Chapter 1 - Indigeneity, Festivals, and Indigenous Festivals

Summary

Chapter 1 begins with a new (and ancient) festival creation story grounded in pre-contact Indigenous ceremonial and performance practices that may be considered to be festivals, such as the Midē’wiwin 'White Earth Scroll', the potlatch (Tloo-qua-nah) , and the corroboree It proceeds to survey and analyse the subsequent representation of Indigeneity in western festivals, fairs, and mega-events (such as Olympic ceremonies), theatre and arts festivals run by non-Indigenous peoples, destination festivals with and without Indigenous leadership or participation, Indigenous cultural festivals in Australia and the Pacific, and twenty-first-century Indigenous theatre festivals. The chapter’s focus is primarily on festivals in Aotearoa, Australia, the Pacific, and North America, and it pays particular attention to the contributions of key productions and trans-Indigenous collaborations to contemporary festival cultures, Indigenous and non-Indigenous. It ends by proposing that Indigenous festivals might productively be considered to provide an alternative creation story and festival paradigm to the competitive model of ancient Greece.