultural thought (15). Following the same line, Taylor considers the potential animated person. This figure is either a sajal (regional ruler) (Looper 2009,
of olin, a Nahuatl word associated with movement and symbolizing, as she 38 after Grube) or an aj k’uhu’n (a person with religious responsibilities)
writes, “the engine behind everything that happens in life” (14). With these (Valencia Rivera 2014, 119). Because Mayan rulership often, if not always,
speculations, Taylor points out the decolonizing possibilities of concepts in implies religious responsibility, the term aj k’uhn will be used to refer to the
two indigenous languages of the Americas, suggesting a desire to alter the smaller figure. The aj k’uhn also holds a snake, though smaller than the one
geopolitics of disciplinary knowledge in our fields of theory and practice. held by Yaxuun B’alahm IV. Both persons are heavily attired: tall feathered
However, Taylor—perhaps too quickly—rules out the use of terms such as headpieces, elaborately woven and embroidered cloth, sandals, heavy stone
olin and aririn: pectorals, cuffs, and other ornaments (Looper 2009, 38–39). Yaxuun B’ahlam
So why not? In this case, I believe, replacing a word with a recognizable, IV, whose hips and torso face front, holds a snake with both hands at the level
albeit problematic, history—such as performance—with one developed of his thighs. His upper body leans slightly to the right and his right foot is flat
in a different context and to signal a profoundly different worldview on the ground. His left hip is elevated a bit; there is also a lift of his left heel,
would only be an act of wishful thinking, an aspiration to forgetting our with left toes on the ground. The ruler faces the ground between him and the aj
shared history of power relations and cultural domination that would not k’uhu’n, who holds the smaller serpent in his right hand with the arm stretched
disappear even if we changed our language (15). down toward Yaxuun B’ahlam IV, causing the serpents to face each other.
Unfortunately, Taylor seems to imply here that coloniality is impervious to The aj k’uhu’n faces Yaxuun B’ahlam IV, and gestures toward him with the
linguistic intervention, despite well-documented cases of colonial domination left hand, with the two central fingers stretching toward Yaxuun B’ahlam IV,
through the linguistic manipulation of indigenous languages by Catholic thumb parallel to the floor, and the other fingers pointing up. The aj k’uhu’n
evangelizers.12 If this worked for Catholic evangelizers then, why would it looks slightly downwards, at the space between Yaxuun B’ahlam IV and the
not work for other purposes now? snakes they are holding. According to the glyphic description carved into
Although Taylor does not advocate for the substitution of performance the stone, they are performing “ahk’otaj ti chan chan” translated by Valencia
with aririn or olin, she takes these terms and their ontologies seriously, even Rivera (2014) as “dancing with the celestial serpent.” The inscription also
if momentarily. This quasi-turn toward pluriversality suggests the possibility reveals that the “dance took place on October 10, 767, near the beginning of
of continuously taking seriously embodied ontologies existing outside the the dry season” (Looper 200), 39).
universalizing framework of modernity/coloniality. As such, I’m grateful for According to most archeologists and art historians, this and other “dances”
Taylor’s suggestion, and the path toward further research and experimentation in what is referred to as the Mayan Classic period (250–900 C.E.) functioned
that it opens. However, I am perplexed by her conclusions, especially when she to forge and celebrate political alliances (Looper 2009, 40) or to demonstrate
states that the use of terms such as olin or aririn would “signal a profoundly power over a territory (Valencia Rivera 2014, 119). Most scholars emphasize
different worldview” (15). This statement implies at least three things: first, elite uses of what is presumed to be dance, which is largely interpreted as a
that all her readers share the same worldview as she does; secondly, that aririn kind of religious-political spectacle of domination. This may have been so,
and olin are ontologically irrelevant in her world; and third, that terms and yet it may also be the case that these interpretations are vexed by research
practices such as olin and aririn are nothing more than the vestiges of extinct ers’ own epistemological and ontological points of reference, such that any
peoples. Taylor’s line of reasoning compels me to ask: What happens when we performance that is political must somehow resemble the politics of one’s
declare aririn or olin dead, or ontologically irrelevant? Do we inadvertently own historical experience. But what if these performances were more about
also contribute to the destruction of Arawak and Nahua worlds? relationships, kinships, and solidarities, than they were about domination?
In the end, Taylor declares her commitment to the term performance, What if their functions are beyond what can be conceived of by a limited
claiming that her preference is not based on the term’s precision or universal political imagination? In asking these questions, I’m not attempting to
applicability, but, as she writes, for “what it allows us to do” (16). A focus on romanticize our history, or deny that there was warfare and other forms of
performance invites an analytic and methodological turn to the body. This violence in our past (and even present). What I am asking is this: what picture
centering of the corporeal resonates with the methodology of na’oj we have of Maya performance might emerge if researchers would let go of the usual
tried to practice here, as it does with the goals of other critical fields, such as ontological/epistemological frames of reference? What if we were to do this
dance studies, that also reaffirm the subjugated knowledge of the body. Even research, not only for contributing to archaeological knowledge, but for the
though this attention to the body resonates with our goals, we must ask, whose purposes of strengthening our own performance philosophy and practice?
bodies, and what knowledge? Furthermore, when movement praxes rooted Looper (2009), who bases his study on this archeological evidence, admits
in other ontologies are conflated by our disciplines with terms assumed to be that the “focus on royal performances” interpreted through dramaturgical
universal—such as performance, theater, and dance—might we be foreclosing theoretical approaches (in which power is seen to be constructed in a mostly
the transmotional and its inherent sovereignties? top-down fashion through spectacle) has perpetuated an “unbalanced view on
To be clear, this is not a call for an end to dance or to abolish dance and Maya culture” (8). In response, he complements his analysis with ethnographic
performance studies. Instead, the intent is to dismantle taken-for-granted observation of live “traditional” Maya performance in the here and now.
concepts and enduring assumptions of universality in order to make space. Further, he applies frames from performance theory to explore how Maya
Once space is made, praxes of movement rooted in other worldviews might performance is a “dynamically embodied signifying act” (9). Through this
enter the conversation to resist invisibilization and annihilation. This changes approach, Looper concludes that dance, for the Maya in the Classic era—but
the conversation, becoming multiple conversations. Once space is made, we also, in degrees, during colonial and contemporary times—was (and by
might also be able to conjure the sui-generis sovereignties of transmotion, implication, is) “a way for communities, regardless of their scale, to achieve
11 — See Mignolo and Walsh (2018)
enacting the possibility of movement beyond imposed taxonomies and borders. political goals through a ritual of divine communication” (233). Throughout for an analysis of recent global
his study he emphasizes dance as a multi-genred, complex set of embodied permutations of modernity/coloniality.
practices employing varied media, all the senses, and specific aesthetic frames
12 — See Romero (2015) for an
with effects on every aspect of being (233). analysis of this phenomenon.
And this is what is of special interest to us here. We want to place less
emphasis on the state-level function of Maya bodily forms of expression 13 — We were not able to identify
photographic documentation of Lintel
and communication to speculate on how dance, performance—ahk’ot—and 4; for Nikolai Grube’s drawing of the
other practices were engaged in and experienced not by only by the ajaw, complete lintel, see Looper (2009, 17). 36
the aj k’uhu’n, or the sajal, but also at the other scales Looper alludes to, by X A J OJ Q’OJ O M : S OU N D I N M OV E M E N T /
persons who did not leave record of their ways of moving and being on carved M OV E M E N T I N S OU N D
limestone, on ceramics, or in codices. Perhaps the only record left by them
is the trace in embodied movement still practiced in our communities and See Fig. 3, pg 38
the oral transmission of these performance philosophies in our languages.
Provoked by the images carved into stone on Lintel 4, we return to the memory [ DANIEL ]
of the body and the word. Grupo Sotz’il’s methodology is rooted in our worldview, in the way we see
and live our realities. Through the process in which we create xajoj q’ojom,
See Fig. 2, pg 38 we work with a clear intention of decolonizing: of breaking with impositions
leveled upon the epistemological and ontological plane. Through these
We return to the lintel, but not to Yaxuun B’ahlam IV and his aj k’uhu’n. impositions, empire, church, and state have tried to change our perceptions
We look to the space in between, where their eyes direct us. There we find of the environment in order to change the ways we relate to it. This was, and
a cartouche (a set of glyphs comparable to a sentence) in the shape of a pop continues to be, a strategy to turn the land, and people upon it, into objects
(straw mat) (Fig. 2). This cartouche includes the ahk’ot glyph represented in available for exploitation and extraction. In insisting, through xajoj q’ojom, on
Figure 1. Looper (2009) tells us that the glyph communicates the following: our connection to the land and environment, we resist these colonial incursions.
“(1) ahk’taj ‘he/she dances’; and (2) ub’ah ti’ahk’o’ ‘he/she goes dancing’ or Xajoj q’ojom is one of the ways we live our connection to k’aslemal, life; it
‘[it is] his/her body in dance’”(17). Ahk’taj is based on the root word, Ahk’ot, a is a way to regenerate our perception and connection to ruwäch ri kaj ulew,
word in Ch’olti’, the the language of classical Maya glyphic writing (a language the face of sky earth.
closely related to contemporary Ch’orti). In both languages ahk’ot has been
interpreted as dance, but, as we shall see, there are significant differences See Fig. 4, pg 38
between ahk’ot and its supposed English equivalence.
Although the Ch’olti that was spoken in Yaxchilán is different from Xajoj q’ojom includes bodily movements, sounds, images, words, stories, as
contemporary Mayan languages, Looper (2009) affirms that many “modern well as retal: signs that are perceived in the body and in our environment.
Mayan languages” have words for what he calls “dance” that closely resemble Perceiving retal, we enter into dialogue with the environment, with the
the phonetic characteristics of the Ch’olti word, ahk’ot (17); examples include: ancestors, the energies, and the fire. These signs mark the forms our xajoj
“ahk’oot or ahk’ut” or close variants for lowland languages (Looper 2009, q’ojom take, our movements and sounds. As previously mentioned, xajoj
3), including ahk’ot in Tseltal, ok’ot in Itz’a, and in Ch’orti, ahk’ut (Lois and q’ojom can be translated as “dance music,” but this does not accurately reflect
Vapnarsky, et al 2017, 115). In modern Yucatec Maya, ook’ot refers to dance, its complexity. The word xajoj is related to movement, and movement is an
and ok’ot ba to the act of prayer, intercession, and defense (Looper 2009, 18). element of dance. This is the case even in stillness if one takes into account the
Although Looper is careful—without sufficient historical evidence—not to internal movements of our bodies and the rotating movements of the planet.
trace a direct correlation in this “semantic relationship,” he deems it “possible And the word q’ojom refers to sound. One can speak of xajoj, on its own, or
that the term for dance, ahk’ot, is derived from the verb ahk’, ‘give’”(17). of q’ojom, without xajoj; but at the moment of joining them the concept of
If ahk’ot does not have its root in ahk’, in its practice, based on how I’ve xajoj q’ojom comes to life through the non-binary holism this juxtaposition
observed b’iix (“dance” in Ixil) function in my own community, I suspect produces. In practice, both expressions or actions coexist together, and depend
other kinds of semantic relationships are at play. In the Mayan world, in the on each other. This is not just because Grupo Sotz’il wants to conceptualize it
here and now, dance is seen as an offering, as prayer, as a way to intercede in this way. Although movement or dance can exist without sound, and music or
the world and produce desired effects. One undertakes b’iix as a spiritual and sound can exist without dance or movement, each always contains the other
collective commitment on behalf of the community. For example, in the Ixil as an integral component. At all times, music depends on movement because
area, a sajb’ichil is a ceremony conducted at dawn, or so late at night that dawn all sound is the product of the vibration of matter, water, and air. The body or
occurs in the midst of ceremony. A sajb’ichil can be requested for oneself, for object that vibrates causes the surrounding environment to vibrate, producing
family, or a larger collective. It involves the naming of ancestors, mountains, sound waves. And the same can be said of xajoj, or movement. Every body or
and other relatives of the land, as well as acknowledgment and offerings to object in movement produces vibrations, and therefore, sound. With awareness
the energies of the day. Offerings are made through the fire, and consist of of these principles, and others, our explorations start from our bodies, our
copal, candles, honey, liquor, seeds, grains, and other materials. B’iix is also senses, and feelings, in order to find, receive, and create movement-in-sounds/
considered offering and intercession, as well as a celebration and a collective sounds-in-movement. With these elements, we tell stories to participate in
act of relationship-building with humans and non-humans present. the unfolding of time/space.
This reflection of movement-specific concepts—ahk’ot and b’iix—is From this, our very own language of movement/sound—and within
a search for the seeds of our ancestors’ knowledge with which to cultivate parameters of our own making, and not parameters that are imposed—we
movement philosophies and practices centered on the metaphor of offering, elaborate proposals, both theoretical and methodological, that contribute
of connecting, of relationship forging—in short, transmotions that enact sui to Mayan “performing arts” made by Mayans for Mayans. This aesthetic-
generis sovereignties. Ahk’ot, b’iix, b’itz, and, as Daniel will introduce below, political stance does not obviate that art transcends territories, peoples, and
xajoj q’ojom: that these words and the worlds they contain remain after so cultures. Art creates dialogue the moment it is shared. However, we believe
much destruction compels us to know them more, value them, reaffirm them, it important, in this here-now, to contribute to the decolonization of the arts
even augment their meanings and forms in response to the needs of the here from our feeling/thinking as Mayans. Only then can we enter into an horizontal
and now. This way we honor and dignify our ways of making and knowing dialogue with the expressions of other peoples, a dialogue that can contribute
worlds, putting them into practice. to the re-emergence of pluriversality against the impositions of a violently
To ignore these words and the knowledge they contain is comparable to universalizing coloniality.
ignoring the beings of the Cholq’ij, of the calendar, who must be recognized,
invited into relationship through ritual. If the beings of the Cholq’ij are not See Fig. 5, pg 40
acknowledged in these ways, they make their presence known by wreaking chaos
in our lives. If we are not in relationship with the day-being, the consequences Though we embrace dialogue with other humans, our process goes beyond the
are felt in the future. The same is with our relationship to the past and the human. For example, we find in Mayan iconography that persons represented
knowledge passed on to us, no matter if this is as small as a syllable or two, in embodied expressions of movement and sound (xajoj q’ojom) almost
a gesture, a way of walking, standing, carrying, or a way of praying with the always carry attributes of an animal, and very often are transformed into
whole body and voice. Even if we have just one word, just one gesture, we animals. We can see this in the Xajoj Tun (Rabinal Achi), the Dance of the
can carry this into the future and build more. Monkey, of the Snake, of the Deer—all examples of xajoj q’ojom that are
practiced in our communities with minimal colonial influence. In all these,
[ GROUP ] ajxajola’ ajq’ojomanela’ (dancers-musicians) wear animal masks. Tracing a
In what follows, Daniel will share aspects of the movement philosophies and continuity between past-present, we can interpret that they ‘dance’ with their
practices Grupo Sotz’il has been developing over the last two decades, based co-essences, that is, with their ‘protectors.’ It can also be said that they are no
on meticulous research in the archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic longer humans; they are animal.
record, but most importantly, by entering into relationship with the elders of
their communities to hear their words, their sounds, and feel their movements. See Fig. 6, pg 40
From this, Grupo Sotz’il has created five full-length choreographies. The group
has also systematized their knowledge into a book for the creation of dance We can practice xajoj q’ojom being animals, and also being wind, fire, water,
based on the Cholq’ij, its twenty calendrical aspects and their correlations and air; we can be mountain, ocean, lake, or ravine. Xajoj q’ojom is a deeply
with the elements, animal and plant life, and the cosmos (Grupo Sotz’il 2015). spiritual and material act in which matter and essence, animal and human,
co-exist without hierarchy and in a relationship of constant dialogue and
reciprocity. The world is a whole in which the parts cannot be separated.
Xajoj q’ojom is an expression of our relationship with ruwäch ri kaj ulew, the
face of the sky earth. We affirm this through our bodies and their senses in
37 relation to their protectors, rajawal q’ij (protector of the day), the animals, the

Fig. 1: Ahk’taj glyph; translated by
epigraphers as “he/she dances;”
visual study by Tohil Fidel Brito
Bernal, 2017.
Fig. 2: Lower central glyph cartouche,

with ahk’taj glyph; visual study by
Tohil Fidel Brito Bernal, 2018.
Fig. 3: From left to right: Luís Cumes

transformed into Ik’/ümul (Grand
mother; moon; clarity of the night
and day; rabbit); Mercedes García
transformed into Ix/Ulew (jaguar,
matrix of the Earth/life); and Daniel
Fernando Guarcax González
transformed into Iq’/xik (air/hawk) in
Grupo Sotz’il’s Uk’u’x Ulew: Heart of
Earth. Indigenous Choreographers
Gathering, University of California-
Riverside, May 3, 2017.
Photograph: Jonathan Godoy.
Fig. 4. César Guarcax transforming

into K’aslem (Life/all animals and
elements) in Grupo Sotz’il’s Uk’u’x
Ulew: Heart of Earth. Indigenous
Choreographers Gathering, University
of California-Riverside, May 3, 2017.
Photograph by Jonathan Godoy. 38
land, the waters, the atmosphere, the elements, and all other beings transiting Tormenta. (Dear reader, if you don’t recognize any of these names, you
through the environment. Each being is part of the whole and the whole in are an incurable ethnocentrist). —Guillermo Gómez-Peña, 1996
itself. This philosophy of our art is based on the fact that nothing is permanent
in a universe where everything originates in silence, in emptiness, and only The term performantli was coined by Guillermo Gómez-Peña (1996)—who self-
acquires life through sound and movement. identifies as a “nomadic Mexican artist/writer in the process of Chicanization”
(i)— by attaching the Nahuatl suffix “tli” to the English word, performance
[ GROUP ] (243). Through this neologism, Gómez-Peña playfully problematizes the term’s
In what follows, María shares experiments and hybrid terms from the dominance, especially in Latin America, where the term “performance” is
Mesoamerican diaspora. These practices also recognize interconnected used to refer to bodily artistic practices that aim to challenge conventional
worlds in a time/space of inescapable inter-relationality. But their points of genres and aesthetics rooted in European traditions. Through performantli,
departure are their own, and their horizons also singular and contingent on the Gómez-Peña subverts the overuse of performance and the geopolitics behind
particularities of their histories. Immersed in the experience of displacement it. This nahuatlization of performance, however, is not rejection. Rather, it
and marginalization particular to the diaspora—also a place of transmotion, is a paradoxical embrace of colonial taxonomies and, at the same time, a
and perhaps the only possibility of sui generis sovereignty for many—these mischievous re-signification with subversive ontological effects. Performantli
projects generate their own movement philosophies and practices as they evokes collective imaginaries that resist borders and taxonomies that destroy
emerge from the transgression of borders and taxonomies, to resist them and the pluriverse. In this manner, Gómez-Peña conjures up the pluriverse that
thus engender pluriversality. was never destroyed, only forgotten, but not in its entirety.
What follows is the beginning of a live performantli titled Freefalling
Toward a Borderless Future. It invites us to imagine a voice in echo, with
F R E E FA L L I N G T O WA R D P L U R I V E R S E simultaneous translations into multiple languages, and “a mix of Indian drums,
Gregorian chants, and occasional police sirens” (2):
[ MARÍA ]
I dream of you, / I dream of you jumping. / Rabbit, / Jackrabbit, / Quail. I see
Come! Come! I mean you with the brown hat. I see
Dancing on the brink of the world. I see a whole generation
—Fragments of Yelamu/Ohlone songs 14 freefalling toward a borderless future
incredible mixtures beyond science fiction:
When we look at our present situation as a species, it is clear that the seething cholo-punks, pachuco krishnas,
surface of our revolving planet is the dance that now most urgently concerns Irish concheros, butoh rappers, cyber-Aztecs,
us. The effects our human actions are having on the interweaving patterns of Gringofarians, Hopi rockers, y más …
that dance are of the most vital importance. I see them all
—Steve Valk, 2007 15 wandering around
a continent without a name ….
Lxs Desaprecidxs
Here we see an enumeration of unclassifiable persons and places. In this
See Fig. 7, pg 40 future without borders, we have left behind the taxonomies of the colony.
But this is not a sociological prediction, nor a post-colonial or post-racial
The project, Lxs Desaparecdxs—coordinated by Randy Reyes, a queer Afro- fantasy. It’s a refusal to be constrained by colonial taxonomies—and even
mestizo choreographer from the Guatemalan diaspora living in Yelamu 16 — state-granted sovereignties—and the worlds they beget. The performantli is a
exemplifies this search for sui generis sovereignties in ways that are especially radical provocation towards the always present pluriverse and the possibility
aware of the targeting of transmotions by colonial regimes—both political of transmotional sovereignty. It evokes worlds that transgress colonial defini
and aesthetic—and are responsive to the urgencies at hand. Project members tions of bodies and spaces, creating alternatives beyond them—and despite
reveal a commitment to keep moving, exploring, and finding the transmotional them—a relevant intention when confronted with the global rise of fascism,
even in the midst of the unfolding dystopia: re-emergent state taxonomies and policings of persons and bodies, runaway
Randy Reyes: This piece is for me about questions that lead to other global warming, and other catastrophic scenarios.
questions, excavations of forms that emerge and dissolve, and somehow Indeed, this refusal is not just the experience of freefalling mestizos and
finding ancestry through that excavation and also building queer futures. pochos (like me, María) with no claim to ancestral land or territorial sovereignty.
As everything around continues to crumble, movement seems to be the This insistence on movement, enacted on one’s own terms, activates the sui
only thing that keeps me grounded and anchored. generis sovereignty that makes Grupo Sotz’il’s xajoj q’ojom possible, that keeps
Emelia Martínez-Brumbaugh: …with all of these layers to navigate, aririn and olin alive (despite declarations to the contrary). These transmotions
how are we moving through space and time in a way that doesn’t repeat invoke the continent with no name, this place-being with a thousand names,
patterns of harm but is actually healing those?…. the always present pluriverse. They activate the sui generis sovereignty that
Randy Reyes: I’ve been reading Michael Kliën and dramaturge Steve we can start to make space for and corporealize in our bodies, in our studios,
Valk and they have an article that’s titled “What Do You Choreograph at on the stage, with the land, and even in our dreams.
The End of The World?” and this question is definitely at the undercurrent
of the entire process.17 How do we plan for a future when the present, in
all of its forms, is not really secure? NÄ J CH I R IJ R I MOJOM
Gabriel Christian: I’m starting to realize that blackness and my Epilogue: Beyond the Border
lineage itself is so much about nomadicism and needs to move to survive,
which of course connects to how this piece is about action and collabora In the final days of completing this text, I dreamed that I was in a theater
tion and weight-sharing, different ways of us becoming the same body dressing room. There is a mother playing with her child of about three or four.
at a certain point even across different spectrums of diaspora, across Atop a table, in front of the mirrors, there is an old notebook and between its
different spectrums of origin. I think it’s interesting, using the process yellowed pages some large black feathers, like those of a vulture. I can’t read
of movement to escape the voices, or to escape the language that was the writing in the notebook; it’s too faded. Next to the notebook there is a small
forced upon me....18 plastic bag full of red powder. Maybe it’s achiote (bixa orellana), or cinnabar
Lxs Desaparecidxs enact sui generis sovereignties even in the diaspora, (mercury sulfide), or red oxide, but I’m not sure. There’s a white cloth on the
opening spaces for utopia even in dystopia. These are places where we move floor. I cover my body with the cloth and leave the dressing room, bringing
without creating harm, we move by way of relationship, and not extractive the red powder with me. I’m on a small, dark stage and there are few people
impositional politics. The future born out of an uncertain present—one that in the audience. I remove the cloth from my shoulders and lay it on the floor.
averts imposed languages, borders, and taxonomies—was prophesied, perhaps, I stand in the center of the white square formed by the cloth. I place the red
14 — These are found in by Guillermo Gómez-Peña with the coining of the term, performantli and the powder in a little mound in the center, between my feet. I take small pinches
Kamiya (2013, 349–350).
vision of queer transmotions on a continent without borders. of the red powder, and place a bit of it at each corner of the square fabric. I
15 — Steve Valk in Kliën stand in the center, with the remaining red powder on the floor, still between
and Valk (2007, 234). “Performantli” my feet. I pinch another bit of powder and place it on the top of my head. I
16 — Yelamu, the original Ohlone pinch more powder and place it on my forehead, down the center line of my
peoples of San Francisco, See Fig. 8, pg 40. face, down the center line of my neck and then my torso, from my clavicle to
California; also a toponym. below my navel. I wake up.
17 — See Kliën and Valk (2007). performear: Spanglish for “to piss on your audience.”
performantli: An Aztec tradition of involuntary performance art discovered [ TOHIL ]
18 — This is a transcript of an excerpt by artist Maris Bustamante. Famous performantlecas include Los I’ve lived half my life outside of Guatemala, the place where I was born.
from the following video: https://
ksr-video.imgix.net/projects/3029232/ Xochimilcas, El Sup (Subcomandante Marcos) & the EZLN, Tin-Tán, From our places of exile, my Ixil mother and grandmother always taught
39 video-796852-h264_high.mp4 Irma Serrano, Gloria Trevi, Selena, Ima Sumac, Superbarrio, and Fray me to love the Earth, even far from our home. It’s necessary to take care of
Fig. 5: From left to right: Jorge

Chiyal Chumil transformed into Ya’/
kär (water/blood stream, and fish),
Daniel Fernando Guarcax González
transformed into Iq’/xik (air and
hawk), and Juan Carlos Chiyal Yaxón
transformed into Tz’i’ (the word of the
energies and dog) in Grupo Sotz’il’s
Uk’u’x Ulew: Heart of Earth. Indigenous
Choreographers Gathering, University
of California-Riverside, May 5, 2017.
Photograph by Jonathan Godoy.
Fig. 6: Daniel Fernando Guarcax

González transformed into Iq’/xik
(air and hawk) and Marcelino Chiyal
transformed into Q’aq’/sotz’ (fire/heat
that embraces and protects, and bat)
in Grupo Sotz’il’s Uk’u’x Ulew: Heart
of Earth. Indigenous Choreographers
Gathering, University of California-
Riverside. May 3, 2017. Photograph by
Jonathan Godoy.
Fig. 7: Lxs Desaparecidxs, December 15,

2017, CounterPulse, Yelamu (San Francisco,
California); Photograph by Robbie Sweeny.
Fig. 8: Immigrant Specimen by Mara Hernández:

“As a response to Trump’s immigration policies,
particularly, the separation of young children
from their families.” Part of City in Ruins, La
Pocha Nostra performance organized by
Guillermo Gómez-Peña at SOMArts, August 4,
2018; Photograph by Cuauhtémoc Peranda. 40
her and to know her, wherever we are, they’d always say. From the Earth we WOR K S C I T E D
come, on the Earth we are, and to the Earth we will return. Thanks to them, • Casaús Arzú, Marta Elena • Looper, Matthew G. 2009. To
I’ve learned to take root in the midst of hurricanes and ice, torrential rains, and Carlos Arrazola. 2017. Be Like Gods: Dance in Ancient
and most recently, in the arid and stinging heat of the desert, intensified by “Marta Elena Casaús Arzú o Maya Civilization. Austin:
the anthropogenic warming of the planet, droughts, winds, and fires. In the El Indio Como La Maldición University of Texas.
midst of these crises, which touch us all, I situate myself wherever I am. de La Oligarquía.” Interview • Mignolo, Walter D. and
Between the oscillations of time and space, moment and place are produced in Plaza Pública. February 20, Catherine E. Walsh. 2018.
in harmony and dissonance. The Cholq’ij (ritual Mayan calendar) has given 2017. https://www.plazapublica. On Decoloniality: Concepts,
me a way to deal with the chaos and void. Calendrical interconnections and com.gt/content/marta-elena- Analytics, Praxis Chapel
the respectful visitation to sacred spaces (which exist everywhere on Earth) casaus-arzu-o-el-indio-como- Hill: Duke.
allow me to perceive that which transcends. Wherever we are, the energies la-maldicion-de-la-oligarquia • Ramos Smith, Maya. 2005.
of the Cholq’ij accompany us in some way, always. Therefore, there is no • de Gandarias, Igor. 2014. “La Censura a las Festividades
such border. The earth and the sky move with me, they accompany me, they “Acercamiento al son gua Religiosas.” In Performance y
might guise themselves differently in each place, but they are present in every temalteco tradicional desde Censura en el México Virreinal.
territory and even in the far ends of the Earth. una perspectiva histórica.” Marta Toriz, Ed. Hemispheric
ÍSTMICA: Revista De La Institute of Performance and
[ DANIEL ] Facultad De Filosofía Y Letras. Politics (HEMI) Cuadernos.
My identity is sound and movement. Identity transforms and is transmuted. 17: 29–43. http://www.revistas. New York, NY: New York
This is only understood from the logic of the conch-like cycle of time, where una.ac.cr/index.php/istmica/ University. http://www.hemi
each space is a moment in time, making all spaces, matter, and essences be in article/view/7069 sphericinstitute.org/cuaderno/
constant change. In our internal unfolding as elements and subjects, nobody • Firmino Castillo, censura/html/censura/censura.
can say who we are, nor how we should be, other than time-space impregnated María Regina. 2016. htm & http://hemisphericin
in each one of us, materially and spiritually. No one can tell me where to be “Dancing the Pluriverse: stitute.org/cuaderno/censura/
and where not to be when my energy comes and goes in the cosmos farther Indigenous Performance html/home.htm
than the limits of human thought. Nobody can contain or put limits to my as Ontological Praxis.” • Romero, Sergio. 2015.
energy or my essence. No one can stop my existence, other than me and time/ Dance Research Journal 48 “Language, Catechisms,
space. I am from yesterday, I am from today, and I will be from tomorrow, (1). Cambridge University and Mesoamerican Lords
just like any other element of this infinite and incomprehensible pluriverse. Press: 55–73. doi:10.1017/ in Highland Guatemala:
To be Kaqchikel is a facet of my existence, a collective political identifica S0149767715000480. Addressing “God” after
tion of today, of this moment in the cycle of my existence. As such, it is an • Fuentes y Guzmán, Francisco the Spanish Conquest.”
element of my identity, but not the whole thing. I am also death and I am life. Antonio de [2014] 1690. Ethnohistory 62:3. 623–649.
I am night and day. I am bee and honey. I am human and animal. Beyond the Recordación Florida. Discurso DOI 10.1215/00141801–2890273
physical, I am masculine and feminine energies. Beyond matter, and more historial y demostración • Sam Colop, Luis Enrique (trans).
agile, I am thought and uk’u’x (essence) that travels in each cycle of time, natural, material, militar 1999. Popol Wuj — Versión
seeking to enter another cycle of time to continue living and germinating; y política del Reyno de Poética K‘iche. Guatemala:
Our uk'u'x seeks to survive in the cycles of the times in different ways. I can Guatemala. I. Justo Zaragoza PEMBI/GTZ/Cholsamaj.
be anything as long as time/space allows it, where my essence takes me, to & Luís Navarro, Eds. Madrid, • Scolieri, Paul. 2013. Dancing the
re-encounter my origin. Being ajxajonel ajq’ojomanel is what I will be until España: Nabu. New World: Aztecs, Spaniards,
time/space and my xe’el (origin and root) allow for it. • Goméz-Peña, Guillermo. and the Choreography of
I am Kaqchikel; I am a bee; I am a bat; I am my name; I am my existence; 1996. The New World Conquest. Austin: University of
I am movement and sound. If identifying as Kaqchikel (or another first nation) Border: Prophecies, Poems, Texas Press.
before a system that excludes ancestral peoples is a valid political-social & Loqueras for the End of • Shea Murphy, Jacqueline.
positioning, then identifying as movement/sound itself is also a viable political the Century. San Francisco: 2007. The People Have Never
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prefer to be nobody; to be nobody is to be the origin, to be part of the rutz’ukik • Grupo Sotz’il. 2015. Ati’t Xajoj. American Modern Dance
k’aslemal (creation of life), to be part of you, to be your complement, to be Guatemala City, Guatemala: Histories. Minneapolis:
part of your origin. I recognize that the world is composed of complements, Cholsamaj. University of Minnesota Press.
that nothing is permanent and that everything transcends. But it is not we who • Kamiya, Gary. 2013. Cool • Solórzano Fonseca, Juan
determine this. Nature, of which we are part but not a dominant part, delimits Gray City of Love: 49 Views Carlos. 1982. “Pueblos de
our borders and identities, and not the other way around. of San Francisco. London: indios y explotación en la
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• Kliën, Michael and Steve coloniales.” In Anuario de
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• Lalami, Laila. 2018. “How Americas. Chapel Hill: Duke.
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Nation. July 20, 2018. https:// Indigeneity, Education &
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41 Publishing Company. of Nebraska.
Pelenakeke Brown
Provocation and A Traveling Practice
< < < < < < < < A Travelling Practice > > > > > > > >
Provocation
I look down at the landscape before me
in each corner I see four deliberate markers of space and time

A Travelling Practice looks at the Samoan design principles and ancestral knowledge held within the
landscape and context of the contemporary keyboard. The keyboard becomes a crossover site that
intersects my many identities and art forms, as well as becoming a tool for freedom and creativity of
expression. esc on
As a disabled artist working within crip time, the power of movement that I can achieve through my and everything in between
keyboard and the liminal space of the internet is integral to help me connect, create, and facilitate my
artistic practice. With this work I wished to expand what is considered movement and explore the specif- fn |>
ic choreography of the keyboard, both physically and conceptually and ask, how can one move without
moving?
I focused on the small movements created in this contemporary landscape and how it invokes Samoan Today’s journey begins with a crick in my neck, an ache in my left arm and a longing for home.
concepts. The keyboard is set up with a pre-existing set of relationships, from the keys that most peo- This longing for home feels like a dreaded dry mouth and a lead weight of nerves in my stomach
ple know and understand, and each movement, each tap, no matter how small, is a powerful propelling with a wish to be supported, floating effortlessly in the water
forward through time (tā) and space (vā). Using the Samoan framework of the vā* or spatial relationships, with my ears covered by the cool, smooth liquid
I analyzed the relationships of the keys, using the concepts already on the console to think about move- muting out the outside noises
ment. Looking at the relationality of the keys of the keyboard, I realized many of the characters in the and my own (often more debilitating) inside voices
keyboard reflect many of the symbols of the Samoan tatau (tattoo); specifically, the malu, traditionally the reverberation of these opinions
worn by women. I was fascinated to see that in this modern technology there is this ancestral knowledge echoing long after the action that I am agonizing over has ended
in plain sight. I wanted to connect the two in my use of text and visual images and explore what do some (())
of these movements look and feel like, and how is this reflected in the Samoan tatau. (((())))
(((((((())))))))
Tatau has continued to evolve and today it is still a significant and an important marker of identity es- (((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))
pecially within communities of the Samoan diaspora. Artist, tatau practitioner, and scholar, Tyla Vaeau
Ta’ufo’ou defines tatau as a travelling practice and connects tatau to the wider movement of Samoan I look at the landscape that I am in
people both historically and in contemporary forms in her thesis, Fa’avaetuli: Like the Feet of Tuli >>> the framework of this space
Samoan Tatau as a Travelling Practice. With her permission and with much alofa ma fa’afetai tele lava, the context that is held within these keys
I have used her title as I similarly applied this spirit of exploring tatau as a movement practice in itself, the relationships between each of these keys
through space and time, and the malaga (journey) I have taken both physically and conceptually to create the ascending
this work. descending
symbols and languages
This work connects to my wider multi-disciplinary practice as it explores the quiet intersections between worlds within worlds
race, disability, immigration, decolonization, and aesthetic.
My body, although always tired has made its own rhythm
*To learn more about the vā, please read Albert Wendt, “Tatauing the Post-Colonial Body,” originally pub- and knows, instinctively, how to move
lished in Span 42-43 (April-October 1996): 15-29. I, too, have home keys, familiar steps
although sometimes I falter
………………………
My hands are hovered above, midflight

If I make a tap I need it to be perfect
I need to be sure, there is no room for error
but with no guarantee the only way forward
is to tap on
>>><<<
into the abyss
into the vā
the space in-between
As I type, I watch the symbols and keys build upon each other
shift and move along the page
as I tap each key Spoons
I see how it changes the configuration and movement on the page movements
It is gentle, yet stable work, and while I type it calms me. constellations
At other times containment
I sit there in silence, unable to move I am the tatau
afraid, to go forward the process
|stuck| the travelling practice
fearing “what if it’s not right?” I am the everchanging movement of line in space
the gentle tapping as I struggle to move forward
I notice on my keyboard knowing this is where I am meant to be
that there is often a corresponding action in the keys or rather the only way forward is to tap
a reflection and reciprocity >> tap >>
this reciprocity mirroring << tap <<
the vā: | forge forward |
relationships that support and protect each other This, the keyboard, is my modern tapping tool
to increase there must be a decrease an instrument that enables me to move in the world
freely
to format and create comfortably
ctrl+z In these journeys
ctrl + y I seek to
======= return
++++++++++ shift
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{} control
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] command
**************************** delete
<><><><><><><><><><><><> to find
----------------------------------- alt(ernative) option(s)
################### This device
()()()()()()()()()()()()()() is an asymmetric mirror
\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\// with double shifts
Enter // Return a sea of command
Enter where? control, option, command, space, command, option
And return, there are spaces b e t w e e n these keys
to whom? remember there is no such thing as empty space, Albert says
Contextual relationships
When I type (strike) and connections
/// \\\ /// \\\ /// \\\ <|>
I move into a rhythm threads
like the Tufuga tā tatau and their ‘au, with each strike on Samoan ancestral flesh -->>>---<<<--
the strike of my keyboard is a way of affirming my existence of belonging
and connecting to something outside of ourselves \<|>/
Like my ancestors did with our lineage, travelling, exploring new worlds || alignment ||
now, I am journeying from the comfort of my home
while still resting these sore bones of mine Here in these strokes
using these contemporary keys that hold ancestral taps of knowledge in this modern ta, ta, tā
which propel me through time and space I can tap out my reality within this vā
tap, tap, tap, I am striking tā and carving vā with each tap
remember there can be no vā without tā
42
My ancestors and their marks live here.

The possibilities of truth telling live here. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^ >>>>>><<<<<< ^^^^^^ |\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|
|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|
My mother’s struggles live here. |\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|

}-}-}-}-}-}-}-}-}-}-}-}-}-}-}{-{-{-{-{-{-{-{-{-{-{-{-{-{-{ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^ Her words and possibilities are contained here. ^^
^ I have the power to unfold, unfurl, ^
^^ rhythm ^^ It is a claiming of space
^ ^^^^^^ ^ <><><><><><>
^^ rhythms ^^ The stories of my old lovers live here
^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ the inking of the skin
^^ with (one) gentle tap ^^ like the memory of you on my skin
^ ^ To ink
^^ My grief lives here. ^^ [] [] []
^ ^ you on my skin
^^ All the things I cannot say live here. ^^ to type out your name(s)
^ ^ is to etch your existence
^^ > > ^^ I have uttered (all) your name(s)
^ > That voice whispers > ^ carefully tapping out each of our stories
^^ > return > ^^ so many of them brief
^ > I press > ^ ___
^^ > enter return > ^^ -<<-<<<--<<<<--->>>>-->>>->>-
^ > enter return > ^ ___
^^ > > ^^
^ > > ^ After it ends
^^ > I am yet > ^^ I store these memories in my body
^ > to return > ^ and I can always determine how honest I was
^^ > > ^^ when I place my palm on my chest
^ ^ and take a breath
^^ ^^ [] [] []
^ shift ^ If it’s open
^^ let’s me know ^^ and I can feel the empty space
^ that I am human ^ if there is a trace of movement
^^ that I feel ^^ a possibility of the wind
^ and can move ^ <><><><><><>
forward and I can breathe freely
command then I know that
is the ever-powerful tool I am searching for the bird has left
control with no crunch of regret
is the cool face of detachment
but when you peer under the table her hands are gripping (too) tightly. ^^
|
Are there any alt(ernative) options to let go?
( and how can I delete? ) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|
The continual striking of tā in my movements in this liminal vā |\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|
the continual pressing of return (or is it enter?) |\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|\\\\\\|//////|
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I am unsure this will lead me anywhere.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’
{ } ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*`
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
I sit here now *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
legs wide ######################################
coming out from the slit of my dress * *
* * * * * *
the birds * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
of my heart, soaring, trying to find land *
* ######################################
to rest, to be cradled upon
within <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
\ ^ _| _ ^ ^ ^ /
| ^ ^ ^ _ _ ^ |
| ^ ^ ^ | ^ |
^^ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
^^ ^^ :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
| | ‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘
.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.
^^ ^^ ^^ ...................................
| | |
“ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ ““
^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ``````*``````*``````*``````*``````*``````*``````*``````*``````
| | | | ““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
^^ ^^ ^^ ““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””
| | |
*``````*``````*``````*``````
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`````` *``````*``````*``````*``````
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
^^ ^^ ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, /\ ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
| | ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, //\\ ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
^^ ////\\\\
: “: : “: : “: :“ :
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: “: “ “ “ “ : “:
“ ////////\\\\\\\\ : “:
: “: “ “
“
“ : “: “ “ \\\\\\\\//////// “ “ : “: “
:“ : :“ : :“ : :“ :
“ : “: \\\\\\////// : “: “
I imagine my tatau will feel the same,
she will cover me, connect and protect
\\\\////
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
mark me as Samoan out in this travelling world ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; \\// ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, \/ ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
in a language that only a few will recognize ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
``````*``````*``````*``````*```````*``````*``````*``````*``````
It is a grounding visual force ““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
and connects me to so many out there ““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””““””
I do not need to move to feel this connection
``````*``````*``````*``````*```````*``````*``````*``````*``````
It tells you where we have been and where we are going “.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.“.
: ................................... :
:: :: “““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““ :: ::
return and enter are one and the same ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :
when I think I am returning I am in fact moving forward. :: :: ‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘
‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ :: ::
:: : :: :: : ::
I have always had the movement of my score right here. ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’ ‘*’
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
:: :: :: ::
Manuia lou malaga *^* *^* *^* *^* *^* *^* *^*
: :
*^* *^* *^* *^* *^* *^*
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43
Postcommodity
it was
prophecy
that cut the path
for trumpish
2043: No Es Un Sueño
baby boomers
& they have done

everything in their imagination
collective power time
to resuscitate resources
manifest destiny sweat
& reimagine equity
theocratic the enlightenment speed

markets violence
birthed by withering weapons
imaginations in & out & light
& acquisitions of shadows
translucent the very
referencing skin sagging next horizon
an anglo clumsy & just sitting
french disorientated there waiting
german with their last
spanish gasping breaths idle
jesus mumbling & wild
wearing imagined
a tool belt legacies
This essay was commissioned by
the Walker Art Center and published March 6, 2017, calling out attempting
as part of its Artist Op-Ed series: to believers to transform
walkerart.org/magazine/series/artist-op-eds & empire their grandchildren’s
builders inheritances
Editor: Paul Schmelzer for trans- into fond memories
Design Director: Emmet Byrne formation of their most sincere
Designer: Ben Schwartz & ambitious
Proofreader: Pamela Johnson
amen¹ intentions
Cover and Inside spread: Postcommodity, Repellant Fence 2015
Photo: Michael Lundgren, courtesy Bockley Gallery
©2017 Walker Art Center 1 The three of us who make up the collective Postcommodity were brought up in spiritual homes. In our
homes, in our communities, prayer was always present, and this prayer includes singing, silence, dancing,
more silence, speaking, even more silence, running, thanking the Creator, and then silence. All of this with
a set duration: sometimes from dusk until the sunrise, sometimes on Christmas Eve, sometimes in the last
moments of a relative’s life. Yet, despite the acknowledgment of duration, all participants had entered a new
world where the disappearance of time was the first indication you had arrived.
It seems that here, seventeen years into the all the

brown people
21st century, we have more people than ever of america one
of the great
before envisioning themselves in places they the folks qualities
of the united
never thought they might be. They can be who inevitably
commit & states of
america
at Standing Rock, protecting water via six re-commit we are
is our capacity
crimes of self
degrees of “status shares.” Through a sepia determination3 the ones to peacefully
transfer power
filter on a camera app aimed at a panoramic the us whose mantra from one &
presidential it all
desert, they can walk a northbound mile of we
on reservations references administration failed
in someone else’s burning shoes. One can barrios to the next
ghettos histories
even triangulate their preferred newsfeed prisons from one
& processes worldview
to one pinpoint, not geographically developing
nations back (a total
into itself global
speaking but rather to objectively arrive at by which
inbred failure)
hounded
a comfortable destination of information by cops things didn’t over &
& various over
that agrees with them. Of course, one may agents of work out
the same
not physically be at these sites of conflict. jurisdiction
as planned monotonous with
preachers
Or maybe they are. When one can so job creators judeo repetition
the irs christian
easily define and understand the world for the bank western
scientific
themselves, what can be done to rebreak it?² payday loan
pawnshop worldview
2 We see the installations, land art, and socially engaged works Postcommodity creates as a collective form
land that
of “reimagined ceremony” that reflects aspects of traditional indigenous ceremonies, in that they are immer- got away4
sive, interactive, multimodal, durational, shared, generative, and sacred. As with traditional ways, indigenous
reimagined ceremony supports building and maintaining public memory, knowledge creation, intergenera-
tional knowledge-transfer and relationships, placemaking, health, and governance. Through art we use indig-
enous knowledge systems to prepare a grounds for ceremony, while maintaining an acute awareness of market positioning multimodal metaphors that articulate transformational experiences. The purpose of transforma-
systems, weapons, and speed. Although indigenous reimagined ceremonies are grounded by indigenous tion is to envision, co-intentionally with peoples, a more desirable future via respectful human relationships in
knowledge systems, it is critical to make the nuanced distinction that Postcommodity does not “reimagine concert with responsible stewardship to the lands we occupy.
indigenous ceremonies.” Instead, we turn to indigenous knowledge systems as well as their knowledge of the 4
Today’s US tribal lands are case studies of contention, where overlapping jurisdictions, histories, and
western worldview to generate methodologies that inform methods by which to forge conceptual artworks that conflicts of interest have reached the domain of the esoteric—legally, politically, economically, socially, and
engage the emergent present and its publics. culturally. Cities can be equally complex, as almost every major city in what are now Canada, the United
3 As part of our generative practices, we often position Postcommodity’s reimagined ceremonies within
States, Mexico, Central America, and South America has literally been constructed on top of multiple layers
contested spaces as a means of publicly recovering knowledge about the social, geopolitical, and economic of indigenous civilizations, past and present. Rather than provide a contrast to the tribal experience, the
foundations of the Americas, and as way of emphasizing how the competing interests of the Americas have borderlands extend this experience to a liminal, binational space where complexity moves beyond the esoteric
reached the point of violence, coercion, de-socialization, and displacement. Within these increasingly chal- and into realms of the metaphysical. For our community engaged land art installation Repellent Fence, we chose
lenging conditions, our intentions are to express and use ephemeral immersive environments as a vehicle for to work in the borderlands for this very reason.
44
The word “Mexican” means a person who the Uto-Aztecan language family, while at
is a citizen of the nation of Mexico. The the same time they are related to Kiowa,
etymological origin of the word comes which is currently spoken in Oklahoma.
from the indigenous Uto-Aztecan language
of Nahuatl. Other Uto-Aztecan languages science
engineering
include: Paiute, Shoshoni, Comanche, technology
Ute, Serrano, Luiseño-Juaneño, Hopi, medicine
law
O’odham, Northern and Southern jesus
moses
Tepehuan, Tepecano, Yaqui, Upper and and

it’s now
none
Lower River Guarijio, Tubar, Yaqui, too late
of them
Mayo, Opata, Eudeve, Huichol, Pochutec, there is have
nothing power
and Pipil. All of these linguistically related more over
answered
languages are rooted across geographies that can
prayers
be done
from throughout most of the western or undone
the hundreds
part of what is now called the “United of millions
of brown
States” to as far south of what is now prayers
2043
those
referred to as “Central America.” Some to a creator
without
are now
the only
of the languages listed above are dead, a temple
numbers
or a church
while most are surviving—some thriving that matter
just land
and others dying. In terms of additional and airspace
relationships, linguistic hypotheses suggest and everything
interconnected
that the Tanoan Pueblo languages of between
above
Northern New Mexico also connect to & below
the Uto-Aztecan languages. The Pueblo
Languages of New Mexico may be part of
The things that need to be done one cannot

say on the internet, nor even in an art essay. however
The freedom to broadcast so carelessly has
become a liability to even the most deliberate
i am less certain
of thoughts and organization. So let us talk
about actions that have no consequence we
other than anesthetizing the already will be about america’s
stunned, or, at best, those that are running in
2043 the
retrograde to progress we think we agree on.
majority
2043 to the east capacity to transfer
The choir took on the preaching, and what 2043 to the west
2043 to the north
we heard in the masses were insights such 2043 to the south
as “at least this will make punk rock great power from white
again,” which sounds exactly like the slogan 2043
we
it thinks it is countering. And we heard a
2043 above the majority
lot of “should’ve, could’ves.” And when the 2043 below to brown
reality truly hit, a million points. 2043 here
in we
will be
2043
ourselves
45
46
47
“Mexico,” an indigenous word, comes the fuck does an indigenous people who
from the Nahuatl word “Mexica,” a word descended from a magnificent history
referring to the indigenous peoples of become labeled “illegal” and “alien” while
central Mexico, also commonly known as remaining a part of their own sacred
the Aztecs. “Mexico” means the home ancestral continent? And how in the hell
of the Mexica—and some Mexicanos did it become a reality that indigenous
say that the word “Mexicano” refers to peoples of our western hemisphere would
someone who comes from the land of the suffer the indignity of being called illegals

sustaining maguey agave. You may have and aliens for moving along the ancient
tasted the nectar of the maguey (and if migration and trade routes—as their
you are curious about whether or not you ancestors have done since time immemorial?
have drunk from the maguey, just simply
ask your Grandmother Google about our land
it). This ancient plant, a sacred source has reclaimed us
to return
of clothing, food, and drink, helped give as stewards
indigenous as dreamers
birth to the legendary city of Tenochtitlan, of ancient
knowledge
which was built in the middle of Lake economies
Texcoco. Despite this glorious “noble has been by

blood the
savagery” so notably celebrated by absent prayers
by of hundreds
historians and anthropologists, the sacred too long5 miscegenation of millions
Native American word “Mexican” bears by
of brown people
from this land
derogatory connotations in the United migration & this hemisphere
have been answered
States, where it is synonymous with the by
notion of human persons of this identity interconnectedness
as “illegal” and (or) “alien.” Now, how
The weakest link in this chain is the

safety pin trying to bind these self-
appointed saviors to the bundle of people but look
what we
who have always been oppressed. But are inheriting
are they ready and willing to imagine the earth

has been
the future that those in the bundle have it’s slashed
been dreaming of our entire lives? so easy & burned
to say
by our
predecessors
Who can render the sketch for the
New New World. out loud
Who should imagine it?
people
everywhere
2043 divided
by capital
& infra
structure
we are
inheriting
damaged
goods
we are
5
inheriting
In 2012, we arrived in Agua Prieta, Sonora, and Douglas, Arizona, by invitation, after spending five
years becoming familiar with the politics of the borderlands and mapping assets and opportunities for a failed
potential public artwork that would intersect the Mexico/US border. Engaging communities from the state systems
line of California and Arizona to the state line of New Mexico and Arizona, we sought out communities,
organizations, and government agencies on both sides of the line that had preexisting policy frameworks in
place designed to encourage and facilitate binational cooperation around critical social and economic poli-
cies—independent of existing federal or state government frameworks on each respective side of the border.
The transborder city of Douglas/Agua Prieta worked intensely with Postcommodity for three years. This
was possible because Douglas/Agua Prieta chose itself to prepare for four days of indigenous reimagined
ceremony during which this divided community would suture itself back together again.
48
And why does being “Native” often cease to but how

do we
exist south of the US/Mexico border? And prepare
why are some white people calling themselves ourselves
for the
we will
“nativists”? At the same time, how did have to heal burden
wounds of power
indigenous mestizos come to publically we will as deep
accept the oversimplified Hispanicization have to hack as the
memories
the economy
and Latinization of their identities? Why & appropriate of genocide
is it such a difficult thing for these so our democratic
systems how
called Latinos and Hispanos to explicitly do we face

to reflect ourselves
recognize their indigenous heritages, even our worldview we will as leaders
though it is as clear as day that indigenous who
have to
forgive
knowledge systems circulate as they farm, we
are
ourselves
& our
hunt, dance, sing, walk, laugh, tease, gather, ancestors how
&
cook, and tell stories? How did so many where
do we
share honor
Native Americans come to look upon their we
came
without
regret
southern cousins through the culturally from
we will
chauvinistic pride born of US capitalism and have to be
generous
racism? How have so many of us forgotten to everyone
where we come from? It appears that many
of us suffer a colonial-induced amnesia.
6
The suturing of Agua Prieta and Douglas began with a fairly simple idea: let’s use 10-foot-diameter
replicas of a consumer bird-repellent product known as “scare-eye” balloons—which utilized an indigenous
iconography referred to as an open eye—for some type of land artwork. Tribes throughout the Americas
The time has come for us brown peoples have used this icon in their material and ceremonial cultures for thousands of years as a means of demonstrat-
ing the interconnectedness of the land, people, cultures, and communities of the borderlands. The collective
to remember.6 The time has come for us also wanted to shift public discourse toward acknowledging the indigeneity of migrants entering the United
States from Mexico, Central America, and South America. As we prepared for Repellent Fence, we learned
about the unparalleled generosity and survivance of a community split in two. We also learned about
brown peoples to bless each other—our the capacity of socially engaged art to mediate the construction of powerful relationships, even in the most
divisive geospatial environments.
sacred lands have been broken, and we must

7
By opening an aesthetic portal or fissure in time-space, the Repellent Fence sought to catalyze public dis-
courses with the capacity to mediate complexity about the transborder systems we as humans create, embody,
and maintain in the world. During Repellent Fence/Valla Repelente, there were brief moments of sacred time
quickly respond first by blessing each other.7 during which the power of the human spirit emerged, as did dignity and the humanization of peoples across
lines within contested space.
So the triangulation is occurring, that we

could bring
for better and worse. Activations are ourselves
resounding amongst the noise. But listen, together
the indigenous people trapped with the

borders of the United States of America
have been through this before. The they
stories are handed down for a reason. knew
there that we
would would
come not hesitate
how can a day they
we organize knew
across how can we
languages reimagine
& hispanicized democracy i have they knew
& anglicized together realized we would
& christianized as peoples the burden remain
histories of the Americas of being & that
of cultural rather the final we would
violence than generation gather that our rhythms
& political america to live together would come
chauvinism beneath i have as one people from our drums
how can we the white realized to remake & bone whistles
disarm majority that we this nation once again
how can a global stand in our image
we build market on the prayers & in the image
infrastructure that has & words of our ancestors’
together as defined us of our ancestors words
indigenous peoples surveilled us which
willing & provided breathed
to acknowledge an objective us into life
the power methodology
of us as for destroying
united us
people8 8
On occasion we successfully create these portals by hacking and modifying conventions and formal
aesthetic systems. Through our work, we as Postcommodity operate as a learning community of indigenous
storytellers within the neoliberal world now largely governed by a multinational oligarchy. The purposes of
our ceremonies are to critically engage high-speed market systems propagated by violence capitalism and to
leverage the power of our work to interface with local independent policies, such as a transborder memoran-
dum of understanding between two adjacent binational border cities.
49
Max Wolf Valerio
Exile: Vision Quest at the Edge of Identity (excerpt) Language to Visions (excerpts)
wind wilding my hair the horse underneath me running abandoning On the great plains, there’s a feeling of freedom—stretching out to the vanishing yet quiet horizon which is an edge
the earth in flight hoof beats crowning the open ground steady, around the world, along the places where the eye rests and glides, the horizon is close, then farther away. On horseback
sharp and then, softer as motion eclipses any single object I notice it looms so wide and long and I remember the feeling of easy freedom, gliding along the top of the ground, my horse
each and every blade of grass slipping as glass shards into dreams the beneath me—poised and muscular as she runs.
early morning smell awakening my senses standing on the porch and My mother’s reserve, the Blood or Kainai reserve, is in southern Alberta, Canada, twelve miles from the border,
smelling the morning at the North End near the Mormon town of Cardston—which actually sits on Kainai land. We leased part of our land early on to
determined Mormon settlers rumored to have been escaping then new anti-bigamy laws in Utah. Cardston, notably
where my grandparents lived follow the road winding down the hills is also the hometown of Fay Wray. That supple blonde who languished in the arms of King Kong as he towered over
chokecherry bushes and a river full of Pike at night drumming skyscrapers. Fay Wray was one of the original “scream queens.” A memorial fountain featuring an etching of King
and singing Kong with Fay Wray screaming in his clutches greets visitors to Cardston right before they journey a few miles more
my grandfather on a single drum or maybe into the Blood Reserve—which is the largest in Canada.
Hank Williams on the turntable as the ice melts in chunks treacherous However, I don’t live on the Blood reserve, or near Cardston, or in Alberta—I don’t even live in Canada. Of
and singular in each cold instance course, I have visited, many times as a child and teenager—though not very many times as an adult. Even so, the Blood
photographs on the shelves—assemble memory— reserve appears in dreams. Dreams of horses moving over the land, of the moon feral over the prairies and the barn
burning as summer raises heat and memories of drums and pick up trucks. Dreams of my relatives…. Yet, the reserve
is always somehow * my Mother’s reserve * and not my own... my own place is outside. I am on the outside, I have
no place—no one static place of rest, of belonging. As the child of a career U.S. Army father I moved with my family
— constantly, usually every year and a half. I am always observing from the outside even as I enter into life from various
Exile: Vision Quest at the Edge of Identity is a performance using Blackfoot vantage points, from many distinct places—sometimes wanting to belong and other times refusing that belonging.
mythology in Dada eruptions of dream medicine. Originally set to ambient My own engagement as a writer and poet with my Native background has been at once tenuous, deep, and uncon
music, it was made possible by a Native American Arts and Cultural Traditions ventional. My own actual ethnic and racial background is also complex and singular. I am an odd mix. My mother is
Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission. from the Blood or Kainai reserve in Alberta, Canada; our band is a member of the larger Blackfoot Confederacy. My
mother was brought up on the reserve; I was not. My father is not Native, but Hispano from Taos, New Mexico. He
was the first of his family line to marry outside the tightly-knit group of Hispano families in Northern New Mexico
who had been there since 1598 or 1684. The group of families that had intermarried for generations, literally hundreds
of years, usually in arranged marriages up to his time. And, usually within the same groups of families…. We have
found through study that many ancestors in these families were crypto-Jews and/or Conversos who voyaged or fled
to remote parts of what was then New Spain, seeking some reprieve from the terrors of the Spanish Inquisition. His
marriage to my mother was, apparently, a scandal at the time. My parents met in Provo, Utah, when my mother was
attending Brigham Young University. Her successful and enterprising father, Chris Shade, was a rancher and farmer
and paid her way to this private university, just as he had paid for her and her sister to attend a private high school in
Calgary, Alberta—in a time when Indians were not supposed to be educated beyond the eighth grade in Canada. My
father was stationed in Germany at the time; they married and I was born in Heidelberg, Germany in a U.S. Army
hospital. In about two years, we would move to the Presidio Army base at the edge of San Francisco, near Baker Beach.
Then, as military families do, we would continue traveling in the years to follow.
I don’t really follow any Blackfoot narrative, or Indigenous narrative, no particular idea of what Indians should
write about or what that writing should be. Though it is certain that I draw on my American Indian background both
intentionally and without intention. Possibly the “without intention” aspect is the most interesting. Again, I am not
entirely sure what that is, at least not always—but I will try and name some aspects of my writing that have at least a
trace of that influence. Certainly, some of these could be ascribed to other origins, and I think that what drives me in
writing is complicated... but that said here are my musings….
—
Journeying to a vision: Crying for a vision on vision quests…. The Vision Quest of Plains tribes, including my own,
inspire me with the emphasis on rigor and a solitary, perilous journey to meaning, to a highly individual encounter
with natural forces and to the spirit world. There is also always an encounter with the self. There is an expansion of the
senses, of viewing the world. The point of entrance to that expansion is solitary praying and fasting in a remote area.
The vision may come in the form of an animal and impart power in the form of a gift, a way of knowing—of sensing
and seeing. So, in going to the work, the poem, the point of entry is a similar going out into an unknown. Stripping
down to the essential form in preparation... building a portal of entry with language to visions. The writing can be
a stripping down, a purgative release from the torsion of embodied desire—fasting, and a simultaneous building up
and out—a release into an immersion of the poet in language. Language as a a flooding, an overcoming perched on a
scaffolding. And, while individual, the working is not necessarily always personal.
As a child, my mother and my Blackfoot relatives would often relate their dreams. We would discuss our dreams in
the morning, I thought this was just normal and that everyone did that often with their families. Apparently, they don’t.
Of course, people in Marin County, or psychoanalysts and other psychologists, and yes, New Age and other spiritual
seekers, have studied dreams. However, I think my own comfort with dreaming states goes back at least partly to this
easy familiarity with the dreaming world and respect for it that I experienced while still a child.
The poem is an opening dream where a world is revealed and consumed by movement. Dreaming marks the
every day world with a light stain that strains to a memory, a shanty song, a subliminal force—poking up through
consciousness to raging daylight.
—
Risk taking, heroism, physical courage—an ongoing respect for integrity and truth seeking... a love of games of chance
and gambling... I connect these with my Blackfoot background and they have seeped into my writing, my visions
walking along the edges. An ability to engage with vivid strands of life, the darkness and the struggles of claw and fist.
—
And, finally again—freedom, I think of that most when I remember the wild open lights, the moon and stars above the
flat plains... and in the dark a sound far off of a drum. Always freedom, a scent in the air, a wild loping entanglement
with life. Vital as daylight. Dangerous as an untamed and agile spirit.
—
This work was presented as part of the panel, “How We Survived Genocide: Queer Indigenous Men’s Writing,” as
part of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference, at the Minneapolis Convention Center,
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 10, 2015.
50
a poet lost in transition
Identity emerges and is flat, then concave and continues flexible although The questions are radiant and eternal and ongoing. Identity is a process,
not entirely “fluid.” Identity does bend, rubbery and metallic—transforming and like a genre, it can shift and become oblique, or provide texture and
inside a diabolic alembic. consolation. A palisade along night cliffs…. Identity can explode or dissolve.
Identity is released entirely from stricture, it is declassified and decon Genre contains the glyphs and is intrinsic as a skeleton. Worn as a hairshirt
structed—through a rolling incremental vision. Identity is nude and under to elicit response. Questions enclose identity in a reclusive sensational
the lamps, pale although often—unable to identify entirely as one race or as glide—questions arc and collapse as they drift and open.
a simple racing gesture. Identity scrolls, it lights up, it emerges as elemental The sex gourd containing the sigil can be eaten or worn as a fetish. Eyes
and then—scatters as reckless and entirely naive. open and identities are stolen by rooting through the trash, examining all the
Identity is a nation, a monument, a sloping herd of ornamental animals. cans for remains, for feral nightmare incandescence. Euphony translucent to
Identity is a farce, a combination of random genetic passages, a radiant layering the ear, melodic as sharp bird calls in tandem to phallic totems—as the sky
of force. Wind or Reason…. A transformation of intention and perception, becomes visible only as directed. Identity is only possible once observation
containment of catastrophic outcomes throughout a moving vortex. has commenced and the wading narrative bloats and becomes heavy—when it
Identity has a specific and entirely fatal gender. And—sex is worn as an is finally eclipsed by paddling drums, identity is free and no longer stapled to
actual body and then removed once the edges are synthesized into recombinant the munching hordes asleep at the wheel and entranced by their entrails. Yes!
faces. The scalpel is necessary to extract the underlying fantasy of diurnal Cleanse and scour dour identity politics! May the personal no longer be
eyelids, opening the elemental resurgence, the alchemical is finally necessary political but private. May the private be shrouded as infinite and unfolding. A
as polymorphous possibility—alive yet inert until activated by desire. sacred mystery under virtual eyelids. A multiplicity of thought crimes! We
Identity is promiscuous and aligns its flagship to the stars. Opening in an are thought criminals! Parade your thought crimes as poison to be eaten
array, orbs regulate and inspire our persistence. Every night, identity displays as Tantric fruit—surely these nubile miracles, these verdant hymns conceal
itself in pageants and in parades. a jugular propensity to enlighten! Imagine poems creating poly-volitional,
A collapse is inevitable when identity is pursued as a vanguard. The twenty-one-dimensional word clavicles—word-of-create, a new chasm of holy
optimist maintains an advantage through a game of dice, retrieving chance preverbal space. The angular angel dictating—transition to earth and heaven
through a renegade intelligence. Unlike identity, calcified yet disguised as a from—gender to gender to gender to gender. Sex change worry wounds!
womb grasping at the ankles of small children. From the sexed body hyper sexual and sexually parallel to Redwood Trees!
Gender Hyperbolic sex cool—a display of vital organic tonics—precocious
When is identity not a micro aggression? The predatory invective—labile, and animated—living and alive. Finally bare under G–d and G–ddess tarps,
concealed beneath the tongue. I remain aloof, and—intoxicated with possibil the flowing apple and Tree of Inquiry—where we live without waiting to be
ity. When is identity not repeating the absolutely apparent and the absolutely pronounced.
fictitious self? Why have our identities been stolen at night, and not during
the day? When is identity cigarette smoke and bourbon, a high-strung diva,
a canto exploding car alarms? When is identity a mirror? Why is my identity
mine and not yours? —
This work was presented as part of the panel, “Identity and Poetics Across
The Questions: Genres,” as part of Writing Trans Genres: Emerging Literature and Criticism,
Did your writing change after you became a man? at the University of Winnipeg, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on May 24,
Did you become a man or a maybe man—or a—maybe not a man? 2014; and as part of the panel, “Ensuring/Enduring Presence: Transgender
Do you write as a Native American? People of Color Artists, Editors, and Publishers,” as part of the Association of
Is there a crypto Jew hidden in your poetry? Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference, at the Walter E. Washington
Who writes your poems—your Native side, your Sephardic side, the Convention Center, in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 2017.
mountains of New Mexico, or the Queer Villages of the United States
of America?
I thought you were a straight man!
Was your writing like this when you were still a woman?
Does your poetry have a transsexual undertow?
Is there a subliminal transsexual sublime in your writing?
I thought Native Americans wrote only narrative poetry?
You do know you can’t make a living writing this stuff, poems—right?
Why does your poetry have those weird spaces between words, I can help
you fill those in?
Why do you sound so middle class?
Why is your poetry so scary?
Why is that man wearing a cat suit?
When you write about having sex, are you a man or a trans man?
Why are you wearing a cat suit?
51
Merritt Johnson
Voiceover Text for Videos
LISTEN and place both hands on the table. / Before you put any weight on the table,

this is a true story take a look underneath to check for weak, broken, or insufficient legs. / If the
stories are part of each other like water dipped out of water table has four or more working legs, you can practice leaning on the table, /
you can look away but everything that happens still is Shift your weight into your arms and onto the table. Place you forearms on
if it hurts you to look you can close your eyes and listen the table and lean in; stand up, and repeat. / This posture is grounding and
sometimes they break our bodies steadying for both you and the table itself. / It has the added benefits of giving
sometimes they throw our bodies away you a closer view of whatever is on the table, and taking weight off your feet
sometimes we break our bodies, because we are also them when there is no seat at the table. / Lack of table seating due to insufficient chair
we’re their mothers and their sisters and their daughters availability has many causes, including but not limited to: chair theft, chair
sometimes they throw our bodies away loss, chair removal, deck stacking, resistance to inclusion, miscalculation,
maybe so they won’t have to look at us intentional calculation, delusion, fantasy, and trends. / If you’ve mastered our
maybe because they can’t see us chair exercise video, you can simply sit at the table without a chair. Bending
maybe they’re afraid of what we carry at the knees and coming into a sitting position at the table. / This posture is
afraid of what we’re sharpening advanced and challenging to hold for long periods of time. / Practice regularly
listen for short intervals to increase strength and stamina. To everyone else at the
we are the edge between worlds table, you will appear to have a seat. / This illusion is based on increased effort
we are the overlap required to see eye-to-eye with others seated at the table. / If you’re not able to
we’re the hole in the sky combine chair exercises with table exercises, look for items to use as seat at
we’re the flood the table. / Carefully lower into a sitting position, keeping your hands on the
we watch you between our legs table to appear non-threatening. / Once in a while having a seat at the table
we watch you crawl and run away isn’t enough and you need to use the table as a platform. / To practice, come
we watch you hide and take and push and love and hurt into a standing position facing the table, bring one foot or leg to the table top.
we watch you between our legs Push off from the floor and bring your other leg onto the table. / Use extreme
are you afraid of what we carry? care when using the table as a platform; your presence and posture may be
are you afraid of the hole in the sky? misinterpreted by those at the table. / Do not crawl, lie down, or sit on top of
are you afraid of the flood? the table. / Stand firmly on both feet to establish the table as your platform
you afraid of what we’re sharpening? and make clear that you are not on the table.
we are the edge between worlds.
EXORCIZING A MER ICA:

EXORCIZING A MER ICA: WA T E R S A F E T Y
BUILDI NG LI NES OF COM M U NICATION With water safety under threat of long-term destruction, practicing water safety
With so much talk about the importance of on line communication these days exercises is more important than ever. / Be ready to do water safety exercises in
it’s important to know how to build lines of communication. / To get started whatever you happen to have on, without the use of special equipment; water
you will need a line. / You can use anything that makes a line when pulled safety exercises are intended for emergency situations. / Learn to recognize
straight as long as it isn’t stretchy. // Too much stretch absorbs communication when water is unsafe. / Water is unsafe when it contains crude oil, refined
vibrations and doesn’t allow them to travel the length of the line. / If your line petrochemicals, heavy metals, chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, or
is too thin it will break, and be hard to see. A hard to see line poses a safety any combination of organic or inorganic compounds that prevent water from
hazard as anyone could get tangled up in it. / Select a string that will work, supporting itself and everything that depends on it through the continuous
you can use whatever color you have on hand and set it aside. / A working processes of hydration, incubation, filtration, erosion, and evaporation. / Unsafe
line of communication needs two amplifiers. / Amplifiers can be made out water may exhibit signs of distress including but not limited to: / color changes,
using a hollow container that is open on one end. / Thin resonant material thick or oily surface film, bad smells, bad taste, flammability, itchiness, burning
makes the best amplifiers. / The most advanced material available today is sensations upon contact, animal death, plant death. / Unsafe water is not always
deer hide; it’s high strength, easily molded, and resonant. / The raw hide is immediately visible; assess water safety by doing the following: / Look. Does
soaked and cut to shape, and laced over a rigid frame. / Without access to this the water exhibit signs of distress? / Listen. Does that water exhibit signs of
technology you can make a set of low-tech amplifiers using tin cans, paper or distress? / Smell. Does the water exhibit signs of distress? // If necessary touch
plastic cups. / Do not attempt to use glass; it is fragile and difficult to connect or taste the water for signs of distress. / If any one of your senses indicates
to. // Do not attempt to build your line of communication using tape or staples. an emergency, begin water safety exercises. / For the purpose of this video,
Neither fastener will form a bond sufficient for effective communication. / we demonstrate with visually distressed water. / Holding your hair out of
Use a needle to make a hole in the closed end of each amplifier. / Bring the the way, bring your mouth to the water’s surface and remove as much of the
line through the hole. Treat the line with care. A frayed or poorly treated line threat to water as possible. / DO NOT SWALLOW. / Your body’s filtration
will result in poor communication. / Pull the line through each amplifier. Do system is water-based and not equipped to filter anything that threatens water
not attempt to securely fasten the line to the amplifiers. / The highest quality safety. / Spit the threat into a container, separating it from the water. / Repeat.
communication is achieved when the line is free to move. / Take hold of an / Continue removing the threat from the water one mouthful at a time. / Once
end of the line and tie knots until you have made a knot larger than the hole you have removed enough of the threat so the water is safe, use the water to
in the amplifier. / After tying one end, decide how long the line will be. Line clean your face, and any part of your body that has come in contact with the
distance is not the most important factor in quality communication. Keeping threat. / In some cases, you may find it necessary to use flotation devices to
the line straight is the most important part of quality on line communication. rescue water a little at a time. / This is helpful in situations where water safety
Attach the other amplifier. / Don’t worry about the line pulling out of the is threatened on a large scale such as broken pipelines, tailing pond breaches,
amplifier. If a line is pulled out of an amplifier, the tension on the line of offshore drilling disasters, and leaking tankers. / You will need water-tight
communication was too much and disconnection was inevitable. / Do not containers of manageable size. / Remove enough of the threat to begin pulling
place too much importance on a disconnected line, disconnections happen water to safety one mouthful at a time. / Spit the safe water into the water-tight
from time to time and can be repaired or not, depending on the ends of the line containers. / Leave enough air in the container before sealing to create a water
and who is holding them. / Once you’ve created knots at both ends, you are flotation device. / Place the safe water in its flotation device back where it
ready to practice communicating on line. / You can practice communicating came from to be accessed as needed. / Flotation devices are to be used only
with a partner, or use your line to listen through doors, walls, windows, or in extreme emergency circumstances as they restrict access to safe water by
even the floor. Listening is a foundational skill for on line communication anyone unable to open the device. / Water safety exercises may not fully prevent
and learning how to hold the line straight. / Practice keeping the line straight or avert health complications from unsafe water, including but not limited
and pay attention as you practice on line communication skills. to itchy skin, watery eyes, organ failure, reproductive complication, certain
types of cancer, plant die off, animal die off, and weather pattern distortion. /
The best way to keep water safe is through protection from crude oil, refined
EXORCIZING A MER ICA: petrochemicals, heavy metals, chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, or
TA BLE E X ERCISES any combination of organic or inorganic compounds that prevent water from
With so many people talking about what is on the table, it’s a great time to supporting itself and everything that depends on it.
practice table exercises. / To practice these exercises, you don’t need a table,
can just imagine there is a table close by to start out. / If you have access to a
table, using it is recommended. / Stand close to the table. Do not face the table
directly at first. / You need to believe you can be at the table. / Touch the table
with one hand and really think “I can be at the table.” Keep your eyes open,
and your hand on the table. / You are not safest under the table. / Do not crawl
under the table. / There are so many ways to practice table exercises. Once
you are comfortable with one hand on the table, turn to face the table directly 52
Still from Listen, performance for single

channel video loop, 2017.
Still from Exorcizing America: Building

Lines of Communication, single channel
video, 4:13 min., 2016.
Still from Exorcizing America: Table

Exercises, single channel video,
4:12 min., 2017.
Still from Exorcizing America: Water

Safety Exercises, single channel video,
53 5:02 min., 2017.
Merritt Johnson &
Nicholas Galanin
Survival Exercises
Oh Nenié:iere’ ne Aierèn:nha’ ne Aiakónhnheke’
g̱ asaniex̱ daa.itnagóowu
(to be recorded in Kanien’kéha & Tlingit, subtitled in english)
When practiced mindfully, these It goes like this: She’s pushed Even if you’ve been abused before If they tell you to keep your pants

exercises can promote physical, through a hole she’s pushed and after making dinner, devalued on, don’t listen. They’re threatened
emotional, and cultural survival. through she pushes out as you clean up the mess, you can by your survival.
still enjoy these exercises.
Nó:nen enhse’nikòn:rarake’ Kenh nenkaié:ren – Tsi iokà:ronte Tóka’ enionsahró:ri’ ne
tsi enhsatéweiénste’ kí:ken tsi ieiakotáthre Ieiakotáthre Arohátien ki’ tóka’ taiesathahsterénhake’,
nenhsieránion’, wate’shén:naien Ne á:ionwe’ iesahrewahtánion ohén:ton tóhsa sheiatahónhsatat.
ne aiesaia’takéhnha’, tánon’ ohnà:ken wahsekhón:ni’ Ronateronhientén:ni tsi
aiesa’nikonhrahserón:ni’ tánon’ Yáatʼaa áwé yéi kg̱watée: woolnáx̱ tánon’ tóka’ ehtà:ke wa’onsón:ni’ enhsónhnheke’.
akarihwahní:rate’ tsi nisarihò:ten. aawagooḵ a tóonáx̱ aawagooḵ a sha’tehsohtáhrhoskwe’, shé:kon
tóodáx̱ sh yaa ndag̱ íxʼ ki’ enwá:ton’ enson’wéskwen’ gwál i een yéi yawduwaḵaa «
Gwál kʼidéin kawduwa.aag̱ u yá kí:ken tsi nenhsieránion’. líl x̱ ’oosdáx̱ idayíḵx̱ iḵ! » chʼas
daa.itnagóowu, a jidáx̱ áwé ḵaa tlél ḵaa x̱ ’éide kg̱ isa.aax̱ . i
daa.it, ḵaa toowú, ḵa ḵaa ḵusteeyí gwál i daa.it jiwduwanúk g̱ asaneix̱ ídax̱ has akawdlix̱ éitlʼ.
yei ḵukg̱ wastée. Even after having babies, you wé xáanaa atx̱ aayí yisa.éeyi
can enjoy these exercises. Listen shukát, gwál a ítdax̱ , ḵa tlél
to your body and listen to your ix̱ ʼawdudlitseen tle yan yisinei
partner. Close your eyes if you wé kooxéelʼaa, yá g̱asaneix̱ Survival exercises are not intended
Even after you’ve been raped, you like, or keep them open and watch. daa.itnagóowu i tuwáa kei to make others feel comfortable.
can still practice and enjoy these ḵʼagux̱ sagóo. Exercising survival is inherently
exercises. This isn’t rape. It’s ok if Shé:kon ki’ enwá:ton’ disruptive.
you like watching. enson’wéskwen’ kí:ken tsi
nenhsieránion’ ohnà:ken Iáhten ne kí:ken tsi naié:iere’
Arohátien ki’ tóka’ ó:nen enhsewirahní:non’. Satahónhsatat Inhale, and exhale. You feel good. naiakónhnheke’ teioteríhonte ne
tehiaia’kwahrhienà:’on, shé:kon oh nahò:ten wá:ton ne tsa’tà:ke aiakonaktiióhsten’ nón:kwe.
enwá:ton’ enhsatéweienste’ tánon’ sheiatahónhsatat ne Tasatonriseratihéntho tánon’ Né: ne aiontéweienste’
tánon’ enson’wéskwen’ titsatenróhon. Tesateròn:wek ia’satonriserà:rek. Sonhnhí:io. naiakónhnheke’
kí:ken tsi nenhsieránion’. Iah tóka’ tesatonhontsó:ni tóka’ ni’ ienwatkón:tahkwe’ tsi
tha’tehshakoia’kwahrhié:nas ne tesateron’wekhsiónhak tánon’ daséikw áwé i toodé aag̱ áa i eniakoió’tatshe’ nón:kwe.
kí:ken. Iáhten tewahétken tóka’ saterò:rok. tóodáx̱ . i toowú yakʼéi.
enson’wéskwen’ nahsaterò:roke’. Yá g̱ aneix̱ daa.itnagóowu gwál
Yá tʼukanéiyi yéi du.óowu ítdáx̱ hél ḵaa toowú awlitʼáayi át áwé.
Gwál iwdudlisʼélʼ ítdáx̱ chʼa aan chʼa aan i tuwáa kei ḵʼagux̱sagóo Yá g̱ aneix̱ daa.itnagóowu áwé ḵaa
i tuwáa kei ḵʼagux̱ sagóo yá daa. ya daa.itnagóowu. i daa.it sh iltín You are building physical and kawduwaxílʼ át áyú.
itnagóowu. Tléil ḵaa wdudlisʼélʼ ḵa i een.aa x̱ ʼéit sa.áx̱ ! Hél wáa emotional strength.
áyá. Hél wáa sá kg̱ watee gwál i sá kg̱ watee gwál i tuwáa sigóo
tuwáa sigóo yilatíni. keedalʼúxu, ḵu.aa gwál i tuwáa Satatia’tahní:rats tánon’
sigóo yitalíni. satate’nikonhrahní:rats. Even after we’ve been raped, we
enjoy exercising our survival. It’s
i daa.it áwé yaa neeltseen ḵa i ok if you like watching, because
Practicing these exercises builds toowú kei gux̱ latseen this isn’t rape.
emotional resilience and social Inhale fully and catch your breath
bonds, with the added benefit of before you exhale. Breathing Arohátien ki’ tóka’ ó:nen
experiencing pleasure and positive intensifies physical and emotional teionkhiia’kwahrhienà:’on
emotion. If watching makes you feeling. Your breathing may Even if you were raped adjacent eniontion’weskwaníhake’
uncomfortable, close your eyes become shallow, rapid, or audible; to a tacit audience, and they tell naietewatéweienste’
and listen to the story. this is natural. a story without you, you can still naietiónhnheke’. Iáhten othé:nen
enjoy these exercises. You can tell tekarì:wa tóka’ son’wéskwani
Nó:nen enhsatéweienste’ ne Kwah tekén: tasatonriseratihéntho your stories, before, during, and ahsaterò:roke’ né: tsi iah ónhka
kí:ken tsi nahsieránion’ sénha tánon’ satonriseraié:na ohén:ton after exercise. tha’tehshakoia’kwahrhié:nas
enhseweientehtónhake’ ne tsi niió:re iensehsatonriserà:reke’. ne kí:ken.
aonsahsatate’nikonhrakwatá:ko’ Sénha enhsáttoke’ ne tsa’tà:ke Arohátien ki’ tóka’
tánon’ sénha eniohnirónhake’ tánon’ senontsì:ne tóka’ satón:rie. tha’tehonató:tehkwe’ Gwál haa wdudlisʼélʼ ítdáx̱, haa
tsi na’tesewaterónnion, né: ò:ni’ Tóka’ nòn:wa ken’k nikón:ha, shihonaterò:ron tsi toowú ḵʼawsigoowú át áwé yá
entkáhawe’ ne sénha ahsáttoke’ iosnó:re tóka’ ni’ iah teiohrón:ka tehiaia’kwahrié:naskwe’, tánon’ g̱ aneix̱ daa.itnagóowu. Hél wáa
ne aton’wesénhtshera tánon’ tsi enhsatón:rie’. Sha’oié:ra tsi iah tehatiká:ratons ne ì:se sá utí gwál yilatín ách áwé hél ḵaa
ka’nikonhrí:io. Tóka’ iah ki’ nè:’e. saká:ra, shé:kon ki’ enwá:ton’ wdudlisʼélʼ.
tesanaktiiò:se tsi saterò:ron, enson’wéskwen’ kí:ken tsi
tesateròn:wek tánon’ satahónhsatat kʼidéin nadasaa aag̱ áa nenhsieránion’. Shé:kon
ne oká:ra. kakg̱ eedaseigáḵw ítdáx̱ áwé chʼa enwá:ton’ enhskaratónnion’ ne
kg̱ ee.óox daséikw a jeedáx̱ kʼidéin ì:se sakara’shòn:’a, ohén:ton, This is how everything begins.
Yá daa.itnagóowu kaduwa.aag̱ u ḵugax̱ dulnook ḵa kʼidéin tóo tsi nikarì:wes tánon’ ohnà:ken
a jidáx̱ ḵaa toowú agux̱ latseen ḵa gax̱ dunóok gwál i daséigu áwé enhsatéweienste’. Kenh ní:tsi akwé:kon
wooch eenx̱ ḵaa gux̱ satée. Yáatʼaa hél ulcheen ḵa ḵúdáx̱ yasátk, yax̱ tewatáhsawens.
tsú ḵaa tóog̱ aa gax̱ datée ḵa kei yakg̱ waxeexan Gwál iwdudlisʼélʼ ḵáa
kg̱ wakʼéi ḵaa toowúch. Gwál hél waḵshiyeexʼ ḵa hél i eet Yéi áwé chʼa ldakát át
i tuwáa ushgú yilatíni, keedalʼúx wudushee, gwál ḵoon sh kawdud g̱ unéi wooxeex.
aag̱ áa chʼas át kg̱ eesa.áax̱ ! lineek i g̱ óot, chʼa aan áwé yá
g̱ asaneix̱ daa.itnagóowu i tuwáa
kei ḵʼagux̱ sagóo.
kei gux̱ lachéesh áwé i
shkalneekxʼí áwé ḵaa een
kakg̱ ilanéek.
54
Screenshots from single-channel video, Exorcizing America: Survival Exercises, 2017, Nicholas Galanin and Merritt Johnson. Photos courtesy of the artists.
55
Heid E. Erdrich Melissa Olson Jamie Randall
Responses to Weave Impressions at a Weave Rehearsal Witnessing Weave

from Native Community Writers for Rosy Simas Danse
A note from Heid E. Erdich who invited Native I hear quiet conversations in an open studio space In late summer, I was asked to participate in

community members in Minnesota to respond give way to the muted tones of the choreographer witnessing a rehearsal of Weave. Community
to open rehearsals and workshops during the framing the choices of dancers. A laptop with a witness is one aspect of the entire project, where
creation of Weave: Seneca Belt across its thin frame sits atop a folding different facets will be brought together to create
table next to digital sound pads. I see a notebook the production. I went into the space with very
One thing I have learned from working with Rosy left open by a man arranging a light projector at little context so I would be able to fill my senses
Simas Danse is the joy of engaging a truly extra the edge of a gray-washed rehearsal floor. with the experience.
ordinary commitment to working in and from The sound of water gurgles up and I see the This particular rehearsal was held in the Ivy
community, especially in Native communities smooth shoulder roll of a dancer. The movement Arts Building in South Minneapolis. As I found
and with Indigenous artists. RSD allowed me the and the sound reminding me of a breakdancer. my way, I noticed the halls were filled with offices
chance to invite Native artists (local, Anishinaabe, I see another pair of dancers with languid hips, and workspaces, many of them healers in some
women/Two-Spirits) to experience and respond to rolling hands and shoulders, their movement soft way or another—occupational therapy, bike repair,
another Native (local, Haudenosaunee, woman) and sure. When the projector casts the image of massage. The rehearsal space itself was warm with
artist’s work. This rarely happens. The separation water against the back wall, their silhouettes tread dark wood floors.
of artists into individual disciplines is not the water against the back of the studio space. I was early so there was still pre-rehearsal
way Indigenous cultures operate. Our dance Arms sculpting sand, four dancers appear prep going on—dancers were stretching, sound and
displays our art and our stories and our music. on stage working together, maybe against the projectors were being tested—I settled on a sofa in
Traditionally, dance is for all to engage which, as ocean’s tide? One dancer remains apart from the the corner of this large room and waited. Soon more
a Native American choreographer and community rest, works in solitude. The other four continue to people began to arrive and find seats. A hush settled
member, Rosy knows. Her support of community reach and work their arms. I want to imagine they as Rosy Simas walked to the front and explained
engagement is so much more than audience building; are prospecting in a foot of wet sand. And when the to the audience what would be happening next.
her direction of RSD creates artistic development work is done, each exits in their own direction. She In honor of what I witnessed that evening, I
for a broad group of experienced and first-time or he or they or them rolling away in thunderous, offer this poem which came from what I saw and
writers, journalists, filmmakers, and more. RSD quadraphonic ocean song. heard and felt that night.
is at once brilliant and totally what I’d expect from Two dancers stand in relation to one another,
an Indigenous perspective, and it is wonderful to thoughtful, intimate, like the syllables of the word
be part of something so fine and so rare. used to describe this pho-to-syn-the-sis. They are
plant-like—slow. The two are honey-dripping slow.
The blogs can also be seen on the Weave website. A deliberate quality to their touch and movement,
http://www.rosysimasweave.com they stretch and bridge past the other and wait
for the other. And then again, there is a carefree
quality to their dance. The two could be grass or rice
stalks. Arm and shoulder blades rustling against
one another, resting and then swaying. Stretching Entwined
and bridging with long limbs across the space.
The solitary dancer returns to perform a solo.
The ocean image cast on the back wall is gone, and
only the digital wind song remains. She seems to
be trying to turn or tune something inside. An
existential quality to the movement conveyed by
open hands rolling, searching, self-sculpting. We
are drawn in close to the dancer’s edges. We are
drawn in still closer by the magnetic soundscapes. I once walked off
The magnetic song recedes leaving nothing the edge
but a bare stage, and a dancer with arms temple of an underwater cliff
straight. The purple clad dancer begins swinging,
wind-milling her arms out of sense of futility, of As I looked into the
rage? The sound of magnetic ringing rises, and ocean’s great eye
another dancer appears as if stranded by the airy a shadow appeared
magnetic wave. The other dancers appear on the from the deep azure
stage almost asleep, compared to the dancer milling Rising over horizons of
her arms. Another dancer joins this first dancer in black and purple
the near center of the dance stage, and begins the
same work. The two dancers begin to work together, Shadow formed sea turtle
resting and leaning on one another, reaching and It began a dance
embracing. Who is this person? Who is this other? Undulating ablution
I wonder what sort of work does each do? So alike, We moved along the lines of
and so careful of one another, maybe relatives, each other’s curves
maybe more like friends. One dancer supporting
the other, the choreographer calls for lights out. In the slow-moving thunder
The choreographer calls for lights up! the current and wave
The water, an image of constant motion, I let the turtle swallow me whole
returns. The sound and image of the tide going
home, and arriving, and returning home again. It’s
easy to imagine the tracks of a seabird left behind
in the sand. The shadow of tiny bird feet as the tide
rolls out. One dancer, still and slow, and rooted in
place, reaching around self, imploring me to look
around at the edges of a meditative body.
The dancers leave behind a genuine sense of
healing on the quadrants of the dance stage when
each exits the stage. The thing I remember is a
nocturnal feel punctuated by a few rolling notes
of a tuba. Man, I think, I want to hear the round,
low roll of a tuba to play when I leave the room.
How good it must feel to step out on a playful note
after the long day’s work.
56
Marcie Rendon Sarah Agaton Howes Anthony Ceballos
creating existence Breathing into Injury Unsettling
Crickets, frogs September 23, 2018 you are my sister,

Slow slow motion of brown, red bodies As an Indigenous person I have received messages you are my brother,
Birds float, fabric on wall my whole life about space: I take up too much space. you are my mother,
Brown, black braids move, pulse I should disappear from space. I don’t deserve you my father begging to be a father,
space. I work actively to reclaim my own right to you are my breaking bones,
dream dreams be in space. What I never took was my freedom. my need to drown in the womb,
Ocean birds mating There is a freedom in modern movement that is be reborn as an already dead rose,
Gentle washing tides positively terrifying. And I knew, oh I knew, going through dirt on an earth not on fire,
Sacred water erases footprints into this that at some point someone would say this land this Native apocalypse, this
Clean pure water “move through the space.” And I knew I would have your flesh ungendered your body unsexed,
Sand moved from there to here no idea how to move without instruction, without my hair around your hair, our eyes sewn shut,
Tiny movement, heart beating restriction, without excelling, without being who I as we swim through tar, through molten rock,
am expected to be, without FREEDOM. Our whole through a split in our skin, a split through
Thunder beings talk lives are built upon trying to be the best at who we time through air, through fog, and you
Living in the realm of never are. We work hard at reclamation of ourselves as you who are my sister,
Land erupts with loving cultural people. you who are my brother, my mother,
Breaking ice moves life I am not free. my father begging to be my father,
My body, especially as an Indigenous woman, shoot thorns from your tongue,
Darkness, light is under attack. We are kidnapped, raped, murdered watch their bibles go up in flames,
Ice rages, wind expounds at rates so high no one even keeps track. I scarcely their english reduced to an ash
All things change, live, die, live know an Indigenous woman who has NOT been our relations will blow away
sexually assaulted in her life. We walk through our with a single breath.
There is silence inside of silence inside of silence lives trying to be safe, trying to be strong, trying We will not be silent, we
you carry me to be brave, and our bodies are wounded. We carry were never meant to be silenced,
call nothingness into somethingness and protect these wounds by isolating and shutting they cut out our tongues,
off parts of ourselves. told us that’s the way it is
floundering I am not free. and gouged out our eyes,
flounder We laid in a circle on the floor, closed our eyes, but we will not remain blind
found and Sam asked us to feel where our breath comes in as we claw our way back home,
your heart and out. With all we carry—what sickness forms in the dark, us descendants, us enrolled,
creating you into existence in these shut-off parts of our bodies? And what if us twenty-three-point five percent,
we do not allow breath and water to touch them? us sixty-seven percent, full blood, half blood,
In this movement class we are dancing with reservation, inner-city, high schooled,
our whole body. I was crawling across the floor, college schooled,
feeling the air, dancing a groove, and spinning no schooled, boarding schooled, with our
with laughter. fathers, without
With people around me and my eyes closed? our fathers, our mothers in hospital beds,
How do I trust them and how do I allow my daughter our mothers
to also move in this way in a world where she will in nursing homes, our mothers in agony, we
likely be hurt? And what if I don’t teach her to be will weave our stories together and end
Weave brave and unafraid? What if I am teaching her to this end-time colonial settler nightmare
hide herself? How do we raise these children to they call America.
be smart but unafraid? How do we teach them to
stand their ground while feeling that ground gently
with their fingertips?
I am not free.
I wonder how many times today did I think
about being kidnapped, raped, killed, or if my
daughter would be and what would we do? How
I attended the September open rehearsal of Weave. many times did you? Can we breathe into this? Can
It was an honor to attend and an act of trust on the we move through this into freedom?
part of the artists to open themselves to audience I am not free.
while in the process of creating, forming, shaping, This movement was inside our breath, inside
becoming the piece, not yet ready for full production. our bodies, inside our hearts. We deserve the
Brown, red, and black bodies moved with freedom of safety and the ability to move across
fluidity, filling the space reminiscent of the sand our lands without being attacked. We deserve to
and liquid shifting in sandscape sculptures. There feel like our bodies are gifts, not burdens.
was music and the sound of feet on hardwood I have this beautiful brown Indigenous eight-
floor with a backdrop of visual images that filled year-old daughter. She has entered that awkward
the walls. Sitting in the studio I felt immersed in girl eight-year-old awareness where she knows
the production as the dimensionality of the whole now that her body is up for critique by others. She
enveloped all the senses. dances every day in our home, but isn’t free. I try
Rosy Simas understands water. She under to remember when I lost the myth of my freedom?
stands the human is water. That water is human. When did she? She did NOT want to dance, but I
That understanding becomes movement in Weave. convinced her to JUST TRY. In fact, I told her to
try. There was something so soft and genuine in
this brown man dancing that her guard fell away.
After an hour of following Sam, I leaned over and
whispered to her, “This memory, you will have
this forever.” I am determined to give her a life of
amazing memories because I know life will give
her plenty of hardship. She danced for two hours
surrounded by mirrors showing her body. She
danced for two hours surrounded by others—free
from judgment. I saw her freedom in that.
Today, I have not yet moved my breath into all
the parts of me. I have dark and swirly places that I
hold tightly bound. I left the Ordway swirling and
glowing with the light of our amazing life.
57
Dakota Camacho
Matao: Queerly Navigating Indigenizing Creative Practice
Ethel Marie Williams si Nånan Nanå-hu Taotao European Gui’  

Constante Tobias Alcantara si Tåtan Tatå-hu Taotao Vigan gui’  
Carmen Marie Alcantara- Camacho si Nanå-hu 
Mafañågu gui’ giya Tåno’ Kumeyaay 
Josefa ‘Pai’ Anderson Camacho si Nånan Tatå-hu  
Manggåfan Che’ Taotao Tomhom yan Hagå’-ña gui’ 
Felix Guerrero Camacho si Tåtan Tatå-hu  
Manggåfan Eging Taotao Mongmong, Hagå’-
ña, yan Sumai gui’  
Vincent Jeffrey Anderson Camacho si Tatå-hu 
Mafañågu gui’ giya Tåno’ Kanaka Maoli1  
Guåhu ginen siha i mañainå-hu  
Mafañågu yu’ giya Tåno’ Snohomish  
ya Mapoksai yu’ giya Tåno’ Swinomish, Schwdab, yan dxʷdəәwʔabš  
Matao i Hagå’-hu
I begin by acknowledging an ancestral ‘constellation’ of relations. I honor and recognize

I begin by acknowledging an ancestral ‘constellation’ of relations. I honor I was brought into the movement against domestic, sexual, and state- 1 — Though I have yet to hear many of
these names from the mouths of the
and recognize the bloodlines that come from my mother, and father, and violence by my older sister DeAnn Alcantara-Thompson and it is through her
the bloodlines that come from my mother, and father, and the places they were born and raised
the places they were born and raised because “we need to be centering our work and the community to which we belong that I have learned resisting
people who speak these languages, and
I know that the english alphabet is insuf-
attachment to each other, the land, and our intelligence systems,” to build a violence is not enough; we must build alternatives to violence through what ficient in its ability to spell and signify the
because “we need to be centering our attachment to each other, the land, and our intelligence
radical resurgence movement (Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 2017). Cherokee scholar Jeff Corntassel calls “everyday acts of resurgence” (2012). sounds of these languages, it is the best I
can do to honor the ancestral traditions in
systems,” to build a radical resurgence movement (Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 2017).

I honor my mother’s lineage first, even though it is the lineage I know the
least about. I honor her lineage first because my father’s people are traditionally
Personally, this means engaging in regenerating my personal relationship
with my ancestral thought systems, which for me means engaging in a process
the places that gave (and continue to give)
my family life for several generations.
matrilineal and matrifocal. We are Matao, also known as Chamorro (derived of indigenizing myself by reclaiming my ancestral identities and practices, 2 — The first time I heard the idea of
from Spanish), from the archipelago our ancestors call Låguas yan Gåni,1 Matao i hagå’-hu.
I honor my mother’s lineage first, even though it is the lineage I know the least about. I
which we grew up calling the Mariånas (named by the Spanish after Queen One of the greatest barriers to writing this effectively is the constant
‘non-deficit’ resistance was listening
to Tia Reihana-Morunga (Ngāti Hine)
at Indigenous Stamina — Forum,
honor her lineage first because my Father’s people are traditionally matri-lineal and matrifocal.
Mariana of Austria). My father’s early years were spent on the largest island
of the fifteen-island chain, Guåhan, which we grew up calling Guam. Even
voice in my head telling me to explain how colonizing has changed my life
as an Indigenous person such that I don’t have the authentic identity markers
hosted by I Moving Lab at Auckland
University of Technology.
We are Matao, also known as Chamorro (derived from Spanish), from the archipelago our
in this short introduction of my ancestry, one can see the many cloaks of that others have. This voice then makes me want to justify to you my right to
3 — I want to be both broad and complex
complexity colonizing has left for me to weave through in order to give life maintain an Indigenous identity. And it is these narratives of cultural loss,
ancestors call Låguas yan Gåni which we grew up calling the Mariånas (named by the Spanish
to my ancestral life ways. disconnection, disappearance, not-belonging, and inauthenticity which keep my
in my definition of indigenous. At the
Te Kare-roto Wānanga at University of
Despite and because of this, I introduce myself in this way to articulate mind from acknowledging the sovereignty of my spirit, and also the inherent Waikato in February 2018, I heard Dr.
after Queen Mariana of Austria). My Father’s early years were spent on the largest island of the
being Matao as a kind of place-based internationalism—both a theory and a Sovereignty of Spirit—that spirit is naturally and infinitely operating in the
Whaea Rose Pere speak her interpreta-
tion, “there is no such thing as a
fifteen-island-chain, Guåhan, which we grew up calling Guam. Even in this short introduction of
practice of non-deficit 2 co-resistance (against centuries of colonizing) with
Indigenous 3 communities whose spiritual-cultural practices teach me how
realm of the mysterious and the unknown. Perhaps this is why some of the
people on this continent refer to the Creator as the Great Spirit, Gzhwe Mnidoo,
non-indigenous person.” The idea is
that we are all indigenous to the earth.
my ancestry, one can see the many cloaks of complexity colonizing has left for me to weave
I believe this perspective is important
to live in right relation with this land I call home. “The Great Mystery,” and “that which we do not understand” (Cajete 1994 because I believe we want to awaken
It is place-based in the sense that growing up with a strong queer community & 2005, Luna 2011, Simpson 2011). As Taiaiake Alfred, Mohawk political belonging/responsibility within all living
through in order to give life to my ancestral life ways.
made me believe in the truth that is reflected in nature and therefore in theorist, states in his address to the University of Melbourne during the beings. However, I think it is important to
recognize that as a result of colonizing
indigenous nations across the world—trans/queer people, people of all kinds Narrm Oration, “There is a danger in allowing colonization to be the only everyone is also on a different place
of bodies, abilities, and expressions have always and will always exist, and story of Indigenous lives. Colonialism is an effective analytic frame, but it is on a spectrum of relation to one’s own
Despite and because of this, I introduce myself in this way to articulate being Matao as a
be welcomed in our world/s. limited as a theory of liberation. It is a narrative in which the Settler’s power indigeneity. Many Indigenous languages
are verb-based—in contrast to English
It is place-based in the sense that my chosen queer family that initially is fundamental and unquestioned; it limits the freedom of the colonized by
kind of place-based internationalism — both a theory and a practice of non-deficit co-resistance 2 which is noun-based—it is important
inspired me to look deeper into my ancestral roots, as I yearned for a place framing all movement as acts of resistance or outcomes of Settler power” to consider Indigenous as a verb, an
that I might truly belong, when I was receiving messages from institutions of (2013). This is perhaps why Squi Qui has asked the Indigenous Mind Circle identity in motion, a constant negotiation
of reciprocity and right relation in a
Catholicism and militarism that my queer body and sexuality should not exist. to step away from activist work or work concerned with the political and constellation of one’s relations, family,
I do this as a participant in a co-collectively constellated, grounded move towards the work of the spirit. How can we think with our Indigenous ancestry, the land, community, and
normativity, re-generated, pre-meditated, renewed, and anciently brewed Mind, if we are subtly and subconsciously limiting ourselves to think within where one resides/is born. This thinking
resonates with Gloria Emeagwali and
emergent strategy of resurgence: building “a land base, and nations that are the narratives of colonizing? George J. Sefa Dei’s articulation of Black/
physical, emotional, spiritual, artistic, and creative spaces where Indigenous As I have followed this constantly unfolding and deeply mysterious path, Indigenous experience published in their
peoples can be Indigenous” (ibid). I have had the honor of witnessing and participating in ceremonial communi African Indigenous Knowledge and the
Disciplines: “African Indigeneity must
As a younger artist, I participated in community organizing against ties. And, in this work as a witness and participant, I have felt and seen the be read as both a process and a form
gentrification, policing, the prison-industrial complex, political corruption healing that ceremonial life can bring. But, the healing wasn’t always a high of identity. It is an identity that defines
Though I have yet to hear many of these

and killings in the Philippines, gender-based violence, and cis-heterosexism.
names from the mouths of the people who speak
or happy feeling. Witnessing and participating in other cultures’ work made who a people are at a particular point
1 in time. But it is also a recognition that
These experiences shaped my consciousness and approach to my creative me question what I could offer to a “a responsibility-based ethic grounded in
these languages,
my platform as aandspokenIword
know that the english alphabet is insufficient
to homelands andin it’s ability
when to spell and from
such identities are in a continual process
work. I used and hip-hop artist to ‘agitate’ the relationships community,” being dispossessed of existence. The lesson here is that a
signify the sounds of these languages, it is the best

people and motivate us to keep working towards our collective liberation.
I can do to honor the ancestral traditions in
our ancestral life ways has meant not always knowing how my ancestors people’s Indigeneity and Indigenousness
is not simply taken away from them simply
At some point, I realized that the energy I was feeling at protests, rallies, would “act on these responsibilities” (Corntassel 2012).
the places that gave (and continue to give) my familyI am lifeon for several generations.
because they encounter others on their
meetings, and in the community in general often felt depressed, depleted, a journey of discovering my spiritual identity, and therefore my homeland. The Eurocentric construc-
hopeless. Despite every effort we made to make our communities safer spiritual responsibilities. Despite the fact that my community carries aspects tions of the Indigenous as primitive,
culture-based, and static is a ploy to
and less vulnerable to violence, it seems we are bombarded every day with of our cultural life ways with us in our bodies and practices through centuries
2 The first time I heard the idea of ‘non-deficit’ resistence was listening to Tia Reihana-Morunga privilege European identity, and should
terrible news. of colonizing and five thousand miles of ocean, there were crucial aspects of be distinguished from what the people
(Ngāti Hine) at the ‘Indigenous Stamina — Forum’ourhosted

These communities on this ground, in this place, this constellation by I below
life ways pushed Moving Lab
the surface atpressures
by the Auckland of assimilation. Being claim and assert of their own Indigeneity
and Indigenousness. The latter is about
of radical community organizers have raised me to be creatively oriented, displaced from our homeland has meant that we have been dispossessed of our
University
spiritually focused, of and
Technology
critically engaged with the political realities that relationship to our ancestral land, culture, knowledge system, and ways of being.
the affirmation of self, community,
history, culture, tradition, heritage, and
shape the material conditions of my life within the context of the lives of my In the last few years, I have been building a relationship to a circle ancestry… To deny African peoples
their Indigeneity with the rationale that
community. That means recognizing that the militarization of my homeland investigating the notion of the Indigenous Mind. Convened by a vision from colonialism disrupted their self-defined
led to my grandparents being displaced to Coast Salish Territory and that the the Squi Qui line of the Schwdab peoples, this inter-nation circle of peoples, and collectively actualized existence and
roots of that violence are the same as the militarization of the Central District, ancestors, and gifts meets on the full moon for a talking circle to discuss their associations with the Land and their
homeland, is itself racist and endorses the
West Side, and South End of Seattle, and every hood across the United States our spiritual development as individuals and how we, as a collective, can misguided and disingenuous insinua-
and the world, where Indigenous people are also being displaced. move as one. At the conclusion of the last circle I attended, a piece of paper tions of white supremacist ideology.” 58
was passed around with notes from our circles and conversations about the indigenous as I know I am, because there have been times when I would not
work we are doing together, and at the very top of the page was a set of bullet have known how to answer Corntassel’s question: “How will your ancestors
points under the heading of “Vision/Mission/Purpose.” The first point is and future generations recognize you as Indigenous?” I want to take a second to
“Sovereignty of Spirit.” acknowledge that this question sits within many people of my lineage, whether
This paper is one way I am actualizing my commitment to understand they have been born and raised on island or in the so-called ‘diaspora.’ Our
ing what this phrase “Sovereignty of Spirit” means and how it shapes my ancestors were initially displaced from our homelands during the Chamorro-
responsibilities as a representative of my ancestral lineage that has resided Spanish Wars, and then again during the Spanish policy of Reducción that
here in Coast Salish Territories for fifty years. Engaging in this process moved every Chamorro off their ancestral lands by 1730, and then again after
means rediscovering, re-activating, re-(k)newing the ceremonial life of my World War II when the U.S. military seized two-thirds of the land in Guåhan
ancestral traditions. and mass amounts of land in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariånas
I recognize that this process of re-(k)newing my relationship to being Islands. This displacement of people from land has meant that even those who
Matao is a commitment to Indigenous liberation, and means learning how live in the homeland have been disrupted from practicing their land-based
to regenerate my relationship to Matao thinking, and by doing my best to ancestral responsibilities. This systematic dispossession of our bodies from
think through my language, make meaning of my life through the lens of our land has meant dispossessing our bodies of their ancestral knowledge
my ancestors. But how does one begin this journey outside of their ancestral system—because our knowledge comes from the land itself. How do we
homeland and community? regenerate our ancestral knowing?
The summer before I left to visit my ancestral lands in Guåhan for the first Being a part of a constellation that connects me to both my homeland and
time, a friend of mine invited me to follow them to a Danza Mexica ceremony my birthland has afforded me a unique perspective akin to the traditional role
taking place at El Centro De La Raza, which happened to be across the street of a navigator. As a seafaring culture, the Navigator is essential to attaining
from a coffee shop where I spent a lot of my time. I was first drawn into the spiritual-material resources for the homelands by journeying into the ocean
old school building, where decades before Chicanas/os occupied the space to following chants passed down by elders, birds, currents, clouds, stars, and all of
claim it for their community, by the seemingly familiar and soothing smell of the ocean relations. These wayfinding journeys would be essential to building
some kind of smoke. When I arrived, I remember becoming suddenly aware of relationships with other communities who may have knowledge—ceremonies/
how I was raised primarily speaking English. The drums echoed throughout meta-physical/material—that would support well-being in our community.
the room in the basement, suggesting something ancient yet the beating in When I returned to the shores of Turtle Island, I began to wonder how I can
my heart reminded me that it was also here, right now. live into this role of the navigator. I kept pursuing my connection to the Mexica
People arranged themselves in a circle, women walked around the space ceremonial community, and any Indigenous community that I thought had
dropping something into clay pots that generated smoke, and then a man held what I felt was lacking in my own community—not in an extractive sense,
a shell to his lips and exhaled. The sound of the conch brought me back to but in an effort to more deeply understand and act on my responsibility to this
my body and sent me traveling home to Guåhan simultaneously. The drums land. Traditionally, the navigator played in important role in the homeland
reverberated within me. The ceremony felt so connected to me, yet separate because they brought kåna/mana (spiritual authority/prestige) to their home
from me. I knew in my mind that I do not have Mexica blood, so how could I by how they conducted themselves abroad. And one’s conduct abroad has the
feel so connected to this ritual? The ceremony awoke a knowing within me, potential to create and sustain a relationship between one’s homeland and
and also the pain of not knowing my own culture’s ceremony. My body became other lands, and other forms of knowing that can support knowledge gaps
chasm. Ready to receive the messages of the ancestors, yet vulnerably raw back home. This is why inafa’maolek—literally translated as the essence
from colonizing’s still open wound. I returned to this ceremony every week of making sure things are good for everyone and colloquially understood
until I left for Guåhan for my first trip to my homeland. as balance and reciprocity—is the foundation of our culture. There is often
When I first arrived to Guåhan, these are the kinds of questions and a deficit-based way of thinking about people who live or who are born and
gaps I asked my peers and elders about. We somehow could only point to raised in the ‘diaspora’—and I think that is rooted in the destruction of our
the Catholic ceremonies, and have had to think critically about surfacing seafaring institutions in the 1700s. This is why it is necessary to regenerate
the ways in which our Indigenous knowing has persisted, even if masked or Matao thinking—as I Fanlalai’an puts it, “think through the eyes of the
transformed. As we reflected upon how our cultural practices today carry ancestors.” If we are able to do this, we might witness a movement of Matao
vestiges of our ancestral life ways, I learned that through my experiences who work in meaningful solidarity with Indigenous people on Turtle Island
in my birthlands as participant in certain ceremonies and cultural practices that can simultaneously build culturally-specific pathways out of territorial
created a conversation of dynamic synergy about our indigeneity. I question/ status and into Matao nationhood.
ed my responsibility to my homeland as someone who can share certain I was first invited to think “through the eyes of my ancestors” through
perspectives about ceremonial life, and also if I have the right to share what my training in I Fanlalai’an Oral History Project at the University of Guåhan.
has been shared with me. What does it mean to share smudging practices in my I Fanlalai’an devises traditionally-styled Chamorro chant in an esoteric form
homeland where those sacred medicines don’t grow? What if we don’t know of the language called fino’ håya hardly used in contemporary conversation,
how we would traditionally ‘smudge’ or cleanse ourselves, but we have a word and rarely taught in standard language instruction. These chants record and
for it? How do we approach these gaps in our cultural knowledge? Recently, remind the community of ancestral practices and ways of thinking that are
I heard the highly-esteemed Aboriginal choreographer, Frances Rings, talk often unrecognizable to our people. European anthropologists, DS Farrer
about her work as a contemporary Indigenous dancer and choreographer in and James D. Sellmann, describe I Fanlalai’an’s performance of chant as
the context of the Stolen Generation—Aboriginal people dispossessed of warrior religion/war magic that is “spiritual resistance against the colonial
their families, communities, lands, cultural practices, and knowing—and territorialization of Guam” (2014). I want to propose that the performance of
how contemporary creativity fulfills a much-needed gap in our “knowing.” chant is one very important method of spiritual resistance, and that performance
When I was a teenager, I read an academic article about my people’s alone does not generate an alternative to colonizing. For example, recently I
oral traditions that made me feel like my culture was dying, and that there have been sharing some of the material of I Fanlalai’an with a group of Matao/
was no hope for me learning my ancestral culture. As I read about the Chamorro here in Duwamish land. After sharing these songs twice in a ritual
European authors’ perspective about my culture, it hurt me because they were context, I was emailed and asked if my “cultural group” could perform at a
(unconsciously perhaps) contributing to a history of foreign narrativizing my Pacific Islands education conference. When I passed this request on to my
people’s disappearance. The particular art form the author described is called community, somebody questioned, “How does everyone feel about being
Mali’e and performed as improvisatory rhyming couplets that a collective of called a cultural group? I would love to have more conversations about why
people take turn singing and calling and responding to. This art form had a we chant.” This feeling, to me, points to the way that Indigenous cultural
deep resonance with freestyle cyphers I was participating in in my middle production can become commodified/objectified (even by our own peoples)
school. This encouraged me to build a relationship to hip-hop community when the spi/ritual context is forgotten. As hula instructor and scholar
as a practitioner of rap. Within this black cultural form, I found a space to Taupōuri Tangarō suggests, it is just as important to do Indigenous things as
explore my relationship to my ancestors, my land, and build relationships it is to give those practices meaning. This hermeneutic approach to cultural
with black communities and non-black people of color. I acknowledge Gabriel regeneration centers the process-oriented way of thinking about one’s own
Teodros, Khalil Equiano, Mic Flont, Asun, 206 Zulu, The Katalyst Project, indigeneity. Back home, spaces like Sagan Koturran Chamoru, Yo’ Åmte,
and other members of the Seattle hip-hop community’s teachings to “Respect TASA/TASI, and other spaces that emphasize cultural practice are already
the Culture” and acknowledge the ancestral lineage of hip-hop from the doing this work in important ways.
continent of Africa. As a creative practitioner within the sacred ancestral We need to continue to generate spaces where our people can think like
art form of hip-hop, I also have a responsibility of cultivating and sustaining Matao. Matao movement building would benefit from proliferating the already
relation and reciprocity with black people, communities, and ancestors. How burgeoning spaces where we center our spiritual practices. I am grateful to
can I honor this responsibility to black ancestors and people who have guided be in constellated conversation with my own peoples about my experiences
my healing as an indigenous person—especially considering that hip-hop in other communities from within the context of our Indigenous knowledge
is a black space and cultural art form where I experience healing from the systems. These conversations led to us devising our own ceremonial practices
narrative of my own ancestral loss? How can I relate to hip-hop through the as we went down to beaches we hold sacred at sunrise, and chanted songs in
eyes of my ancestors? our language, and made altars of our precious belongings, researching and
Despite knowing in my mind that the narrative of loss is a colonizing creating ways of cleansing. I believe it is necessary for us to work with this
59 one, I sometimes feel a deep sense of loss and anger. I do not always feel as idea of place-based internationalism to continue to generate dialogue between
Indigenous nations so that we can understand the responsibility we have when

we work with sacred medicines from another part of the world, and potentially
create deeper insight into how that might awaken our ceremonial knowledge.
And that ceremonial knowledge—once mistaken for lost—is crucial to our
worldwide Indigenous resurgence. I insist that our indigeneity can never be
lost, and that also requires us to act in ways that regenerate our indigeneity.
Towards the end of 2012, there was an emerging energy calling a group
of us to revitalize an ancestral ceremony honoring the New Year, and our
traditional lunar calendar. We decided to call the ceremony Lukao Fuha. At
that time, I was living in dxʷdəwʔabš (Seattle), and realized that I wanted to
participate in this new ritual, even though I was far away from home. This
meant overcoming a different challenge than the brilliant people who lived
in our ancestral lands.
In our country, when you pass through the jungle or the waterways it is
proper to first acknowledge the ancestors and ask for their permission to do
our work. Because of this, and my exposure to other Indigenous communi
ties, I realized that I would need to build a relationship with the peoples of
dxʷdəwʔabš. I can only say that the spirit was at work, because a week before
this call emerged, Squi Qui came to visit the Mexica community that I was
praying with at the time. He came to share a vision about spiritual relationships
along the Pacific Rim. I walked up to him and said, “I don’t know why exactly
I’m talking to you, but I think I’m related somehow to the vision you speak
of.” I remember feeling so strange and embarrassed about my interaction
with him. But, despite that, I got his number from one of the members of the
Kalpulli (manggåfa/family) and gave him a ring. I felt so embarrassed and
babbled while trying to tell him what I was thinking about doing. After some
consultation with his elders, he agreed to come and be a part of Lukao Fuha. Dakota Camacho performing Guåhu Guåhan on May 5, 2015, on Cahuilla land at University of California, Riverside’s Barbara and Art Culver
And after we had conducted the ceremony, Squi Qui asked a few participants, Center of the Arts, as part of Indigenous Choreographers at Riverside. Photograph by Jonathan Godoy.
including myself, if we would come and be witnesses to the work he was doing,
which then led us to be invited into the Indigenous Mind circle.
A couple years into our work together, I was sitting in Squi Qui’s living
room eating before one of our full-moon circles. There was a man there that
lived on the island where I grew up. This man asked me where I am from,
and for some reason I started describing where my dad grew up in a house
that I never lived in. It was the first home my nåna and påpa moved to when
they migrated from Guåhan. As I described the place, Squi Qui asked me
some more questions, which led us to discover that my father grew up on
Squi Qui’s grandmothers’ land. It is experiences like these that I can only
attribute to the Sovereignty of Spirit and its Great Mystery. As a part of this
circle, I have had the opportunity to integrate my cultural practices into my
daily life. When we meet, sometimes I am asked to offer prayer and song as
part of the communal ceremonial practice. I treasure the opportunity to be
in relationship with this community and Coast Salish life ways because I am
simultaneously exploring and investigating my own cultural resurgence, while
also coming to know how to be in right relation to this territory my family
has called home for half a century.
The question for me has become: How do I draw from my cultural
experiences, knowledge and practices, so that I can fully participate in the
ceremonial life that I am being asked to make? The second part of this question,
which is perhaps more pressing for this issue, is how do I integrate this into my
creative practice? For now, I will turn to stories from and about my creative
practice to continue to share the methods I am crafting in my journey, might
be useful for Indigenous Resurgence— the “restorying of our sovereignty…”
Guåhu Guåhan… a mantra I composed as a medicine for mahalång.

Mahålang— (defined as) ancient feeling of missing someone far away from
home (pre-dates the feeling of ’diaspora’). Dakota Camacho performing Guåhu Guåhan on May 5, 2015, on Cahuilla land at University of California, Riverside’s Barbara and Art Culver
Center of the Arts, as part of Indigenous Choreographers at Riverside. Photograph by Jonathan Godoy.
I often feel this way, trapped between multiple islands of be-longing.

Guåhu — (defined) I am — Dakota Camacho —
Guåhan — (defined) My homelands — the place/s of resources —
(1995). Pohnpeian-Filipino scholar, Vince Diaz, advocates for this kind of
Guåhu Guåhan was (also) a solo performance work that I created between the linguistic play as well. He states, “Indigenous discursive and linguistic play
years of 2014 and 2015 as a prayer to bring the birds back to my homeland. Ten offers an approach, a vehicle—a canoe of sorts—for conceptualizing, or,
out of thirteen of our native bird species have been extirpated due to the U.S. as we might now put it, for “rigging” indigeneity as both an ontological and
military’s introduction of the brown tree snake and spraying of DDT/Agent an analytical category concerned with claims and stakes of aboriginality to
Orange in our jungles. I approached this task (considerably “unimaginable” place and difference” (2016). In a previous paper on this work, I called this
to the western mind) of bringing the birds back, by exploring the concept of process a form of acoustemology—a term coined by European musicologist
embodying my ancestral land. This idea emerged through a contemplative Steven Feld—to describe how certain peoples in Papua New Guinea know
freestyle sound-body meditation I conducted in my garage one afternoon. the landscapes through the way the jungles sound—that potentially points to
I decided to utter sounds in my language over and over again, to see how I new ways of exploring our language-learning pedagogies and practices (2015).
could break words apart and understand their root word meanings and the This kind of practice also points to the potential of contemporary creative
relationships they might have to each other. I played with the sounds of my approaches as places for engaging with language-learners, or people who do
language without an agenda of speaking complete sentences, or even complete not have full fluency in their ancestral language, but are still eager to explore
words, to explore how I could create new thoughts, or ways of perceiving how their ancestral epistemologies.
my ancestors thought. Without a commitment to making meaning out of my The first time I performed this work publicly was at the Line Breaks
thoughts or the sounds that I made as a result of them, I wondered how I could Hip-hop Theatre Festival in Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, and Oneida territory,
make k/new understandings of my ancestors’ thoughts. also known as the greater Madison, Wisconsin area. It is the place I first
Sturgeon Lake First Nation scholar, Willie Ermine, explains that, “[o] attended university. I performed the work with the intention of bringing the
ur aboriginal languages and culture contain the accumulated knowledge birds back to my island. The morning after the performance, I received a
of our ancestors, it is critical that we examine the inherent concepts in our message in a group chat that the Guåhan-based seafarers spotted omen birds
lexicons to develop understandings of the self in relation to existence” flying over the south of the island. Although the extirpated birds did not 60
it refers to the golden eagle, not the ‘white eagle,’ as I thought before. There
was a feeling of deepening in that moment, even though I still did not know
exactly what it all means.
This story represents multiple things to me. One, the dances of this
continent come from a long scientific process of engaging with the natural
world. Within their movements, their rhythms, their patterns, there is a
spiritual-physical dialogue happening with nature. I believe the eagle came
because it felt its dance happening and they wanted to know who this person
was. Even though perhaps it should not, it does shock me that as zsomeone
who does not have lineage (that I know about) to this continent, I can have a
relationship to the ancestors here. This story shows me that the choreographies
of our cosmologies transcend current concepts of our political identities,
allegiances, and solidarities. I know when I first started participating in
Danza Mexica, I would try and justify my presence in the circle as a fellow
Indigenous person, and then by suggesting that perhaps I have some deeply
hidden Mexica blood from the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. This desire
to make (rational) sense of my relationship to this art form is rooted in the
ethical dilemma of how to be in right relation with a community, especially
one in which I do not share ancestral lineage. I’ve given up on this pathway of
meaning-making, and come to accept the mystery and the responsibility of it
all. I’m starting to understand that there are going to be moments in my life
where I am called to do something, and that I may not understand it completely,
or totally, or sometimes even at all, but that if I am listening and watching
with humility then I will receive the guidance to be where I am supposed to
be. If I am conducting myself well, and with a bit of luck, that guidance would
come from spirit and the communities in which I navigate.
Dakota Camacho, as part of Matao New Performance Project, conducting contemporary movement research wearing a biomorph designed by This story also represents the way my spiritual journey towards my
Linda Erceg, in collaboration with MAP Music – Architecture – Performance, on May 24, 2016, at Lasso' Fuha, the place of Matao Creation, as a ancestral knowing calls me to be in deep relationship with the peoples, spirits,
form of Matao resurgence. Photograph by Carol Brown.
and ancestors of this land. My desire to be a part of Matao resurgence and to
express this will through my creative practice means acknowledging this land
here where I am living, and by entering into an authentic relationship with
the spirits of the place, perhaps there may be signs along the way to guide me
to understanding my place here. For me, being guided towards working on
the return of our birds meant honoring the sacred place of the eagle mound
as inter-connected. By orienting myself towards possibility, rather than loss,
I can find ways of re-storying my cosmological relationship to this place.
Slowly, I am coming to accept the medicine of my people’s historical and
present conditions, and how the things that I don’t know, or the things that I
see clearly represented in other people’s ancestral traditions that are obscured
within my own offer me a unique opportunity to pursue my own creativity. I
am starting the process of letting go of the doubt that I learned to have in my
people’s continuity. I am releasing the anger I feel about the terrible things
that have happened and are still happening, and the pain I have taken on as
mine. Before I had relationships to ceremonial life, my creative practice was
the first place I turned to do this healing work. As a young person, I arranged
and prayed at my altar. I composed songs on my guitar. I wrote raps and spoken
word. I danced in my family’s cultural dance troupe.
But, at some point I got to a place where I stopped being able to do this
work alone. I came to a point where my creative practice became a platform
for elevating and enlarging my ego. Especially as a young slam poet, I found
the idea of being rated with tens across the board exciting; I wanted to win!
I wanted the public to applaud me and tell me I was doing a good job. If I
could create to get the approval of others, I wouldn’t have to do the necessary
work of turning inward. Which is deeply ironic because my early creativity
subconsciously came from engaging with my insides. At some point, I realized
it is necessary to engage ways of being-within. I have started to integrate these
Dakota Camacho performing in Lukao Fuha | Hikoi Piha, held January 28, 2017, in Piha, Aotearoa, organized by I Moving Lab, as a community ways of being into my work as I make altars, devise sound meditations, and
ritual walk celebration of inter-Indigenous relation building, Matao New Year, and album release of Na'lå'la'. Photograph by Sherry Roberts. create performances. And as I deepen my capacity to take these inward journeys,
I do so in relation to the ancestors of this place. The more I consistently and
humbly show up, the more my own mental blocks can fall away, and the more
I can tune into the work that I am being called to do. That work right now is
reappear overnight, I took this as a sign that the work was moving in a good to develop a relationship to Sovereignty of Spirit.
direction. Before leaving Madison, I wanted to visit the eagle mound near my I dedicate my creative practice as a place of acknowledging and therefore
first place of residence in this town. All around the campus, and even the entire activating sovereignty, as an endemic to and, indeed, inherent to quality of
city of Madison, there are earth mounds in the shapes of important ancestors. spirit. However, my creative practice is not spiritual for spirituality’s sake.
Many of them have been destroyed, or built over, including this particular My creative practice is deeply concerned with how we get free. Free from
mound that has a walking pathway cutting through the Eagle’s wingspan. I the political constructs of the assimilating mind. Free Indigenous peoples’
approached with my creative collaborator and we laid our bags down at the bodies, lands, waters, languages, and life-ways back from white-supremacist,
tree of peace planted nearby. I went up to the mound and offered a dance that hetero-patriarchal colonizing. I believe we do this by learning how to be in right
I learned from Danza Mexica ceremony, a danza called Itxcuahtli or Águila relation with the ancestors and peoples of the lands we live. My understanding
Blanca—white eagle. When I finished the danza, my collaborator came and comes from a triangulation between the (recovery of) ancestral teachings/
sat next to me, and a gigantic golden eagle—endangered in this part of the practices of my lineage, the ancestral teachings and practices of the lands I
country—flew into a tree behind us. We watched in awe as the eagle stared now call home, and what I’ve come to understand about my responsibilities and
valiantly across the lake before they flew over our heads to another tree where gifts. My creative practice is concerned with reciprocating every Indigenous
they were met by a second eagle. We sang songs to the eagles to show our lineage that has offered me medicine in my, and my people’s, healing. My
gratitude and respect for them. Shortly after they flew towards the horizon creative practice is a place where I deepen my understanding of how my
until they were out of our view. creative practice can serve the Sovereignty of Spirit so spirit may guide us
Years later, I was stuck in the LAX airport for twenty-four hours, when I in cultivating inafa’maolek—balance and harmony with all of creation. My
was contemplating my relationship to bird energy and trying to come to terms creative practice is wayfinding—finding my way through a constellation
with why I feel so called to do this work of trying to bring them back to our of ancestral relations. I embrace my role as a Navigator, as a Matao, on a
islands. I recalled this story and decided to do some research on this Danza. journey of never-ending ritual encounters with a prayer to create and sustain
61 I found that when you translate Itxcuahtli directly from Nahuatl to English our unity with Creation.
Jewelle Gomez
The Naming: Ka Ana Tuk Amuk Alcatraz Reunion

for my sister/friend Mineweh for Dolores Has No Horses LeClaire
1. 2. Mother is a tourist visiting me as I did her

Deep, she said. Not in a flaky way The east is cold. Once an idea is frozen when I was a child being raised elsewhere,
As in ‘cool.’ Nor like we did in the 60s it remains forever the same always worried she’d forget me.
looking for meaning or cracks and is lost
in random signs as it seemed were the Wampanoag. Now we pretend she taught me
or gems or yogis. But we were not. how to read or ride a bicycle;
that she waited by the door for me
Deep, as if cutting a channel Now we turn toward home with the to arrive after school or watched me
through rock, shaping new land. ease of a horse staying on its path, dress for my first dance.
the language of its road well-trod.
We met at the bed of my mother dying We act as if we shared secrets
with a grace lacking in life. Mother, We gathered in a New England yard when I was a teen anxious then
who’d always loved strays more many colors and ages, to find my name, the world would see me
than me. She’d searched imagining the land 400 years ago for who I am…a child separate
for our history and found a friend before synthetic fabrics from a mother.
who guided her to grandmothers and false fires.
and to her name that had been stolen. Boarding the ferry
At our center was a tree which hadn’t we are not exactly strangers;
When Pilgrims came ashore borne leaves in many years nor are we a fragrant recollection
—‘discovering’ and divining— yet it stood firm, branches spread of worlds lived side by side
determined to turn us to like a fertile net. Its arms glistened giving shape to each other.
the suicide they called religion with possibility.
they burned our language We are two aging women
along with our homes. There, she decided: deep, cutting buying memories from
channels yielding abalone, the souvenir stand
They harpooned whales sand dollars, and starfish. damp by the gang way,
with ease and forgetfulness and taking snapshots that will
overplanted the soil and swallowed Still Water—for moving slow remind us how alike we are.
lives like starving children. through stone, leaving my trace
embedded in rock, in sand; and It’s a cold ride and perverse
But their great task—making the Bible into on the pages of lives. to be among those eager to
Wampanoag to complete our death; peer through prison bars and
lessons upon our heads meant to bury Still Water who touches all shores glimpse long-passed misery,
our spirits and our bodies. past and present, in my journey to the the ghosts of anger pacing and
ocean even as I seem unmoving. fear caged so close to city lights.
Still today it yields one silver thing:
a dictionary to revive our words Lifting my name from the air Only when we land does the spark
and put them back onto the lips of children. that whistled through bare branches of Wampanoag and Ioway fill her eyes
she lay it across my shoulders as it did with her mother, as it does with me.
where it now sits
as if it were always Prairie dust and Atlantic sea grasses
my own. embrace this precipitous shore line—
harsh and familiar;
Kah Ana Tuk Amuk mapping the beginnings.
Still Water.
Others stroll past us up the path toward
prison lore. We go deep, beneath
the thick, crumbling walls where
rock meets rock. Sacred space, not prison.
We cross the distance between us

on that hard, stolen place—
Ioway and Wampanoag meeting
Ohlone, Pomo, Yurok, Hupa, Shasta, and
Hopi, Modoc, Sioux, Paiute,
Inuit, Choctaw. A nation of nations,
the soft shuffle of their feet on stone
in a dance meant to
bind all together.
Sitting on a bench finally we hold hands

as we might have done when I was a child.
Clinging tight as if the pressure
of our palms will allow us to
read each other’s pasts.
***
This poem is part of the permanent installation

in the Native American exhibit on Alcatraz.
62
Zoë Klein &
Sam Aros Mitchell
Neither White Nor Surface:

A Dialogue Between the Spaces of Dance, Indigeneity, and Adoption
“These places of possibility within ourselves are dark because they are ancient person, I learned to heavily rely on my body to define who I am and to express
and hidden; they have survived and grown strong through darkness. Within a strong desire for belonging and familial bonding. I often strategized how to
these deep places, each one of us holds an incredible reserve of creativity display a physical bond in public with my adoptive parents in order to prove
and power, of unexamined and unrecorded emotion and feeling. The woman’s I belonged to this family. As a result, I created the action of compression in
place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is order to sense where my body ends and another person’s body begins.
ancient, and it is deep.” —Audre Lorde Sam: It’s important to note that working with Rosy requires a kind of
activation and presence in rehearsal that is unlike any rehearsal process I’ve
Zoë and Sam: This article chronicles the ongoing conversation that the authors encountered in my thirty-plus years of dancing. I am particularly aware of the
have been engaged with, from within the process of creating new dance work fact that this process creates a heightened sense of myself, a fuller knowing
as well as outside the dance rehearsal process. The reflections we share are of the ways in which I move through the world, both as an adult adoptee and
a critical part of making work for Rosy Simas Danse, specifically in regards as an Indigenous man.
to the creation of Rosy’s two recent works, Skin(s) and Weave. We feel it’s To be completely honest, this work is incredibly challenging for me,
imperative to share this process as it might draw insight into the work of two because it shakes me up, requires me to push into places of vulnerability,
Indigenous dance artists who are also both adult adoptees. and demands that I resist habitual movement patterns, asking that I move
towards a more corporeal, integrated self. How does this translate into “real”
life? One obvious example I have noticed is that outside the rehearsal space,
T H E PROM P T I have become more sensitive to sound, light, and temperature. I have also
Zoë’s Journal Sam’s Journal noticed that certain memories can come flooding back through my senses
Prompt from June 23, 2018: Prompt from June 25, 2018: and I have to exhibit a kind of rigor to not get swept away in a sea of emotion.
How do you know who you are in Sound Score from François, Sound It becomes clear to me that I have created these habitual movement patterns
the body? Give yourself a pathway landing on the body, what part out of necessity, to protect myself. It’s interesting to consider that there are
/alternate when eyes open/closed of the body? Where specifically? other possibilities. I don’t have to be between the two extremes of fight/
/ ok to not mimic the sound / You Where does this correspond to flight, to put it simply. What is important to note here though, is that this is
can now add your memory of other parts of body? Articulating not “healing” work.
sound / Generating vs. developing the work between these two points, My job is to help Rosy make new work. I’ve had to learn the skills to focus
/ It may need to get messy to find the working of materiality. Taking on the prompts for our rehearsal process and to articulate the information
the next thing you do. out the slack between these two that can be useful to that process. I suppose it’s rather glib, but I find all these
points with constant attention to emotionally healing moments as intensely personal and not entirely usable
movement, attention to tension. material. It’s like my six-year-old self, standing in front of the record player,
paralyzed and seduced by the overwhelming emotion of “Goodbye Yellow
Zoë Klein: During our June 2018 residency with Rosy Simas at The Brick Road.” There is no question that something is happening in a moment
O’Shaughnessy in St. Paul, Minnesota, Rosy had asked us to work accu like that. The question is, does it serve the work?
mulatively. Rosy offered many prompts where we worked at building a
relationship to sound or to light using a variety of different sound scores,
light levels, projection images, and directional sources. Rosy asked us to TA K I NG OU T T H E SL AC K
answer a question with our bodies: How do you know who you are in the Zoë: During the summer of 2016, I attended a camp that was for families who
body? We had many chances to answer this. I found myself responding within have adopted transracially (where adopted children are a different race than
a theme about compression. After answering through my body, I was able their adoptive parents). At this time I was dragging behind me many spools of
to write in my journal: blood-red yarn because I was in the process of weaving four-hundred feet of
“Compression is knowing. I first felt the heat coming from within my braided bloodline for an upcoming residency at CounterPulse in San Francisco.
body through my skin. I then created heat by the manufacturing of effort In this piece I wanted to bring the art of weaving to the forefront, and notice
to cause an environment of compression. This compression I continued to what it felt like to weave my own umbilical cord, as an act of braiding the
express as a self-created action or by entering into proximity to others in space, fabric of all my identities into one (past/present/future or adoptee/adoptive
compressing my body near other bodies in space, a type of connection. When family/birth family).
I am connected, I know I am human. Connection and compression, heat, my I have learned how self-empowering this can be. And hearing Sam
heat, life, my living body… me… knowing… body.” speaking for the first time, I could not believe my ears that I was meeting
Sam Aros Mitchell: As I read over my rehearsal notes, I am struck by another adopted dancer of Indigenous heritage who shares a process of
the prompt, which describes the idea of sound landing on the body. What navigating adoption experience through a movement practice!
happens to my body, when it is activated by sensation, whether it is through Sam: My recollection of Zoë on that warm day in Lake Tahoe was the
the very real sensation of François Richomme’s rumbling sound score landing quiet, intense way in which she worked, meticulously braiding these unending
on my body, making contact, through the tissue, through skin, reverberating spools of yarn. I was struck by the way that the blood-red braids spilled out
through bones, or whether it challenges the traditional relationship that I’ve onto the floor and how her braids of hair also spilled out onto the floor. During
had with sound and music over the years, I am struck with the question: In that brief encounter, I learned that Zoë was an acrobatic dancing artist, as
this score, what awakens in me and what was asleep? well as visual artist, based in the Bay Area. I was surprised a few months later
when I ran into Zoë on the ferry to Alcatraz. The first thing I saw was her long
braids, and I thought to myself: “That has to be Zoë!” It was. As it turned out,
H E IG H T E N E D SE N S E S – F U L L E R K N OW I N G we were all connected to a group of Indigenous scholars and choreographers
Zoë: I have probably been asked this question many times: “How do you know who were making the trek out for a sunrise ceremony on Alcatraz Island, to
who you are?” But rarely am I asked to answer, “How do you know who you honor Indigenous Peoples Day. A month later I saw Zoë perform at the Culver
are through the body?” When I think about how do I know who I am, my Arts Center in Riverside. The piece was entitled Skin(s) and it was the second
mind goes to my identity, my preferences, and my physical description. All work that I had seen by choreographer, Rosy Simas. In 2014, I had seen her
could be contested, altered, and therefore quite superficial. When I am asked solo piece entitled We Wait In The Darkness.
to answer how I know who I am through my body, I feel that I am entering a Zoë’s performance was haunting and I realized that Rosy’s work settled
much deeper place, the realm of questioning my own existence and measuring on me in quiet, unsuspecting ways, working slowly through my body. Rosy’s
my presence. And I can use the sensations of my skin, my receptors of heat work holds my attention for several reasons. There is a convergence of light,
and pressure to establish my existence and measure my presence. sound, and bodies, stated through a tenuous connection in which the membrane
In absorbing the prompt from Rosy, I find that the motif of compression of the skin is in relation to the entire silenced, erased history of Indigenous
reoccurs in my life outside of the rehearsal process and within my very early people. It’s powerful work. I was also curious how Zoë and Rosy met, and
memories. I find it through physical closeness. how they began to work together, in such a brief time.
Physical closeness is satisfying to me, such as the sensation of being Zoë: Rosy first saw me perform with Amara Tabor-Smith at ODC Theater
tucked into my blankets mummy-style. This sensation feels safe within its in San Francisco titled EarthBodyHome. I played the main role in portraying
containment. Another satisfying sensation within the motif of compression can the story and spirit of the Cuban-American performing artist Ana Mendieta.
be found when I am zipped up in a sleeping bag where my body is compressed Ana had come to the U.S. through Operation Peter Pan, a political evacuation
and bound around all sides. Maybe this has something to do with my earliest of 14,000 Cuban children during the Castro regime that was supposed to be
memories of compression, being swaddled as a baby, and may have deeper a temporary refuge agreement and soon became an nonconsensual forced
roots within the longing I will always have for the closeness, compression, separation by the U.S. The performance was within the form of what Tabor-
and connection I had within the womb. Smith calls “Conjure Art,” where spirit is called forth through the heightened
As an adopted person, I have spent a lot of time questioning who I am, presence and attention that staged performance can call upon all participants.
how I got here, what caused me to live a life in another country and with Through this performance, I think Rosy was able to see that I am able to go to
another family? Growing up with brown skin in a family of parents with white very deep internal places that draw on timeless codings of identity contained
skin, I was well-trained to notice the boundaries between our bodies and how within my body journal, and my own personal story of early separation, while
63 those boundaries could tell a story about how we are not a family. As a young somehow maintaining a deep connection to my ancestry.
Rosy had also performed We Wait In The Darkness at ODC soon after I

had. When I saw her work, something in the depth of her movement resonated
for me, and I decided to pursue an opportunity to dance with her. Rosy first
invited me to perform Skin(s) at ICR in 2016, where I became acutely aware
of a rehearsal process and company culture like no other I had experienced.
I was simply invited just “to be.” I was surprised to not be prescribed with
choreographic phrases or be set up for how I should look as I moved. Instead
I was invited into a movement score with a specific movement quality based
on expressing a relationship to sound and light.
Each tour with Skin(s) since Riverside 2016 has taught me about many
concepts including: the difference between hearing vs. listening with the
body and what it means to share identity through the skin. When Rosy sets
her intentions for her process from an Indigenous feminist perspective, she is
setting the conditions for me to show myself fully. This means there is a safe
container where I can bring forth my deep sense of my wholeness, despite
the trauma of brokenness that exists within my early past.
Sam: I met Rosy when we co-presented our work for the CORD (Congress
on Research in Dance) conference, held in Pomona College in the fall of 2016.
Instead of “presenting” our work in a “conventional” way—like sharing a
PowerPoint or showing a video of work, or reading a paper—we decided to
sit together in the space and share a genuine dialogue. The experience of
sharing laughter and dialogue with her as an artist was an example of genuine
intellectual generosity and reciprocity. Rosy and I stayed in touch. She invited
me to come out to Minnesota and present my research at a panel discussion
after an Indigenous dance festival entitled Oyate Okodakiciyapi: An Evening
of Native Contemporary Dance, that she produced at the Ordway Theatre. I
arrived at the Minneapolis airport in the cold month of March 2017. At the
baggage claim, I noticed the familiar long braids and asked myself, “Could it
be?” It was! Zoë had also been invited to participate in both a pre-show and Sam Aros Mitchell. Photo by Jim Carmody.
post show discussion by Rosy.
Eventually, Rosy invited me to rehearse and perform with Rosy Simas
Danse. At that point Zoë had been working with Rosy for over a year. I was
both nervous and excited about flying out to Minneapolis to begin the initial
rehearsal process, so I spoke to Zoë about it during the summer of 2017, at that actually fulfills a spirit, rather than trying to find safety in an unfit identity.
the adoption camp in Lake Tahoe. Zoë shared some very profound insights I like to think that identity is not static, nor is it permanent. I think about the
with me. She told me that Rosy did not like when Indigenous dancers moved trauma of separation as an ongoing battle against the spirit, against a bloodline
their bodies in ways that were disoriented, off-balance, or as if they were that has every right to live and be in the form that it was intended. And putting
pulled into different directions. She went on to share how Rosy believed that back the intention to the intention is the work that I feel I am trying to do.
Indigenous people should never perform “disconnected,” “disembodied,” or Sam: Like many adopted Native people who were scooped up in the late
“lost” movements. We are a connected people, with our feet on the earth. This 60’s during what is now referred to as “The Native American Adoption Era,”
information was helpful, but disturbing. I was separated from my language, culture, and people. I don’t recall meeting
I had been “improvising” with my colleagues at UC San Diego throughout another Yaqui-identifying person until I was in my twenties, at UC Santa
a three-year MFA dance program and two years of a Ph.D. program. The Barbara. That Yaqui-identifying person, incidentally, was scholar Yolanda
improvisational sessions were mostly rooted in an aesthetic that arose from Broyles-González. Upon first meeting Yolanda in her office, I introduced myself,
San Diego’s very own Lower Left Collective, as well as somatic work, contact telling her that I was “mestizo,” a mix of half-Yaqui Indian and half-Spanish.
improvisation, and release technique. This new way of dancing was admittedly She gently reminded me that there was no such thing as a “half-Yaqui.” I’d
difficult for me when I started my MFA program in 2012. I was used to see Yolanda around campus and she would always greet me with a warm
technique classes that had a clear beginning, middle, and end. It seemed to smile and say, “My Yaqui brother!” Like many moments since that initial
me that I was criticized constantly by my white colleagues and professors, meeting, it was a moment of deep, ancestral connection along with the very
for either being too technical, too derivative of my training, or too wild, like humbling experience of deep learning (and unlearning) around the nature of
a dangerous animal, unaware of space and other people’s safety. I fought words that I chose to use, which either worked against oppression or directly
against this tide until, eventually; I learned that it was easier to accept new inside of it. These are the kind of encounters that occur when pursuing to open
techniques and methods, to simply add to my “toolbox.” I learned to say yes, the passageways of Indigenous heritage. It is that uncomfortable feeling of
and it seemed that over the years, that accrued into a learned behavior that listening first, speaking last. It’s a practice that is not used enough in Western
could best be described as a style that was “disconnected,” “disembodied,” culture. The humility required to learn/unlearn is sometimes burdensome,
and “off balance,” while being pulled in different directions. but never a burden.
To prepare for working with Rosy, I went into the studio and moved in Zoë: When I talk about adoption, I am specifically passionate about
ways that were low to the ground, with feet and legs connecting into the earth, cleaning up this whole concept of a Latin-Mestizo identity, an identity built
while being aware of sensations and movement that had clear, focused attention. on convenience, to simplify many cultures into one in order to categorize
I worked on re-calibrating the ways that I could move. I continue to work at and quantify. When I look at children who are adopted from Central and
this even today, and it is challenging. I am not trying to negate all those other South America, I see that a lot of those children are of Indigenous heritage
modalities that I learned at UCSD, but my desire now is to expand my awareness mixed with European heritage, but the fact that they are being adopted is due
into carving a space for my own identity, as an Indigenous, adult adoptee. to an economic disparity which stems from a long history of the genocide
of Indigenous peoples. I spend a lot of time thinking about what is right for
me in terms of family-making as an adopted person. Maybe one moment I
BR A NCHI NG OUT consider the idea of adopting a child from Colombia, to share the knowledge I
Zoë: I was born in Colombia, adopted and separated from my birthplace at now have about family separation with a young person who also experiences
thirty-days-old and raised by white-adopted parents in the U.S.. I can attest this early trauma of separation. But at the same time, I am conflicted in how
that “whiteness” is learned behavior and a learned identity. I grew up thinking this is an act of continuing a very complicated problem that gives permission
that I, myself, was “white.” I was being raised to denounce my cultural to perpetuate this trauma.
heritage and to erase the idea of another woman having created me. This is Sam: As I reflect now, I realize that these moments of intersection have
the ongoing practice of colonization. My native identity was colonized by a resonated for me in profound ways, as connections beyond coincidence, as
colonizer “white” identity. A colonized perspective is where one clings to connection beyond circumstance. These intersections speak to me with a
the identities of the dominant oppressor in order to survive. kind of powerful magnetic pull that moves beyond logic. At the core of all
It feels like I have lived every day with this identity crisis and it has of this is the very real desire to cultivate rich and tangible relationships that
taken years to regain my perspective of self. In truth, this learned identity is move beyond the binary distinctions between biological or adopted family.
not one that really belongs to me. As I grow older, I have had to understand This desire presses me on to search for places of relationality. As an adult
that I used this whiteness identity as a temporary useful tool for survival. adoptee, I seem to exist on the seams, in liminal spaces, in-between places.
This unfortunately reveals my early desperate need for safety and belonging. As an Indigenous interdisciplinary scholar and artist, I am always working
To heal from my early separation, I have been trying to exercise a real towards forging connections that aren’t evident. I move towards the invisible,
closeness with my birthplace, and to practice closeness with people of my origin. working through the tensions of rendering these places into being, or, to borrow
Learning to include a relationship to nature has also been very healing. All of a concept from Zoë, I work to create a kind of conjuring. 64
It isn’t surprising that you, Sam, seem to find yourself working with
this group of powerful women. I wonder what it is like to make work as an

artist, naming that I am making my work with all of this in mind. I make
work through being very conscious of the trauma of being separated from
my people and being very conscious of the generational trauma that follows
my lineage. I don’t think I have to be overt about this in my work, but there
is something to be said about being conscious of this genocide in my history.
The product or end result of performance is not as important to me, as the
process of getting there. The “how” is more important that the “what.” How
I relate to my dancers, how I relate to the venues that provide me the space to
create the work with me, and how I bring collaborators into the work.
I think in making art, the emphasis for me is not so much on the producing
of a show, but on building a culture that makes it possible for me to lead in
togetherness. Leading collectively and not in separation is the way I want
to lead. There is a particularly vulnerable way of showing one’s self and
revealing the lineage that lives within the body. This can have a profound
impact on people. This is a slow process of building people’s attention and
awareness, to cause an evolution in thinking and behavior, but you know…
one spirit at a time.
Sam: Those really big emotionally healing and haunting moments that
come up in rehearsal can really blindside me. In that very first rehearsal with Zoë
and Rosy, just last year, I was stricken by a very deep realization. It occurred to
me that for my entire life, I’ve had the intrinsic ability to appear and disappear
at will. As an adopted Indigenous person, who was disconnected from his
roots, I’ve learned to appear and disappear as a way to cope with the trauma,
loss, and the memory of violence that was embedded in me. The experience
of being seen or not being seen is one that certainly holds high stakes for me.
In her book, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance, Peggy Phelan
reveals the power of the invisible to a world that privileges visibility. She writes
about the ways that representation occurs at the cost of the invisible, but also
beckons us to harness the power of the unrepresented in representation. In the
final chapter, titled: “The Ontology of Performance: Representation Without
Reproduction,” Phelan considers the ontological claims of live performance
as a means for resisting the reproductive ideology of visible representations.
I suppose that all this simply translates to the very real possibility that
live performance, specifically live dance, is a very relevant and “real” way to
circumvent this aspect of trauma and invisibility. It is through the assertion
of our corporeality, our “bodiness” that we can claim our place in space in
time, and allow for the “others” to be seen as well.
Zoë: I am caught constantly thinking about my perspective on trauma,
of being separated from my people. I can’t tell if that trauma is a gift of
perspective or if that trauma is preventing me from having perspective. It’s
entirely possible that it is both. Even as I am talking, I am so aware of how
I’ve been raised in a culture that is binary. I am either confused or just really
afraid, or maybe I’m onto something.
I am frustrated how I have to come up with feeling comfortable in my
own skin and how to make space for all of me. It is frustrating to have to be
remembering “all of me” in my process when it is not something I see reflected
in behavior in the dominant culture around me.
Sam: In terms of being comfortable in my own skin, it’s not a common
occurrence for me either. When I consider the many ways that the Indigenous
are read as savage, always on the razor’s edge of potential violence, I am even
less comfortable. I am reminded of Eve Tuck’s and Wayne Yang’s theory known
as the “settler move to innocence.” This essentially states that the very fact
that we exist continues to be a reminder to the colonial settlers, in regards to
Zoë Klein / Zoë Klein Productions, Born, Never Asked. Performed at Dance Mission Theater, SF, CA on February 2018. Photo by Andrew Mogg. their own complicit role of violence. This is a history, which must be erased
as a way to stake a claim towards innocence. It is through the systemization
and categorization of Indigenous people, which falls under two possible
categories, “at risk” peoples and/or asterisk peoples, that the simultaneous
erasure and concealment of Indigenous peoples moves Indigenous nations as
“populations” and into the margins of public discourse. This is really fertile
S H OW I N G T H E S K I N ground when considering how this public discourse actually plays into our
Sam: I see now that modern dance first allowed me to forge a tenuous connection lives as Indigenous people in very real ways, in terms of being seen, not being
to the world, through my teachers and through their teachers and through seen, being comfortable in our own skin, and, sometimes, just disappearing.
technique. I didn’t know what my lineage was, or who my ancestors were, but
I had dance. It would be twenty-five years until I could actually claim my own
matrilineal history and connection to the Yaqui Nation through my mother,
her mother, and her mother’s mother. (Evangelina Aros Gaxiola, Maria Luisa
Aros, and Petronila Siqueiros). It isn’t surprising that I find myself connecting
and learning from Indigenous feminists like Rosy Simas, Zoë Klein, Santee
Smith, Monique Mojica, and other powerful women from my own tribe. I
was particularly struck by the passage by Audre Lorde, which was included
at the beginning of this article. It speaks to a deep place of not-knowing—of
mystery. It’s a place that resides deeply in me, through my mother’s spirit. I
am struck by the gravitas and splendor of Audre Lorde’s words and how they
land on my body in this moment. BI BLIOGR A PH Y
Zoë: I’m reminded of Rosy Simas’s choreographer’s statement in Dance 1 Lorde, Audre, and Natalie Beer. Poetry Is Not a Luxury, Druck- & Verl.-Cooperative, 1993.
Research Journal, when she shares that: “The Seneca are a part of the 2 Phelan, Peggy, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance, New York: Routledge, 2005.
Haudenosaunee (Six Nations). We are matrilineal. We get our identity (our 3 Simas, Rosy. Choreographer’s Statements, page 29–32, Special Issue: Indigenous
citizenship, clan, and inheritance) from our mother, her mother, and her Dance Today, Dance Research Journal. Cambridge University Press. 48/1, April, 2016.
mother’s mother. The knowing of these ties (internally and intellectually) is 4 Tuck, Eve. & Yang, Wayne K. “Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor” in Decolonization:
65 an essential part of belonging for all Haudenosaunee people.” Indigeneity, Education, Society. 1.1 (2012). Page 1–40.
Anthony Aiu & Kaina Quenga
Polynesian Talk Story:

Indigenous Pacific Dancers and Choreographers in Dialogue
This is an abridged transcription of a longer three-hour conversation that or feminine, it separates us more. If we were just to be authentic

occurred on June 15, 2018 in the NYC AIDS Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s beings, who we are, it’s more pure and more “one,” you know, more
Triangle in Manhattan. unifying, like you said, not only with ourselves, but each other, and
our environment.
Anthony Aiu: What was the representation of Hula/Polynesian

dance when you first moved to New York? K E E P I N G O U R C U LT U R E A L I V E
Kaina Quenga: I never stopped dancing since I left Hawai‘i. It’s AA: In today’s world climate, there’s lots of things going on—
with me wherever I go. It is a way to also connect to people of other socio-political issues, social media, craziness in the presidency in
cultures that are here. When I first moved here in 2001, it was very America—arts are less valued than they used to be, and lots of creative
limited. There was a hālau or two and maybe one other participating activities are considered extracurricular. How do you see the future
hui (Hula group). There has been more growth in numbers, as far of Hula and Polynesian dance staying alive and culturally rooted?
as groups. It’s still limited, but definitely more has developed over KQ: I think we as a culture are so used to innovation, so I think
the seventeen years I’ve been here. it’s never gonna go away. I definitely see it more alive today than
AA: Why do you think more kāne don’t dance both back home and ever before. I think it’s forcing people to realign themselves with
in New York City? our environment, impact, and kuleana (responsiblility) to these
KQ: “Ma ka hana ka ʻike,” “we learn in the doing.” There is a very places and to these resources. Hula helps, whether you Hawaiian or
limited number of male dancers here in New York, or even along not, one comes into that place of identifying the intention of what
the entire East Coast, compared to the islands or West Coast. I think Hula is about for them or why they dance. If it’s a prayer, doing the
itʻs the misconception of what Hula is. Most people identify Hula proper activation and such. I think it’s becoming more present in
with Ori (Tahitian dance). That identification is usually vahine people’s lives because of their recognition of that kuleana to our
technique, which is crazy. environment. Because Hula is so rooted in our relationship to our
AA: They think Hula is just fast hip-shaking in a “grass” skirt environment, ourselves, and each other, it’s a way people can relate
maybe, which is primarily a dance step in Ori Tahiti… to it in whatever context.
KQ: They don’t know Hula and Ori Tahiti are two different cultures’ AA: I think there is so much cultural integration, particularly in
dances. And in Ori, there’s specific steps for tāne (men), different Hawai‘i, Hawaiians are feeling a really strong need and desire to keep
than for women. and preserve the authenticity of the culture and dances particularly. It
AA: Often, not only in Hula or Polynesian dance, but in all dance, has become so internationalized now, even with Ori, that everybody
there’s this idea men are afraid to dance, for fear of looking feminine, is doing Ori and Hula all around the globe. That’s great, and we
or be called “faggot,” or whatever. What would you say scares most talked about it needing to stay culturally rooted, and not just a pretty
men about being seen as feminine if they dance? Why are they scared dance or choreography that nobody knows or understands where it
someone is going to call them māhū or whatever? came from, they see it and forget it. It’s great to see it’s staying alive
KQ: I think because society’s walls have built around that. We all internationally and globally, but culturally rooted is a whole other
know the struggles our LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, level on top of that. What do you think is a way to not just keep it
and queer) community faces on the regular, so having to be identi alive, internationally, but also culturally rooted so the identity is
fied in any way, for those who are not comfortable with that kind of still clear, say fifty years from now, or a hundred years from now?
identity, I think puts them in a position they are not prepared for. KQ: For me, that aligns with the importance of our mission with Te
AA: People are afraid to be recipients of all the shit people who Ao Mana. With the cultural exchanges, we learn how our relation
are LGBTQ, or those associated with the community, get for being ships and our stories are similar, and how our ancestors shared their
who they are. So, any typical guy to be seen as māhū or whatever, knowledge. For sustainability, we are learning more and more as we
is afraid to have that kind of persecution. work internationally, the similarities we all hold and why we gravitate
KQ: I think it stems back to the understanding of what Ori or Hula towards each other. There are similar practices we all hold to help
is, what they mean, and why we dance. Connotations of it being take care of this planet. We all know the extent of the condition of
sexual, or masculine versus feminine, is not what the dance is about. our planet and where it’s going, especially if we don’t start taking
The identity of the dance is not based in gender. action. Stories like Aia lā ‘o Pele, which is really present today with
AA: In old times, there was not really, I mean especially in Hula, the eruption of Kīlauea in Hawai‘i, is very real. It’s not just a myth;
there’s not separate steps for men and women, and you don’t have it’s not just something we dance about; you can see this dance in
assigned masculine or feminine roles when dancing about Pele, its history, in action. Internationally, it’s gonna grow continually
for example. Everyone dances the same technique. What is the because it has that constant connection to ancestral knowledge, and
conditioning influence? that is what is carried.
KQ: The influence is Western culture and religions that have really AA: Staying connected to that in a sense, to the ancestral knowledge,
brainwashed us as a culture, telling us what we’re doing is shameful to keep it rooted?
and ungodly. Shame! You should be shame you do this. You should KQ: Yeah.
be shame you do that. It’s so indoctrinated in the culture over gen AA: I think another point you touched on, which is important, is the
erations. It’s understood now that it’s not about being masculine or state of the planet and our need as human beings to really mālama
being feminine. ‘āina, take care of the land which takes care of us. Our entire culture
AA: You mentioned you see us coming out of that stigma; how do is based in it. Our surroundings, environment, and representation of
you see that happening? our culture and our dances are very much connected to nature and
KQ: Definitely seeing more men, on the stage, and in the presence of the nature that surrounds. It’s super important because nowadays
dancing. This is not simply stage presence, but presence generally. it seems people don’t really care how much damage our planet has
Now we’re seeing more hālau (Hula schools) formed, specifically had. Our waters are being polluted, global warming, air pollution,
for the men. This brings back the importance of the dances, because there’s so much destroying the natural order of the planet. How
it was integrated in daily life. For training, for focus, not just for can we expect our planet, our Earth, to continually take care of us
warriors, but all of us. If we going go fishing or hunting together, it if we’re not taking care of it? To me, that is also related, and a key
was all part of it. Hula was a way to align ourselves with our envi to the existence and presence of our culture in the future, to keep
ronment and portrayed how we connect to those environments and connected, to keep it alive and keep it culturally rooted.
atmospheres, and helped us understand what our impact is on these.
AA: What would be māhū? What does that mean to you?
KQ: Two-Spirit, bringing forth the ‘ike and balance. I don’t see it T E AO M A NA
as being female. I think that’s necessary for us to understand, so AA: What does Te Ao Mana do for you in terms of expanding your
we can get out of this box of defining everything as being female practice? How does that affect your solo work, and how does your
and male; kāne, wahine. previous solo work affect Te Ao Mana?
AA: Right, today māhū is commonly interpreted as an effeminate KQ: It brings the cultural experience to the communities we work
man. Or a man who has “feminine” characteristics and persona. with, and we gain experience from working with them. There’s
KQ: Kāne and vahine becomes one. So, for me, māhū to me means always an exchange. Te Ao Mana has helped shift that, by offering
One. It means being One. Although in some people’s mana‘o, it’s the experience of going deeper into the culture. Hula and Ori, for
Two-Spirit. It means being One, and for me it’s seeing how both me, go beyond just technique. My teaching style is different because
create a balance. you’re not just learning a bunch of choreography. That’s not my
AA: It’s almost like, just being. To me, it’s being pure. Because focus, that’s not my training, and that’s not my mission. My goal is
everybody has the same qualities or exhibits some stronger than to introduce people to the dances and if it helps them seek a hālau
others. And whatever the influence may be it, be it haole influence, or someone they wanna deepen their study with, great! With Te Ao
Western influence, that puts more classification of what is masculine Mana, we wanna expand our community— 66
AA: The Polynesian community? OB STAC L E S

KQ: Yeah. AA: What are the biggest obstacles facing Ori Tahiti and Polynesian
AA: Also, it’s really changing the face of Polynesian presence, dance culture in New York?
particularly in New York City, because it’s so different from every KQ: Breaking down the stigmas and preconceived notions of what
other group that has come and gone in the area. It’s not a show group, Ori Tahiti and Hula are before being able to share what they truly
not just flashy dance, not kitschy. It’s just cultural experience. It’s are. Breaking through the barriers that have already been set forth.
like you’re fully in and living the culture. You’re basically keeping Creating a space for Polynesians here. Unlike Hawaiʻi, where
the culture alive growing, in an area that it has not done so well everyone is intermixed, here in NYC there is a lot of separation of
previously, by living your practice. cultures. For example: Chinatown here, Little Italy there, Koreatown,
KQ: I think also because of introducing other aspects of the Filipino town, Puerto Ricans there.... We don’t have a Polynesian
culture, bringing more context, helps people get more interested. anything. The obstacle is not being identified as being present. I’ve
For musicians and drummers, drumming interest has grown. Also, been here for seventeen years, and it seems people still don’t know
those who do other ethnic dances like Latin and belly dancing we’re here. So, we have to continue to create that, so our people
are interested in Ori because they’re not so removed from the know we are here.
mechanics and even rhythms they’re familiar with, like Samba, AA: Or being put under another label like Asian/Pacific—
for example. We’re also seeing, because of those similarities, how KQ: A super general, generic category that doesn’t identify or fit us.
we can share and investigate together. I think the Samba beat for AA: So, basically, the issue is not having your identity recognized?
Tahiti came post-contact, because that wasn’t an original beat KQ: Yeah, and being prejudged with whatever people think they
that started in Tahiti. know about us.
AA: I think it was post-contact; I mean they call it the Samba; AA: Whenever I tell people I dance and teach Hula and Ori, I feel
that’s not Tahitian. Okay, recapping: Te Ao Mana has provided you they stop listening at that moment and already decide what that means
an opportunity to create a community first of all, teach, and also according to what they’ve seen. It’s usually some over-romanticized,
to expand. WWII-era commercial or Hollywood lū‘au type idea.
KQ: Yes. KQ: It’s funny you say that, because when people ask me they’re
like, “Oh, yeah, Hula hoop!” And I’m like, no, I do Hula, actual
Hula. Their ideas don’t even come close—
I N T H I RT Y SECON DS AA: They just dismiss it, but they really have no idea how much
AA: If you had 30 seconds to teach the world about Ori Tahiti/Hula depth there is to it. So, it’s a lot of teaching.
and Polynesia, what would you say, do, or teach? KQ: I’ve had students who dance with me realize, after years of
KQ: I would teach about Aloha, because it’s the common thread practice, that they’ve invested so much more in Hula and incorporated
in all Polynesian culture. Aroha, Talofa, Aloha, IaOrana. Through it into their life more then they ever thought they would. I think it’s
this, there are so many embedded and embodied values we live by as when they understand what it means, they connect in a way that
a culture, and I think it demonstrates how we identify as a culture. you cannot describe, not necessarily in a Hawaiian way, why we
So, in thirty seconds, Aroha! (giggles) dance, but how relevant it becomes to them, so they incorporate it
AA: Okay, let’s talk about the embedded values. more. They’ll come to other workshops and performances outside
KQ: These would be “aloha ʻāina and mālama ʻāina,” our steward of class, a talk story, panel discussion, film screening, etc. They also
ship of our islands and land. Further, it means taking care of our start to understand the more they’re involved in it, the more they
environment, our natural resources, and the acknowledgment are connecting to it. In regards to obstacles, the preconceived ideas
of all that is here, seen and unseen. Aloha comes from a place of is where it starts. Being in New York; another obstacle is there’s
integrity, an “I see you; you see me” kind of thing and recognizing so much going on.
our likeness in each other. AA: It’s like a triple whammy. First of all, people already think they
AA: To me, that’s basically saying to be a good human being. know what it is and they don’t, so when you’re trying to get people
Being open, present, connected. Not just to other people, but our to come out and experience something, or take a workshop, some
existence. Everyone is connected and intertwined in some way think they’re not interested because they think it’s a girl shaking her
or another to each other, to our nature, and our environment that hips really fast, possibly in a “grass” skirt. They don’t know what
surrounds us. It means being a totally open, connected, present, it is, they think they do, then the real thing isn’t out there enough
authentic, pure being. When you said acknowledging others, it for them to see it or get it, and there’s a ton of other things going on,
reminded me of an instance recently. You were a great example so why should they come out and learn Ori? Cause they think they
of that. We were on the train; there was a man who was having a already know it, but it’s not out there enough, which is part of our
really difficult time and was in tears. We didn’t even know what mission (to get it out there), and the community under it is limited.
he was going through, and you were brave enough to put yourself It’s a vicious cycle.
out there and acknowledge that he existed and was suffering. I KQ: Another obstacle is getting beyond the same network of people
think that did a world of good and positivity for him. Who knows that are coming. Our goal as Te Ao Mana is to go beyond those who
what would’ve happened if he continued to sit there crying out, already know what it is, to the underserved communities who don’t
left alone, and people just ignoring him as if he was invisible. He have access to these art forms and cultural practices because of
clearly was in a very painful place. geographic reasons, demographics, whatever. Our goal is to break
KQ: You mentioned something very big, the suffering. I think people out beyond the typical circles of community.
disregard suffering, as it being pitiful or a place of weakness. They
pretend to be fine. Yeah, who knows what that did for him and his
day; I don’t know, but I do know it made me feel a little better that PA S S I O N
someone cared. KQ: How do I describe my passion?
AA: That’s a whole other topic where people are always trying to AA: Yeah, for what you do.
make it look like they’re okay and everything’s fine. KQ: I would say integrity, in a sense of it being so real, beyond just
KQ: That’s the thing, I know I can’t fix him or what is going on, a hobby, but an actual lifestyle. Meaning respect, being pono in
but I know I was helping him to know that I hear him, I see him, doing, thinking, and sharing it, whatever that looks like.
acknowledge him, and let him know I’m here if he needs to— AA: Can you elaborate on what being pono means?
AA: And sometimes that is all people need. KQ: It would be clear and balanced. It’s not coming from an ego or
KQ: Right! And I think that’s a big part of why people don’t respond. intention other than what the Hula is for. I guess—
They think, well, I can’t fix it, so I’m not gonna do anything. AA: Speaking of intention, thinking back to the olden days, depending
AA: Right. Maybe they’re afraid to show things aren’t working on what family of Hula you came from, the intention could be strictly
out, or they don’t have everything perfect or together, which is fine. about preservation of lineage, culture, or culture of a specific lineage.
That brings us back to what we talked about earlier. Everyone is There’s lots of chanting and Hula is one with that. Then there’s the
connected. Back home we knew everyone in our community and idea of communication, like Aunty Pua talked about. It was a way
tried to make an effort to know what people may be going through. they communicated to ancestors and connected spiritually. Intention-
We might not have been able to always help or fix everything, but it wise, in a way, it can be one overarching idea of preservation. I see
was important that everyone feel they were part of the community, that with Te Ao Mana, that is one of the important aspects of the
heard, and understood, and that they had our support. This was a big mission. Not only preserving the culture and integrity where it comes
shock for me moving out here. I felt it was the complete opposite, from, but also in the delivery and expansion to—
every man for himself. We’re all part of the world community KQ: —Integrity of preservation and perpetuation. That’s the kind
together whether we realize it, accept it, like it, or not. We might of commitment in its integrity. I think in today’s world people are so
as well accept that and progress with it, rather than check out and easily swayed with money and other factors that can steer us away
67 avoid any kind of connection. from the true mission of why we do what we do, especially with
Hawai‘i being so marketable. It has been marketed; it still is being KQ: It’s a lot to bring up.

appropriated. That’s what that passion comes from. It’s staying in AA: So, Moana Nui starts with orero, which gives a general history
that integrity, and not selling out. of the Polynesian people on the ocean and how they traveled, what
AA: That brings us back to our other conversation of why we prefer they brought with them. It’s also a journey and expedition. A lot
not to do gigs or shows. of ancient times were about traveling to and settling new lands. It
KQ: Don’t misunderstand us, we do do performances, but not in talks about that. Then it goes into the second section, which is more
that light. about my dad’s story and the craziness. Then the last part, when
AA: I have had, and you can attest to this, too, those instances where you finally get to that new land, it’s all about discovery, planting,
a client for a show will start making lots of particular demands that growing and flourishing. The music for the third section is “Te Pua
weren’t agreed upon. Either that, or there is lots of miscommunication Noanoa.” The song talks about different flowers, their significance,
between a booker and us, and it turns into a big fiasco. I don’t feel the places known for having them, fragrances, and life compared
good about those because I then am not in a good place mentally or to them. The piece ends there. I left it open. It’s a piece about new
coming from a place of aloha, or the demands would cause me to hope, excitement, energy for a prosperous future life.
compromise how I value my culture and dances and how they are KQ: Before going on... cause I know your initial departure from
represented. We’re definitely coming from totally different mindsets, Hawai‘i wasn’t for dance in Polynesian, how did you get steered
and after what we just said, having a mindset of cultural integrity back to Polynesian dance to do this work and, since we spoke about
and perpetuation, and authenticity and preservation, while on the connecting to the context of the dance, how were you able to share
other end, they just want a flashy, Hula girl type, Moana-esque, the story about your creation of Moana Nui without getting into
Disney show, with whatever misconception they have of the culture. the context of your father, so that the dancers could tell that story?
Most often, it’s not in alignment with why we do what we do. It’s What brought you back to Polynesian dance, given that you left in
not worth it, so we don’t do it. a Western dance world? And what steered you back into it?
AA: Similar to you, I didn’t expect to be doing as much Polynesian-
related work or dance that I am doing now. All I can say is that it was
B E G I N N I N G S , I N F L U E N C E S & N AV I G A Y T I O N S in me since before I was born. I was very connected to the drums.
KQ: What are your solo/collaborative works you are known for? Probably danced Ori in the womb. Many of my parents’ friends
Can you expand more on your work, Moana Nui? were Tahitian and these “Mamas” were involved in my upbringing.
AA: I don’t know if I would say I’m known for anything, particularly, Having grown up doing Polynesian dance, it was very much in my
but people that know me, have worked with me, or are familiar with body. When I left to study dance, that’s what I was setting out to
what I do, know that I have a very deep love and compassion for do, learning other dances. When I went back home, I worked in the
my culture, so all the work I do, I have it rooted in the culture that Tahitian and Te Henua Enana (Marquesas) villages as a cultural
I grew up in. One example is Moana Nui, which is one of the first specialist, feeling as if I was in a zoo at times. People would come,
pieces I created when I moved out here. Side note: Background, take pictures, grab onto you, or speak in a loud slow voice. Like,
I was young; I had no idea how to start or run a group. Actually, really! Reminded me of that Animal Planet show where the Aussie
not no idea; I had a group of friends that I created dances and did guy is like, “Look at this animal in his natural habitat doing all these
performances with back home. Anyway, I had a go-getter attitude; fascinating things, like husking coconuts, climbing trees, chopping
I came out here; there wasn’t a lot of Polynesian stuff; and I felt the wood, and making fire, or building fare (houses). Gorgeous!” After
need to expand on my experience both from home, and also my a while, I needed a change and went to Tahiti for several months
experience in Western dances. I created, for the International Arts and connected to the people and fenua (land) there. I went back to
Dialogue, this work called Moana Nui. Moana Nui meaning the Hawai‘i, and a friend said, “You should move to New York; just
great Pacific Ocean, which our ancestors conquered anciently, but see what you can make happen.” Then I just moved. I did a lot of
it also has aspects of my dad’s story, growing up in Sāmoa. There Broadway auditions; I did some shows; I danced for companies; but
are a lot of traumatic things that happened in his childhood that I guess the wool was pulled from my eyes, as they say, the magic
are things you only see in movies. I wanted to create something for behind Broadway was—
him to honor his life. It basically was a gift for my dad. He’s super KQ: Was there still a void?
quiet. He doesn’t ever talk about problems, ever; like I’ve never AA: Definitely! There was something missing. Mentally I was
heard him complain about anything, ever. And I’m just coming to doing my New York thing, but there was a cultural void. I’d been
that realization as we talk about it. approached by several people from different groups, hui, and hālau
KQ: Wow! to come join, but there was a disconnect there. Where I grew up, we
AA: I didn’t feel like I knew that much about him or what that was had access to all the Polynesian cultural dances and art forms with
going on in his head or heart. Once in a while when a family friend numerous practitioners back and forth from their Native lands to
visited, we would get little glimpses of his story, his life, and would Hawai‘i on the regular. I knew the void was there, but I put it to the
be shocked, like, “Are you serious!?” He just speaks of it as if it side because Polynesian wasn’t my main focus in dance, and these
was just like talking about what we had for breakfast, and I’m like. groups weren’t meeting my need. I didn’t come to dance Hula or Ori,
“What the heck!” Moana Nui is a three-part work to describe his and what was here seemed even more disconnected from the ‘āina.
childhood, the craziness, as compared to the ocean. You know how I was very surprised. There really isn’t any good representation out
we always use analogies with our natural surroundings back home here.” and I found myself teaching and discoursing on my life, but
in our Hulas; we compare life to things in nature. His life was very not from the lens of a historian or someone with a Ph.D.
tumultuous. There were moments that were smooth and great, but KQ: I danced in Florida, where a lot of them do know the dances,
most of his childhood was quite traumatic. He had his father taken they just didn’t have enough dancers because of the training that is
away when he was five. He spoke of him and his brothers sitting in required, so they would recruit dancers from Hawai‘i. But people
a tree watching the ship, that took his dad away, sail off. were aware, and coming here—
KQ: In Sāmoa? AA: Yeah, but the only people here that were aware were the people
AA: Yeah, when we went to Sāmoa, he showed me. He was like, who were trying to do the show groups, trying to build a business doing
yeah, that’s where we were when the ship Vaikava left that took our lū‘au type shows or the kitschy, showy cellophane grass skirts, and
dad away. I’m thinking to myself like “What!” Again, talking about ʻulīʻulī... just flashy stuff that people associated with Hawai‘i. And
it like it was nothing. Then his step-father was an abusive drunk. I was like, “Is that really all that there is out here?” I was like, “No,
Dad told stories of how they were beaten all the time. There was one no, no, no, we need to really do it right!” That’s part of our kuleana
instance where the stepfather beat one of my dad’s little brothers as Polynesians, to make sure the representation, preservation, and
nearly to death. They had to fight him off to free his brother. I can expansion is done well. That’s when I really started to dabble with
easily conjure the image of them running off into the night, carrying the idea to create from my own life and experience. From there, it just
their little brother’s almost lifeless body in their arms, looking for blew up. In ‘Avei‘a, not only did we do my creative explorations and
somewhere safe. He even shared how one time his mother was experimentations, we also did some traditional stuff, Hula and Ori.
protecting him, hovering over like a mother bear over her cubs, I’ll never forget, everywhere we went, people were always asking,
to protect him when their stepfather came after them with a knife. “What is this?” For example, when we did a Hula kahiko. And I
When he attacked them—(pause for tears). I sometimes forget the would be looking at them confused like, “Duh, this is Hula.” The
craziness of it. (sniffling) Maybe that’s why he doesn’t talk about it. group grew and grew. That’s kind of the story of how I started back.
KQ: Yeah. KQ: How do you feel you are perceived by the men back home?
AA: I’m sitting there, in tears, listening to my dad recall this experi Do you feel you broke down some barriers or some constructs they
ence. It was the first time I saw him cry, speaking of his mother, might have of what they can do as a dancer, or what dancing means
and I’m like “Whoa!” (pause). We were just hearing the story, can to them? Do you think it’s helped them develop more of their wanting
you imagine what that actual experience would’ve been like, for a to even learn? Because being one of the few male dancers here in
young boy? New York, and a choreographer, I think it has definitely brought a 68
Kaina Quenga of Te Ao Mana performing Tahitian ‘Aparima, as part of Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration, Oct. 7, 2018, Randalls Island, New York. Photographer: Tomas “Teko” Alejo of Teko Photography.
new eye to us as Te Ao Mana and also to the Polynesian dance world So, I think I felt I needed to show I was actually being successful,
here, because what seems to be so wāhine-centered, shows it’s not, whatever that meant.
and being a kāne and māhū, or however you want to identify, your KQ: Being validated?
style is still rooted in the culture, not necessarily masculinity or AA: In a way. There was this need to show people back home I
femininity, and so do you think that has helped influence people made a good choice, because I just picked up and left; nothing was
to get more involved, or to dance, or also help break down those going on for me there, so I thought I’m gonna try something else in
barriers for people back home being able to see you in New York New York. I always had dreams of performing professionally since
and being able to do something that maybe they can do, too? I high school. That was a no-brainer for me. I don’t know if I have
think you leaving as a dancer, not just in the Polynesian world, but good or positive examples of how I was perceived. I felt like I was
as a dancer, that already has so much connotation, and then being perceived as an outcast back home generally. I was not your typical
able to extend yourself beyond Hawai‘i as a male dancer in also overly macho guy, island boy.
contemporary work and traditional Polynesian work, that speaks a KQ: Given that that’s not your persona and you’re able to show both
lot as well. I think maybe you can share on both ends, the modern ways rooted in the culture, you’re not just being that way because
world and traditional world. it’s a tāne dance.
AA: I had a lot of ideas running around in my head about what I AA: Right, I know you mentioned being rooted in the culture and
thought people thought of me and what people actually thought of that for me is a whole nother topic of its own, because I see it, for my
me. Because I came out here thinking, oh, wow, people are going to dance, as we talked about before, I try to embody what I’m dancing,
69 want to see how long I last here in New York City, and as a dancer. whether it be an actual animal, the sky, the Sun or Earth, or warrior
to me; whatever I’m dancing is my interpretation of what it is I’m make ends meet or to exist to pay my bills? What’s the point in that,

representing. On top of that, the question of still being masculine, even hustling, and overextending myself? I’d rather be doing something
though I’m not necessarily perceived as someone being masculine much more fun and creative. That came with more experience, but
outside of dance in the culture, it’s another discussion. Hula is non- when I first moved here I was younger and had much more energy
gender-specific, though there are more masculine ways and nuances and was like, “Oh, let’s just go for it. There’s not enough Tahitian,
that kāne dance and more feminine styles for wāhine. Then there’s not enough Hawaiian; let’s make it happen; let’s push it!” Ever
Ori Tahiti, where there are specific dance moves reserved for men since, that has been my main motivation, to have a stronger presence
and for women. For me, that’s a culture question and issue to me. here to build the community, to have Polynesians be recognized
If that is a cultural thing, because a lot of the male artists, dancers, more and not shoved under the umbrella of another race or cultural
choreographers, and people that are cultural specialists in Ori Tahiti demographic. It started that way; it led to teaching classes because
are māhū, what influences that? Because some still present themselves most my dancers needed to be trained in both contemporary and Ori
when they speak, when they dance, or when they choreograph for and Hula. That continued to grow. I think at the largest point we had
men, it seems to be or trying to appear very masculine. about 20–25 dancers, which was great. And it was cool that about
KQ: They present themselves that way? two of them had some prior exposure to Polynesian dance, so they
AA: I personally know many choreographers who are— had an idea, which was good. Most of them were blank canvases
KQ: —Do you feel they feel they need to play that role in order to and passionate, which was great to work with. They all brought
connect to these dances then? their strengths and we worked on the challenges. Then, because
AA: That’s what I’m saying: There is another issue here. This is there was nothing else out here, I had to create it, and that’s where
another topic, but, culturally everybody seems to be open. There’s the choreographer side comes in, so, luckily, I had that experience.
men, there’s women, people that are gay; there’s people that date Plus, I had this need to create; it’s an innate human need to create,
men and women; there’s people that date several men and women; to express, and to be heard. It was the most exciting thing for me to
but when they’re presenting their dance, Ori Tahiti, in a specific just create something wholly and entirely, authentically me. Not in
cultural dance competition, it’s very binary-gender-specific. And the sense that it was about me, but everything you’ve done, all your
I wonder why they want to present their culture specifically this experiences are all part of you. Some people approach choreography
way as male and female with attached gender roles and appropriate with this idea that it has to have a certain look, style, to fit. There’s
behaviors. Vāhine being very feminine, demure, seductive, very only certain moves in vocabulary you can use in order to be allowed
beautiful; and men, very hard, warrior-esque, very strong and sharp or accepted. For me, my thought process was, everything is already
in movements, brawny and large, you know? To me, there is a discon in me—my heritage, culture, upbringing, dance experience, life
nect there. The culture through dance has always been presented experience—it’s already a part of me. Whatever I create is going to
that way, but the actual culture lived, is not necessarily presented incorporate all of that. Maybe it didn’t always necessarily fit the mold,
that way. I’m wondering if this is more Westernized influencing? but I didn’t care about that. I just wanted to create and experiment,
The need to appease the religious influence after the cultural dances and see what possibilities and expansions could happen with what
were demonized and outlawed. When the missionaries came, and I had and what I knew, growing up in the culture.
these specific roles were enforced, tells me it’s more of an outside
influence. Going back to the idea of men dancing, many more men
in Tahiti dance than in Hawai‘i, by the hundreds! L E SSONS , SOL O, C OL L A BOR AT ION
KQ: Why, would you say? KQ: What is it like being in what seems to be a vāhine-dominant
AA: I’m not exactly sure. Maybe it is that their culture is more profession, being a dancer, choreographer?
intact and they feel more connected to it, or maybe they’re more AA: I think this stems back to childhood. When I realized after a
comfortable and connected to this idea of masculinity that they feel while of being treated differently, not even knowing why. Before I
they fit in, because there is clear and definite men and women roles— even knew what that meant, māhū or whatever, I was being treated
KQ: Do you feel because it has distinct roles for each gender, that’s differently. Growing up you do May Day every year. There was one
what has made it easier to participate? particular year we did a Mexican dance with boys and girls partner
AA: I think it is a factor, like we said in Hula, which is really non- ing each other. We were lined up and given partners. They said for
gendered and there are more blurred lines, so there’s a need to, when each boy to go stand between two girls. None of the boys wanted to
men dance, to be more extra, when it comes to being masculine. go in and I was like, “I don’t care, I’m just gonna go.” I just went in
Kāne sometimes use their fist to kāholo or slap your thighs, or do between two girls. One of the other boys teased me about that saying
more moves that are rough looking, but I feel there’s an extra need to something like “That’s because he is a girl.” I’ve never been phased
show they are being masculine to avoid being considered feminine or afraid of girls growing up. In my world, everyone danced and as I
or gay. There is a real fear there. got older it was said only girls dance. Every experience that I’ve had,
KQ: Like more machismo. all the talents I’ve picked up that were considered feminine, I feel
AA: To me, it takes away from, or it’s an unnecessary distraction. like I didn’t just do them because I was interested in them; I wanted
Going back to your other question, of whether or not men, when they to learn new skills, but I felt like deep inside that I wanted to show
see what I do, are more open to it, I would say, yes and no. I have that you don’t have to be male or female to do any particular thing.
friends who fifteen years later say, “Wow! You’re a great example Just because you’re a female doesn’t mean you’re automatically good
and inspiration because you were going and pursuing what you love at sewing or dancing, or you don’t always have to do sports because
and do, and doing it in New York, in an area that is not really”— you’re a boy. Ya know, I did everything. But you grow up with this
KQ: It’s underrepresented. whole mentality that dancing is for girls. One thing I kept hearing
AA: It’s underrepresented, but also there was no path for me to follow. in regards to working in a female-majority profession is that I would
KQ: You had to clear or create the way. do well because I was a man and that it’s easier. I was often told,
AA: So, in a way, it was kinda validating; several of my teachers “It’s easier for men,” or “You’re gonna get the job because you have
also said similar things. It’s great, but I feel there’s still lots more less competition.” I don’t discount that there generally is inequality
work to be done. for men and women in the workplace, but I never had it easier just
KQ: Mm-hmm, but I feel like you were one of the helping pioneers because I was a boy; I never got a job solely for being male. I had
for that here on the East Coast, given that we can count on one hand to bust my butt. Every time I went into an audition thinking it was
the number of male dancers present here, and not just who have going to be easy because I was a boy; that was never the case. And
been here, but are still here. We’ve had many come and go, but none I often felt that I was being devalued in a way, because supposedly
lasting. I can speak to that mainly because of practitioners who are men don’t have to be as talented, because it’s easier in dance for
wanting to bring Ori here, and they don’t have any resources here, them. I don’t know if I try to overcompensate and feel like I need to
because nothing has been established. I feel in different ways you’re do extra-amazing things as a male choreographer and a male dancer,
pioneering that path, because there isn’t anything you can follow. but that just never jived with me.
KQ: Because there’s no handbook we follow, there’s nothing saying KQ: What lessons have you learned working solo and working
this is the way we did it and this is what works.What was it like with Te Ao Mana?
starting off on your own, and if you can lead into working with Te AA: I did a lot of work. I have created more than twenty-five pieces
Ao Mana, and what lessons you’ve learned working together? Maybe for ‘Avei‘a, not as a solo dancer but as a solo choreographer; I did it
even being a male teacher and choreographer, expand on that as well. on my own. Every aspect of putting a production together, I did and
AA: First, in response to your comment about pioneering, I never learned a lot along the way by trial and error. It came at a cost, but
saw myself as pioneering. You get to New York and immediately was always a very valuable learning experience. Fast forward, ten
into the mentality of needing to survive; sometimes that is all you years later, I have a lot of experience, I know what works and what
can focus on; it takes up all your energy, and sucks the life out of doesn’t, and our experience is an advantage for both of us. We can
you sometimes. But then there’s the point that comes, more often the now move through projects fairly quickly because we don’t have to
longer you’re here, of, why am I here doing this just to survive or to go through it all and make all these mistakes again or do more trial 70
Anthony Aiu and Kaina Quenga of Te Ao Mana performing Tahitian Ote‘a Amui, as part of Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration, October 7, 2018, Randalls Island, New York.
Photographer: Tomas “Teko” Alejo of Teko Photography.
and error. That definitely helps. The biggest learning experience for KQ: The rest of the question was about how identity was woven
me is the idea and value of collaboration. The biggest hurdle for me into your work?
is the amount of time it takes to work in a collaborative sense. When AA: I like working with a specific concept or theme. With Te Ao
you’re solo, you can just make decisions and make things happen right Mana, or ‘Avei‘a, they are always culturally themed. As far as
away. As a collaborator, it takes a lot more time to flush things out identity and māhū, I generally was probably being more cautious
and to make them happen. To truly include everyone in a collabora when it came to possibilities of homophobia that people had. I
tion, there also is lots to discover; there’s a lot of experimentation almost felt like I had to be more careful and try to steer away from
and improvisation that goes on in any kind of project, so you have that. Especially when it came to cultural stuff, because the culture
to be more open about learning what people can bring, what talent is always presented in such a clear-cut masculine and feminine role
is available, drawing on their experience in life and the arts, and identity. I felt like I would have a lot of backlash if I did anything
melding that together. Then you can create something even more that appeared to contradict that. In my early work, I felt I had to be
amazing and truly collaborative! a lot more “careful” that if two men were dancing, that they didn’t
KQ: Do you weave your own growth or experiences as māhū into seem too fond of each other. In duets, the mind goes to relationship
your work somehow? Do you find that is an outlet for your voice? mode, and it wasn’t easy to find more than two male dancers. I would
AA: Everything I created has aspects of me in it. It is an experience keep it strictly masculine warrior-esque-themed, or not too much
of me, but I don’t create things specifically that address any issues. physical contact between the two. How they related to each other
If anything, creation is my expressive outlet, but I’m not trying to would have been either standoffish, or Plain Jane, side-by-side,
71 push any specific agenda politically or socially. facing the front. I’ve slowly moved away from that carefulness as
I’ve become more confident in my abilities as a choreographer. I’ve AA: When we keep telling our story, it will stay alive. It’s going to

also grown less patient, so now I could care less how anything I do is continue to grow. The more we challenge the barriers of the culture,
perceived; I just create. People are going to pick whatever messages expand, and innovate is also how it’s going to stay alive. It’s not just
or stories or idea and interpretation regardless of what intentions I a fad. We’re telling our story. We try our best to embody the life of
have put on anything. the culture of our ancestors and their stories. Humans are walking
journals, full of live stories and evolving histories. If we are alive
and present, our stories are alive and present. Living aloha, being
DI ASPOR A open connected human beings, in tune with our surroundings and
KQ: What does your work look like or relate to creating in our stories, will allow us to connect to others, creating more complex
diaspora in NYC? and new perspectives. Our stories will be shared at a level that is
AA: There’s a range of how it could look. Some of the work is visceral and speaks spirit to spirit. This is beyond a mere show-
dependent on the audience. Some of my work is cultural. A lot of and-tell that you see, judge, and forget later on. We are connected
the work from my perspective is cultural. It’s not always cultural in ways we don’t even realize, or maybe do but shy away from it.
dance, but it is either rooted in the culture, or the theme is cultural. Could you imagine the life that could be created through allowing
Sometimes, it’s a bit more contemporary and sometimes it’s more ourselves to be connected and grow?!
traditional and everything in between. It’s like a running spectrum. KQ: Given that Te Ao Mana is a very young hui (collective or
KQ: Reiterating the spectrum idea, I think it stems from the ideas group) that has come together, what has been the most impactful
of Indigeneity, issues of oppression, liberation, resistance, ʻāina. or memorable experience for you so far?
AA: Yes, and in regards to the physical look of the work, like just AA: When Te Ao Mana started, I had started this idea of global
the actual visual image. I’ve found that no matter what, if you wear harmony, which is an initiative to bring communities together
traditional-style costumes, it is most often considered cultural, even through creative projects, workshops, and events. Continuing on
with contemporary music. On top of that, music is a huge player in that idea of being connected and that we are all our stories. It’s not
how a work looks. One of my biggest challenges is not having much only us that have our stories, but our stories have been transferred.
contemporary Polynesian music. There is a bit of experimenta That’s another way it stays alive. For Te Ao Mana, we do cultural
tion with Polynesian songwriters and composers, which is super exchanges, workshops, and create dances with this idea to have
exciting to see, but it’s still young. Plus, there isn’t always access people from different backgrounds come together, share experience,
or knowledge of these great musicians’ and composers’ work. collaborate, and create new life, resulting in stronger bonds, greater
There is a lot of searching for music that happens, even for cultural understanding of each other, fulfilling our innate need for creative
pieces, especially when we don’t have resident live drummers and expression, and having a new work of art to commemorate it. In a
musicians on hand. I keep encouraging artists to record. I took for way, creating new harmony. We are learning about who these people
granted growing up in a cultural community where everything was are and where they come from. We are sharing the exact same thing
played live. Luckily, in the past ten years or so, there has been an but from our perspective; we develop compassion and love. One of
influx of artists recording their work. I love this! our first projects was our performance on stage at the Battery Dance
KQ: Can you talk a little more about cultural themes and how Festival. It started as an effort to grow a more solid foundation for
that looks? Polynesian community in New York. It felt so segregated amongst
AA: When I approach cultural work, or work inspired by the culture, other groups and I wanted to build stronger ties that would benefit
yet is contemporary, they are usually tied to where we come from, everyone. We had dancers, musicians, and drummers from different
the nature of the world we live in. It’s about our environment and backgrounds that came out and worked together on this mission to
how we relate to it and each other. And how we’re connected to it show our love for our art and our culture in an exciting, enjoyable
and our tūpuna (ancestors) that came before, where we are now, and performance. We had NYC holding hands and swaying together like
where we go from here. It’s highly about connection and embodiment. the waves of the ocean, singing, dancing, some in tears. For me, that
KQ: Yes! was the most memorable, because it touched so many people. We
AA: Some of my favorite work to do is about embodying the char were lucky to receive so much gratitude immediately afterwards.
acteristics of the elements. In some Polynesian cultures, there are To hear from so many about how deeply touched they were was
entities and Atua (gods) and ʻAumākua (familial deities) that are, or extremely fulfilling. Humbling. That’s the kind of work I love to
rule over, the elements like the sun, rain, volcano, fire, lava, ocean, do! It was incredible!
or animals, like sharks, geckos, boars, and owls. We honor and
connect to them through our dances and chants. We try to embody
their characteristics in how we move our bodies and how we express I M UA
the range of movement quality we find in them. In response to the AA: I think people are turning back to Indigenous knowledge for
work I’ve put out, there are two main audiences: people who are answers to world questions and issues.
familiar with the culture, who know the dances, and recognize it KQ: It’s huge because people who know how long we’ve been here
and can see the experimentation I’m doing or where I’m trying are finally acknowledging it.
to expand, and how I’m manipulating the music and movement; AA: Maybe we can talk about what it means being a part of this.
and the ones who have little to no experience with the culture and KQ: Like this movement being recognized, what does it mean to be
understanding of the cultural dances. Generally, these people will, a part of this renaissance? Like renormalizing ʻōlelo. Those kūpuna
depending on the costumes worn, whether they be actual or just waiting for ceded lands forever. It is very fulfilling to know, although
inspired by traditional costumes, the people with little experience it has taken so long out here, this has gone back to the Lexington
are going to think it’s traditional Polynesian dance. But there are days with the Aunties, at the Hotel Lexington, where they had the
some people who have no idea about the culture, or who we are and Hawaiian Room. Because that’s where they had some amazing
what we do, yet are still moved by or are impacted by it and feel breaks. Everyone knew about it, and it’s in the entertainment capital
something. They don’t know what it is and they are attracted to it, of the world. To know all the work we are doing is now, in bringing
and are very much excited and inspired by it. in more, is fulfilling.
KQ: What would you want the world to know about Polynesia? AA: We’re starting to see the fruits of our labor!
AA: We are people; we exist; we have a very distinct culture and KQ: There’s a whole new generation here. Our time is now to
history of very sophisticated society that in many ways surpassed expand to other underserved areas. As we expand and develop,
modern technology. A prime example, our navigators. To be able the next generation will keep it going. Not to say our work here
to navigate the largest ocean, only with the use of the cosmos. is done, but it definitely has planted those seeds, so we and our
The ingenious use of sacred geometry. You’d have to be a very kūpuna continue to have that resource and foundation to serve
sophisticated people profoundly connected to their environment the community in the way that is necessary. Not to be in the way
and their surroundings and the nature of this Earth. They were of this information age, not in the way where people are going to
traveling across thousands of miles of ocean, from island to island, learn it from YouTube, but learn it from the people, firsthand. From
as if they were getting a car and a driving down the street, as if it the people who are here and that other people might not be aware
were nothing. I want the world to appreciate that. Modern technology of. I think the whole idea of underrepresentation is going to be a
and development have everyone scrambling left and right looking word of the past for us. I feel we can honestly say that. Because
for answers in medicine, answers we and most Indigenous peoples of knowing and working in the communities, there is definitely
have had all along. There is ancient genius and understanding that a recognition now of some sort. People are starting to see what
the new world will not hear or allow others to hear because they Hula looks like outside of the Hollywood eye or outside of the
haven’t discovered it. We are very humble people, but we are not conditioned or colonized eye, and also what that means, too, and
poor or primitive, and we do deserve respect. being able to relate that to themselves.
KQ: How do you see the future of Hula or Polynesian dance staying AA: I feel it also is giving acknowledgment, recognition, and voice
alive here in New York and globally? to people who have been brushed under the rug for so long. It’s like 72
we were before our time, and people didn’t know what to do with of my brother’s friends said they have only been gone three days,
us. It took so much time to normalize. but already miss home, the atmosphere, the feeling, the music. They
KQ: For us, we were in the “specialized” category. Our field was called were feeling a void, just in a few days. I wonder how many people
“specialized” because it was unique and the practice was limited. here in NYC can say they leave their apartment here in the city for a
AA: That’s a whole other topic for me in dance, where anything couple days and say they miss it and want to be back here in the city
cultural was not considered appropriate for concert stage. They with the sirens and noise and crowds. I feel like we have something
just didn’t understand it. It was also pushed aside. Like we were very special, that if we can share, might augment a lot of people’s
supposed to save it for informal festivals, specialized events, on life perspective. It already has changed thousands of people’s lives.
the side, not the main stage, as if it wasn’t considered to be art, but So much so, that they move to Hawai‘i and never leave.
I always pushed for it. Why not? This was a highly sophisticated KQ: I can also relate to it being with us being Native, us recognizing
technique, that it takes years for people to learn and master. Why our place here on this ʻāina as visitors and recognizing the Natives
shouldn’t it be on stage and admired? and the people that were here before us; I think that helps build our
KQ: My comment of it being “specialized” is because it takes years presence here in the city with the support of our Native brothers
of technique and training; they were limited in those resources; and sisters, not so much just the dance community or the New York
we had a very specialized practice not everyone could draw from community, as far as those who’ve come here. I think the arrival of
unless you were from there and learned in that way. We are not easily Hōkūle‘a requesting permission to be received on this land shifted
replaced or substituted in that way. our relationship with the Natives here.
AA: I’m really grateful we are at a point that it is starting to become AA: Again, building the community.
more normalized and we could be a part of the pioneering process KQ: We definitely have so many common threads when it comes to
for that to happen, and we can now keep progressing forward. I feel colonization, land rights, sacred places and prayers, and this history
we have a stronger voice now. We are acknowledged and recognized is very similar, parallel. I mean we are having more presence globally
and appreciated and more valued now because for some reason— and we are supporting Indigenous families, and Indigenous rights,
KQ: —I mean movements like Aloha ʻĀina and Protect Mauna Kea, and lands, sacred lands. Coming from a place of acknowledging
and now with Kīlauea, demonstrate our connection to the practices who we are and where we come from and whose land we are on.
and show globally our connection to our cultures in ways people AA: Recognizing the world is full of different people, and we should
weren’t aware we are connected to, besides Hula. I think us being here be happy to share in each other and of each other and that we all are
helps magnify that importance, not just here, but wherever we are. technically one family on this Earth. I think a lot of people see it
AA: A much more huge sense of awareness. differently, that this is mine and this is yours. Very separatist, as far
KQ: Yeah, and it’s not just for people not from Hawai‘i, but people as religions and cultures and races or whatever, it is believed. When
from Hawai‘i who say I never got into or involved with my culture it all comes down to it, we are one family. Earlier we were touching
until I left home. That’s mind-blowing to me. It was never in their on, coming from how we were raised and one idea of Aloha being
necessity. For me, it was understood because it’s always there. an understanding that we are all connected. I want to reiterate that if
AA: Yes, you take it for granted and when you leave you realize that, we live in a way that is open and vulnerable and connected to people
wow, it is a culture shock. It’s a way of living that is not really living and our surroundings and natural environment, it is possible to live
or experienced in Westernized places. I would recommend everyone in a world of peace. I think that’s a great message to hold. Especially
leave the island you know, so they can realize it. You know when in a day where there is SO much hopelessness, loneliness, fear and
Kahuku Vocal Motion choir came over to perform at Carnegie, one conflict. There is possibility for global harmony.
Kaina Quenga, Director of Nā ʻŌiwi NYC, Kapena Alapai, Joshua Tavares, and Kauilanuimakehaikalani Kealiikanakaoleohaililani participating in a statewide and global action to protect and stand for
73 Mauna Kea in Hawai‘i and shut down the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). Kūkiaʻimauna! Times Square, Manhattan, New York, April 8, 2015. Photo courtesy of artists.
Author Bios
Sarah Agaton Howes is an Anishinaabe artist, teacher, and community performance scholar. Guiya holds a Master of Arts in Performance Studies

organizer from Fond du Lac Reservation in Minnesota. Her arts business, from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and graduated from the
as an Inspired Natives collaborator, House of Howes, specializes in Ojibwe University of Wisconsin–Madison as a First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts
design. Sarah is an Artist in Residence for the Minnesota Historical Society, Scholar. Camacho works as a Core Researcher and Adjunct Instructor for the I
and a grant recipient from the Jerome Foundation and the Arrowhead Regional Fanlalai’an Oral History Project based at the University of Guåhan. Camacho
Arts Council. She was awarded the Community Peacemaker Award in 2018 founded Guma’ Matao as a vessel for creativity grounded in ancestral life
and is a 20 Under 40 Award Recipient for her work in community leadership. ways that weaves knowing from both their bloodlines and the diverse lineages
For the past six years, she has organized an Indigenous Women’s Running that inform their indigenizing journeys. Guiya co-founded I Moving Lab,
Group and utilizes social media to provide inspiration and support to promote an international, intercultural, and Indigenous creative collective. Camacho
wellness and health. prays to stay connected to communities across Cemanahuac/Turtle Island
(so-called North/South America), Låguas yan Gåni (The Mariånas), Hawai‘i,
Anthony Aiu was born and raised on the North Shore of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i; South Africa, Australia, and Aotearoa (NZ).
and received his M.F.A. from SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance.
While there, he co-authored A Choreographic Workbook with Professor Andrea Carlson (Ojibwe) is a visual artist currently living in Chicago, Illinois.
Kazuko Hirabayashi. An artist, dancer, and choreographer who creates from Educated in Minnesota, Carlson received a B.A. in Art and American Indian
his vibrant, rich Polynesian ancestry, he founded ‘Avei‘a to showcase his Studies from the University of Minnesota in 2003, and an M.F.A. in Visual
culturally-rooted movement style. Co-founder of Te Ao Mana, he is dedicated Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2005. Through
to cultural expansion and giving voice to underrepresented Polynesians. Aiu film, painting, and drawing, Carlson cites entangled cultural narratives and
works on the Global Harmony Project, building communities through the institutional authority relating to objects based on the merit of possession
creative process. He has presented at Indigenous Peoples Day, Dance Parade, and display. Her work has been acquired by institutions such as the British
Hawaiian Airlines Liberty Challenge, Hōkūle‘a’s Mālama Honua Worldwide Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the National Gallery of Canada.
Voyage, Battery Dance, and 92nd Street Y. Carlson was a 2008 McKnight Fellow and a 2017 Joan Mitchell Foundation
Painters and Sculptors Grant recipient.
T. Lulani Arquette is a wife, mother, sister, daughter, auntie, friend, niece,
Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) artist, executive administrator, meditator, Anthony Ceballos (the son of a mother enrolled with the Mille Lacs Band
spiritual seeker, partner, life-long learner, food-culture-arts enthusiast, of Ojibwe) received his B.F.A. in Creative Writing from Hamline University
earth protector, writer, and animal rights advocate first and foremost. With in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2016 he was selected to be a Loft Literary Center
over twenty-five years running organizations, she is President/CEO of the Mentor Series mentee. His poetry has been featured in Yellow Medicine
Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, a national nonprofit dedicated to Review, Midway Journal, Sleet, Writers Resist, and upcoming from Great
strengthening the diversity of artistic expression in Native American, Alaska River Review. He lives, breathes and writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He can
Native, and Native Hawaiian communities. Her degrees in Political Science be found penning staff recommendations at Birchbark Books and Native Arts.
and Drama & Theatre from the University of Hawai‘i led to performances
in stage productions, television shows, producing film projects, and helped Gerald Clarke is an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and lives
create pathways to her current work supporting artists, organizations, and on the Cahuilla Indian Reservation. When not creating artwork or serving as
communities across the nation. Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside,
Gerald oversees the Clarke family cattle ranch and remains heavily involved in
Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán is a solo/collaborative multimedia artist, activist, Cahuilla culture. He is a frequent lecturer, speaking about Native art, culture,
critic, and educator, weaving visual, acoustic, performative, textual, and and issues. He serves on the Cahuilla Tribal Council and works on issues
terrestrial techniques. His work is in twenty-two nations in the Américas, affecting the tribe. When not working, Clarke participates in Bird Singing,
Africa, the Arab world, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Pacific. A Tulsa Artist a traditional form of singing that tells the cosmology of the Cahuilla people.
Fellow and National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, he convened a Movement
Research Studies Project, “Decolonial Design, Indigenous Choreography, and Goothl Ts’imilx (Mike Dangeli) is of the Nisga’a, Tlingit, Tsetsaut, and
Multicorporeal Sovereignties: A Womanist/Queer/Trans Indigenous Movement Tsimshian Nations. Since childhood, he has trained under the chiefs, matriarchs,
Dialogue.” A Core Council member of the Artists of Color Council at Movement and other leaders of his clan to become a hereditary chief. Through this training,
Research, he is the author of Antes y después del Bronx: Lenapehoking and he began studying and creating his people’s art at an early age and went on
South Bronx Breathing Lessons, both forthcoming; editor of the international to apprentice and study with many master carvers. Mike is a renowned artist
queer Indigenous issue of Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous and carver whose work is collected and exhibited throughout North America,
Literature, Art, and Thought; and co-editor, with Rosy Simas, of the Native Asia, and Europe. He is a singer, composer, and dancer. He carved hundreds
issue of Movement Research Performance Journal. He has worked with Rosy of masks and headdress used in the performances of Git Hayetsk, as well as
Simas and Valerie Oliveiro on numerous dance projects. in the ceremonies of many Nations along the Northwest Coast.
Tohil Fidel Brito Bernal (Ixil Maya; Independent Artist and Researcher) Born and raised on the Annette Island Indian Reserve, Sm Łoodm ’Nüüsm
I work with this in mind: Art is a tool of knowledge and communication; (Dr. Mique’l Dangeli) is of the Tsimshian Nation of Metlakatla, Alaska,
therefore, I use what is necessary, be it drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, U.S.A. She is a dancer, choreographer, curator, and activist. She has her Ph.D.
carving, often as a counterpart of performance. I also plant gardens wherever from the University of British Columbia in art history. Her work focuses on
I am. Although I do this to feed myself and my family, and to earn a living, I Northwest Coast First Nations and Alaska Native visual and performing arts,
consider it an art, a spiritual practice, and an act of resistance. In my government protocol, politics, sovereignty, language revitalization, and decolonization.
identification documents, I am Fidel. But Tohil is who I am; it is the name that For the past fifteen years, she and her husband Mike Dangeli have shared the
I claim, and that claims me, as it was given to me by my Achi father before his leadership of Git Hayetsk, an internationally renowned dance group special
disappearance during the genocidal war that the State launched against the izing in ancient and newly created songs and mask dances.
indigenous majority of Guatemala. This name restores a direct connection
to the people to whom I belong. I am Ixil and Achi Maya. I complement the Heid E. Erdrich is author of five poetry collections, most recently Curator
teachings of my Ixil mother and grandmother, and of my community, with of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media, and a non-fiction work,
studies in archeology at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala and Original Local: Indigenous Foods, Stories, and Recipes from the Upper
independent research on Mayan epigraphy and iconography, knowing that Midwest; as well as editor of two anthologies, Sister Nations and New Poets of
these archaeological records contain traces of the knowledge the colony Native Nations. Her play, Curiosities, and a collaborative work she co-directed,
attempted to destroy. In this collaboration, I contribute the depiction and Artifact Traffic, were staged as part of Indigenous Voices from Pangea World
analysis of Mayan epigraphy terms for what has been referred to as “dance.” Theater at Intermedia Arts. She performs her poetry across the country,
sometimes collaborating with musicians, visual artists, and dancers. Heid is
Pelenakeke (Keke) Brown identifies as an immigrant and uninvited guest Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain.
to Mannahatta, Lenapehoking. She hails from Aotearoa/New Zealand and
is a Samoan, afakasi, disabled, queer artist. Her practice is multidisciplinary María Regina Firmino-Castillo, Ph.D. (ex-mestizx; Department of Critical
and spans drawing, writing, movement, and storytelling. A founding member Dance Studies, University of California-Riverside) Though I’m trained in
of Aotearoa’s first mixed-ability dance company, Touch Compass, she has cultural anthropology, I left that behind long ago. Since then, I’ve worked as an
performed and exhibited her work across New York and Aotearoa, and artist, researcher, teacher, organizer and cultural worker, and most recently, a
completed residences at Denniston Hill, Ana Pekapeka Studio, and Vermont professor of Critical Dance Studies at the University of California-Riverside.
Studio Center. Assistant Director of Culture Push and a Laundromat Project I was born in Guatemala, but I have crossed borders all my life. My ancestors
fellow, she is the spring 2019 Artists of Color Council Curator for Movement from the border between what is now El Salvador and Guatemala were probably
Research at the Judson Church. de-indigenized Nahuas/Pipiles; my Italian father emigrated to Guatemala
after WWII. Writing from Cahuilla and Tongva lands (southern California),
Dakota Camacho (Matao/Ilokano) lives in the land of dxʷdəwʔabš and Coast I consider myself ex-latinx and ex-mestisx because of the slippery ways these
Salish Territory and works internationally as an interdisciplinary artist and terms can be used in ways that I do not intend. In this collaboration, I’m a 74
cross between interlocutor, provocateur, and bricoleur: I listen; I ask; I search; co-owns Native Art Department International. She is a recipient of the 2018
I add, delete, and adjust; I translate. But more than anything, I juxtapose in Hnatyshyn Foundation award for outstanding achievement by a Canadian
order to conjure. mid-career artist.
Born in Sitka, Alaska, Nicholas Galanin’s work offers his perspective as an Emily Johnson is an artist who makes body-based work. She is a Bessie
artist of Tlingit and Unangax descent, rooted in connection to land, engaged Award-winning choreographer, Guggenheim Fellow, and recipient of the
broadly with contemporary culture. For nearly two decades he has embedded 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, and is based in New York City. Originally
incisive observation into his work, investigating and expanding intersections from Alaska, she is of Yup’ik descent, and since 1998 has created work that
of culture and concept. Galanin’s concepts determine his materials and considers the experience of sensing and seeing performance. Her most recent
processes. The content and realization of his work engages past, present, and work, Then a Cunning Voice and A Night We Spend Gazing at Stars, an
future; through two- and three-dimensional work and time-based media, he all-night outdoor performance gathering taking place on and near eighty-four
suggests reflection on the cultural amnesia obscuring collective memory community-handmade quilts, premiered in Lenapehoking (NYC) with PS122
and acquisition of knowledge. Galanin’s works embody thought, vessels on Randall’s Island in summer 2017. She hosts monthly fires on the Lower
of knowledge, culture, and technology—inherently political, generous, East Side in Mannahatta in partnership with Abrons Arts Center and Lenape
unflinching, and poetic. Center; and is, with a transnational consortium including BlakDance, Vallejo
Gantner, Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance, ILBIJERRI, YIRRAMBOI,
Jewelle Gomez (Cape Verdean/Wampanoag/Ioway), playwright, novelist, and Blackfulla Performing Arts Alliance, developing a Global First Nations
poet, and cultural worker, is the author of eight books including the first Performance Network.
Black Lesbian vampire novel, The Gilda Stories, which has been in print
more than 25 years and will soon be seen as a television mini-series. Her Merritt Johnson was born in West Baltimore and spent her childhood
work has appeared in over 100 anthologies, from Home Girls: A Black navigating trees, tarps, concrete, and culture. For nearly two decades her work
Feminist Anthology to Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from has navigated spaces between bodies and the body politic, land, and culture
California. Her play about James Baldwin, Waiting for Giovanni, premiered rooted in, and dependent on, Anowarakowa Kawennote (Turtle Island). Johnson
at New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco, and had its New York makes vision shifters to look at the world, having seen and felt effects of the
City premiere in 2018. Her work Leaving the Blues, about singer/songwriter tongues, knives, and pens that cut apart land, culture, sex, and bodies. She
Alberta Hunter, premiered in 2017. creates work to celebrate connection and build vision. Mixed materials and
processes reflect her mixed Indigenous and Settler heritage. Johnson asserts
Daniel Fernando Guarcax González (Kaqchikel Maya; Coordinator of agency and allegiance to land, water, and cultural sovereignty; casting light
Grupo Sotz’il, Sololá, Guatemala) My individuality is composed of Kaqchikel and throwing shadow on how and who we are, and how and who we could be.
Maya patterns of relationality, and my existence has always been rooted in
community, beginning with my family and, for the last eighteen years, as Zoë Klein is a choreographer, dancer, visual artist, and activist in the Bay
a member of Grupo Sotz’il, a collective dedicated to the development of Area of California. She makes work about the importance of her origins as an
Mayan xajoj q’ojom. Xajoj q’ojom, a Kaqchikel concept which underscores indigenous, international, transracially-adopted person born in Colombia, raised
the interdependence between “dance” and “music,” means more than dance in Brooklyn. She graduated from Hampshire College and co-founded Paradizo
or music; theorizing xajoj q’ojom, from the collective experience of Grupo Dance, which toured 28 countries over six continents from 2005–2016 and
Sotz’il, is one my principal contributions in this collaboration. I am an was a 2009 top twenty finalist on America’s Got Talent. In 2014, she founded
ajxajonel ajq’ojomanel (dancer-musician); for this I’m indebted to my mother ZKP/Zoë Klein Productions and twice presented Born, Never Asked. ZKP
and father, my grandparents, the grandparents of my grandparents, and my presented in San Francisco Trolley Dances, D.I.R.T Festival, and ¡FLACC!
teachers, Kaji’ Imox and B’eleje’ K’at, the last Kaqchikel rulers at the time Klein was a featured presenter at the Ordway for Oyate Okodakiciyapi. She
of the Spanish invasion in 1524 and leaders of the anti-colonial resistance. is Communications Director for Adoption Museum Project.
Thanks to them, and to my ch’umilal (star), and everything that flows around
me, today I am here and I continue becoming ajxajonel ajq’ojomanel, thereby Tanya Lukin Linklater’s performances in museums, videos, and installations
fulfilling my political, social, and spiritual commitments. Through this, my have been exhibited in Canada and abroad. Her work centres Indigenous
path, I will continue to musicalize spaces, and to shape movements in time. knowledge production in and through orality, conversation, and embodied
I’m one among many ajxajonel ajq’ojomanel of the past, present, and future. practices, including dance. She considers “That which sustains us” a conceptual
line within her work, alongside histories and structural violences that Indigenous
Deanne Hupfield is Anishnawbe from Temagami First Nation, Ontario, peoples continue to respond to. Tanya originates from the Native Villages of
Canada. A descendant of Indian Residential School survivors, Deanne has Afognak and Port Lions in southwestern Alaska and is based in northern Ontario.
dedicated her life to learning and preserving her culture. She learned to
dance from a young age and has spent her life passing on related teachings Megan MacLaurin is an independent curator and arts administrator based
to her community. She has taught dance for the past fifteen years, including in Toronto, Ontario. She is a recent graduate of York University’s M.A. in
weekend classes at The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto. As an educator Art History and Curatorial Studies program and holds a B.A. in History and
she actively teaches the history of Canadian policy that affects Indigenous Theory of Art from the University of Ottawa. Her research and practice examine
people. Deanne was Ironwoman, Wiki Pow Wow 2015, and is a sought after the relationships between humans and their natural and built environments.
Pow Wow dancer and regalia maker. Paralleling nature and cyberspace as precarious ecologies, MacLaurin explores
the urgencies of land-based art practices and digital arts practices within the
John Hupfield Waaseyaabin is Anishinaabe from Wasauksing First Nation, Anthropocene.
Ontario, Canada. Currently living and working in Toronto, where he is a
recognized dancer and active community member. He attended powwows Anastasia Ski um talx McAllister (Colville Confederated Tribes/Hopi) is a
his entire life but only started grass dancing in his mid-20s. He is a regular multidisciplinary artist and community organizer. Her artwork expands across
invited and head dancer at many First Nations’ and community powwows industries and mediums, exploring modern day Indigeneity in paintings,
throughout Ontario. His dancing can be seen in the music video for I Can’t digital art, video, VR, and performance. She has presented artwork across
Remember My Name, 2019, by Snotty Nose Rez Kids; Indian City, 2016, by the country to classrooms, communities, and museums. As an organizer for
A Tribe Called Red; “The One Who Keeps on Giving,” 2017, double-channel New York City’s first Indigenous Creatives Festival, she was able to curate
video by Maria Hupfield; and Miigis, 2018, a production fusing contemporary intersectional artwork from local artists. She currently works in film and
Indigenous dance with athleticism by Red Sky Performance, Toronto. television in occupied Lenape land, Brooklyn, New York.
Maria Hupfield is an Artist/Professor of Indigenous Digital Media + Sam Aros Mitchell is an enrolled member of Texas Band of Yaqui Indians. As
Performance at the University of Toronto with a Canadian Research Chair an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and activist, he connects to his Indigenous
in Transdisciplinary Indigenous Arts. She is an advocate of Indigenous community through art, performance, outreach, and research. Mitchell is in
Feminisms, building accomplices, community, and cultural revitalization the fourth year of the Theatre and Drama Ph.D. program at the University of
through the arts. Hupfield was based in Brooklyn for nine years, is Anishinaabe California, San Diego and Irvine, where his research focuses on Indigenous
and an off-rez citizen of Wasauksing First Nation, Ontario. Her first major contemporary dance epistemologies and practices. He holds an M.F.A. in
traveling institutional solo exhibition, “The One Who Keeps on Giving,” was Dance Theatre from UC San Diego, and a B.F.A. in Dance from UC Santa
a production of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto. She has Barbara. As a dancer and choreographer, Sam has performed and toured, both
shown in New York at the Museum of Arts and Design, BRIC, Smithsonian nationally and internationally, for over 25 years.
National Museum of the American Indian; represented Canada at SITE Santa
Fe (2016), travelled with Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture Christopher K. Morgan (Native Hawaiian) is Executive Artistic Director of
(2012–14), grunt gallery; with recent performances at the Boston Museum Dance Place in Washington, D.C., where he curates 40+ performances annually
of Fine Arts, Para\\el Performance Space in Brooklyn, and the Brooklyn and oversees a school for youth and adults. He is Artistic & Executive Director
Museum. Her upcoming solo, Nine Years Towards The Sun, opens at the of the dance company, Christopher K. Morgan & Artists; and Director of Art
75 Heard Museum, Phoenix, December 2019. Together with Jason Lujan, she Omi: Dance, an annual collaborative residency for international choreographers
in New York. Christopher’s Hawaiian ancestry and a broad, international descent and is a guest on the traditional and contemporary homelands of

dance career influence his work as an administrator, choreographer, educator, the Tongva people.
and curator. His choreography has been presented in eighteen countries. In
demand as a speaker, panelist, and grants reviewer, Morgan is at the forefront Jamie Randall is a member of the Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe in northern
of discussions on equity. He and his husband, opera director Kyle Lang, reside Wisconsin. She is currently completing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from
in Washington, D.C. Augsburg University, while working at a community college, dismantling the
systems of oppression, and raising two amazing little people with her partner
Iakowi:he’ne’ (Melissa) Oakes is Snipe Clan, a Kanien’kehá:ka/Mohawk in Minnesota. Jamie seeks the rhythms of the world that have been lost to
woman of Akwesasne. She is an athlete, designer, maker, organizer, coach, colonization and tries to release them in her poetry.
fundraiser, philanthropist, activist, teacher, and program director at the American
Indian Community House of New York City. Her main focus is reuniting Karyn Recollet, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Women & Gender
and reviving Onkwehonwe culture in a decolonial way. Through art, dance, Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. She is an urban Cree scholar/
theater, community gatherings, ceremony, and conferences, she streamlines writer currently living and teaching in the Dish with One Spoon treaty
all of the aforementioned in a way that empowers not only the Onkwehonwe territory. Recollet explores celestial land pedagogies as ‘kinstillatory’ in
people but also allies. Her initiatives are set upon creating better relations her work—expressing an understanding of land pedagogy that exceeds the
with First Nations communities, ally-settlers, the land, and the environment, terrestrial. Recollet thinks alongside dance-making practices, hip hop, and
by revolutionizing thought and practicing traditional lifeways for the future. visual/digital art as they relate to forms of Indigenous futurities and relational
practices of being. Recollet co-writes with dance choreographers and artists
Melissa Olson is a mixed-heritage Native cis-woman who makes her living engaged in other mediums to expand upon methodologies that consider land
as a writer and as a producer of independent public media. The daughter of an relationships and kinship-making practices that are going to take us into
Ojibwe adoptee, her award-winning audio documentary Stolen Childhoods the future.
(on SoundCloud) was produced in collaboration with KFAI producer Ryan
Katz and edited by Todd Melby. Melissa was recently invited to attend the Full Marcie Rendon, citizen of the White Earth Nation—mother, grandmother,
Spectrum Storytelling Workshop in Brooklyn, NY, hosted by the Association recipient of the 50 over 50 Award 2018 from AARP MN. I should have gotten
for Independents in radio and Union Docs—Center for Documentary Art. She older sooner. My novel, Murder on the Red River, won the 2018 Pinckley Prizes
is a member of TerraLuna Collaborative, an art-based developmental evaluation for Crime Fiction, and was a 2018 Western Writers of America’s Spur Award
firm. Melissa attended the University of Minnesota as an undergraduate, and Finalist for Contemporary Novel. The second novel in the series will appear in
was a proud recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2003 for her graduate 2019. What took me so long to get to this point of creative production? Family
work in American Studies. Melissa lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her and community arts activism have pulled my attention over the years. It is all
boyfriend John and their bulldog Bronson. good and an honor to be alive.
Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) is a Brooklyn composer, musician, Rosy Simas is a citizen of the Seneca Nation, Heron clan. She is a choreographer
and artist who has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe. and visual artist based in Minneapolis. Her work investigates how culture,
She produces solo albums, live performances, and film/art soundtracks; and history, and identity are stored in the body and expressed in movement. For more
frequently collaborates with artists in film, music, art, dance, multimedia, than twenty years she has created work dealing with a wide range of political,
activism, and poetry. Ortman plays violin, Apache violin, piano, electric social, and cultural subject matter from a Native feminist perspective. Simas
guitar, keyboards, and pedal steel guitar; sings through a megaphone; and is a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, First Peoples Fund, Guggenheim
makes field recordings. Founder of The Coast Orchestra, an all-Native Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and Dance USA Fellow; as well as a
American orchestral ensemble, she is the recipient of a Jerome Foundation Joyce Awardee. Simas’ choreographic works include Weave, Skin(s), and We
Fellowship for Composers and Sound Artists, Art Matters Grant, Native Wait In The Darkness which have toured extensively to venues throughout
Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship, and the Institute of American Turtle Island. Simas’ visual art work has been exhibited at the Soo Visual
Indian Arts Museum of Contemporary Native Arts and Robert Rauschenberg Arts Center, Plains Art Museum, Abrons Arts Center, the Edge Center for
Foundation residencies. the Arts, Gimaajii-Mino-Bimaadizimin, Mitchell Museum of the American
Indian, and All My Relations Arts.
Postcommodity is an interdisciplinary arts collective based in California. The
collective’s art functions as “a shared indigenous lens to engage the assaultive Anna Tsouhlarakis (Navajo/Creek) works in sculpture, installation, video,
manifestations of the global market and its supporting institutions, public and performance. She received her B.A. from Dartmouth College and M.F.A.
perceptions, beliefs, and individual actions that comprise the ever-expanding, from Yale University. She has participated in several art residencies including
multinational, multiracial, and multiethnic colonizing force defining the 21st Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Yaddo. Her work has been
century through ever-increasing velocities and complex forms of violence.” included in exhibitions both nationally and internationally. She has been
The collective has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including: awarded various grants and fellowships including the Eiteljorg Fellowship
Contour the 5th Biennial of the Moving Image in Mechelen, BE; Nuit Blanche, for Native American Contemporary Art. Her recent awards include an Artist
Toronto, CA; 18th Biennale of Sydney in Sydney, AUS; Scottsdale Museum Fellowship from the Harpo Foundation, D.C. Commission on the Arts and
of Contemporary Art in Scottsdale, AZ; 2017 Whitney Biennial, New York, Humanities as well as a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowship.
NY; Art in General, New York, NY; documenta14, Athens, GR and Kassel, She currently resides in Washington, D.C. with her partner, three children,
DE; the 57th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, PA; and their historic land and trusty dog.
art installation Repellent Fence at the U.S./Mexico border near Douglas,
AZ and Agua Prieta, SON. Postcommodity was awarded the Fine Prize for Max Wolf Valerio is Blackfoot (Kainai band), Northern European, and also
their contribution to the Carnegie International, 2018 titled From Smoke and has Hispano family from Taos, New Mexico. His work appears in This Bridge
Tangled Waters, They Carried Fire Home. Called My Back; This Bridge We Call Home; Troubling the Line: Trans and
Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics; The Right Side of History: 100 Years of
Kaina Quenga, a native of Hilo, Hawai‘i, has been dancing hula professionally LGBTQ Activism; and a collaboration with photographer Dana Smith, Mission
for over twenty years in Hawaiʻi and throughout the East Coast. Under direction Mile Trilogy +1. Max is the author of a poetry chapbook, Animal Magnetism;
of Kumu Hula, Johnny Lum Ho, of Hālau O Ka Ua Kani Lehua, she received the performance, Exile: Vision Quest at the Edge of Identity; the memoir, The
formal Polynesian dance training. Quenga went on to perform professionally Testosterone Files, a Lambda Finalist; and poetry book, The Criminal: The
with Tihati Productions, and studied at Le conservatoire artistique de la Invisibility of Parallel Forces.
Polynésie française with Mamie Louise Kimitete and Vanina Ehu. Director
of Nā 'Ōiwi NYC, a New York City-based education and advocacy group,
she teaches at Concourse House Day Care, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance
Center, and Spoke the Hub. Kaina is one of the co-founders and co-directors
of Te Ao Mana.
Michelle H. Raheja is Associate Professor of English at the University of

California, Riverside. She is the author of Reservation Reelism: Redfacing,
Visual Sovereignty, and Representations of Native Americans in Film;
and co-editor of Native Studies Keywordsand In the Balance: Indigeneity,
Performance, Globalization. Her work also appears in American Quarterly,
American Indian Culture and Research Journal, and Studies in American
Indian Literatures. She has co-organized multiple conferences, from Red
Rhythms: Contemporary Methodologies in American Indian Dance to,
more recently, Neo Native: Toward New Mythologies. She is of Seneca
76
COVER: Border Wampum (2019), Merritt Johnson. The customary Haudenosaunee use of wampum includes invitation, communication, agreement, documentation, intent, knowledge and ceremony. Border Wampum is a sculpture of woven glass wampum beads wrapped around functional bolt
cutters. The work is both a physical and symbolic tool for action against colonial borders, enforced with fences and prison camps. The pattern of jagged white lines in a dark purple ground references the jagged cutting apart of land and Indigenous life by colonial borders opposed to different
ways of life flowing smoothly side by side. • BACK: The Two Row Wampum—Gusweñta—is the first treaty between Native people and white settlers from 1613 in the area that is now New York. The Haudenosaunee and Dutch settlers made an agreement as to how they were to treat each
other and live together through three principles: living in friendship; keeping peace between their two people; and that this agreement will last forever. The Haudenosaunee did not use paper to record their history, but made a belt of white and purple wampum shells to record this agreement with
two purple rows running alongside each other representing two boats. The purple rows represent the respective ways of life of each community. “In one row is a ship with our White Brothers’ ways; in the other, a canoe with our ways. Each will travel down the river of life side by side. Neither
will attempt to steer the other’s vessel.” The Haudenosaunee see the Two Row Wampum as a living treaty; a way that they have established for their people to live together in peace—each nation will respect the ways of the other as they meet to discuss solutions to issues that come before them.

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Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53, October 2019

4 Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán & 34 María Regina Firmino Castillo,

Rosy Simas Daniel Fernando Guarcax González &

7 Iakowi:he’ne’ (Melissa) Oakes 42 Pelenakeke Brown

8 T. Lulani Arquette 44 Postcommodity

8 Anastasia Ski um talx McAllister 50 Max Wolf Valerio

10 Gerald Clarke & 52 Merritt Johnson

12 Anna Tsouhlarakis 54 Merritt Johnson &

14 Maria Hupfield with 56 Heid E. Erdrich

31 Rosy Simas & 66 Anthony Aiu &

Sovereign Movements: Building and Sustaining Native Dance

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

oppressed peoples? Particularly, burdens and expectations are placed

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

When We Dance: Decolonizing Movements Across Generations

This Place We All Inhabit: A Shared Kuleana

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

ode to all the displaced cyber Natives

Provocative Moves: Remembering James Luna

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

in counseling, so I think that served to keep him grounded and as a way of

preserving his humanity.

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

Anna Tsouhlarakis, Breath of Wind,

Laura Ortman, Someday We’ll Be

Laura Ortman, Someday We’ll Be

Dancing for Spirit, Family, Community, and Culture

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

gotten to see her grandbabies. It was very emotional performing with PA R T I I

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

Kin-dling and Other Radical Relationalities

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

Composer Brent Michael Davids (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape) at First Nations Dialogues’

21 — “Abrons Arts Centre,”

22 — Vowel, Beyond Territorial

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

W O R L D I N G P R A C T I C E S O F K I N - I N -T H E - M A K I N G brokenness is an occasion for celebration such that it is in break, the pause

Meeting the technologies of fire. Photo by Emily Johnson.

these forms of jumping scale 34 accommodate more nuanced conversation of W H AT W E C O N T I N U E T O L E A R N: K I N S T I L L AT O RY

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

Similar to Kinstillatory Gatherings in Light and Dark Matter, Yahkȃskwan BI BLIOGR A PH Y

How we mark land and how land marks us

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

Documentation of performance How

A Conversation with Tanya Lukin Linklater

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

Grandmothers Talking on the Shore

Movement Research Performance Journal #52/53

Forked Tongues, 2014, one of eight-

Vaster Ink Empire, 2014, one of eight-

Lust of Gold, 2015, one of eight-piece

Lust of Gold, 2015, one of eight-piece

Skins, Forms, Flows, Tones

tension that holds humans in you inherited your tones smooth

between over structure of bone anyone who

water holds us Your home of skin

We call our own way back My people made me

Just this skin between us

Skins skin kin kindred

What holds water in a drop

her arms bays

home and body of water

Previously published in the May 2017 issue of World Literature Today,

Ethel Marie Williams si Nånan Nanå-hu Taotao European Gui’  