Defiance, Reclamation, and a Call to Mino Bimaadiziwin/ The Good Life Through Ceremonial Performance Praxis

Abstract

This MA thesis is a bundle that weaves time, space, and form. It includes personal narrative, considerations and reflections on creation and research as well as the production/ performance script, stage directions, and processes used for the ceremony-performance "Wani’/Lost." Supported by the theoretical and cultural context that gave rise to this work, this bundle includes reflections on a week-long practice-based research devising process that contributed to the "Wani’/Lost" performance staged at the Ka’tarohkwi Festival of Indigenous Arts. This bundle also reflects on the devising process and the performance work ahead. These strands of reflection along with the embedment of spatial and performative theory, propose an evolving set of actions and resurgent framework for Indigenous theatrical performance. The writing also serves to disrupt the MA entity and offers ideas on how one might begin to unsettle the colonial history of theatre and the state apparatus known as ‘Canadian’ theatre. Rather than dictating instructions for readers to follow, these entwined notions serve as interventions and prompts to unravel how loss makes us not see ourselves. This bundle also asks how we can embody intimate acts of defiance, reclamation, and a call to Mino Bimaadiziwin/ the Good Life.