Enacting Nature: Ecocritical Perspectives on Indigenous Performance

Description

In the ecological challenges of the twenty-first century, interculturally sensitive understandings of nature, place, and environment are essential for the development of a planetary community. Acknowledging that the future of humankind is global, this volume explores the multi-faceted semantics of ecology in contemporary Indigenous theater and performance. Focusing on works by such eminent Indigenous artists as Tomson Highway, Drew Hayden Taylor, Marie Clements, Yvette Nolan, Kevin Loring, Wesley Enoch, Hone Kouka, Briar Grace-Smith, and Witi Ihimaera, the volume brings together a spectrum of ecological perspectives from Europe, North America, and Oceania. By tracing the multiple Indigenous configurations of the relationships between humans and their environment, the essays collected in Enacting Nature offer contributions to the fields of comparative Indigenous Studies, performance studies, and ecocriticism alike. Cover Table of Contents Acknowledgments A Chorus of Ecological Voices. Enacting Nature in Contemporary Indigenous Performance (Birgit Däwes and Marc Maufort) Stages of Resilience. Heteroholistic Environments in Plays by Marie Clements and Yvette Nolan (Birgit Däwes) Mounds, Earthworks, Side Show Freaks and Circus Injuns (Ric Knowles) “Civilization” and its Transgressions on the Old Shawnee Trail. Lynn Riggs’s "Out of Dust" (Jaye T. Darby) “alterNature” in Drew Hayden Taylor’s "The Berlin Blues." Construction and De(con)struction of Contested Spaces (Maryann Henck) The Collapse of Worlds in Laura Shamas’s "Chasing Honey" (Yvette Nolan) Eric Gansworth. Dramatizing the Ecology of Haudenosaunee Creation (Nicholle Dragone) Voicing Nature in the British Columbia Interior. A Place “Back in the Midst of Time” in Kevin Loring’s "Where the Blood Mixes" (Ginny Ratsoy) Serving the Living Land. Place and Belonging in Australian Aboriginal Drama (Maryrose Casey) Dance, History and Country. An Uneasy Ecology in Australia (Rachael Swain) “Je te parle d’harmonie entre les plantes”. Ecologies of New Caledonian Nationhood in Pierre Gope’s "La Parenthèse" (Diana Looser) Unfolding the Cloth. Patterns of Landscape and Identity in The Conch’s "Masi" (Lisa Warrington and David O’Donnell) Cleansing the Tapu. Nature, Landscape and Transformation in Three Works by Māori Playwrights (Hilary Halba) Performing the Spirit of the Earth. Multi-faceted Aesthetics of Ecology in Contemporary Indigenous Drama (Marc Maufort) Notes on Contributors Index