Native American performance and representation

Native performance is a multifaceted and changing art form as well as a swiftly growing field of research. Native American Performance and Representation provides a wider and more comprehensive study of Native performance, not only its past but also its present and future. Contributors use multiple perspectives to look at the varying nature of Native performance strategies. They consider the combination and balance of the traditional and modern techniques of performers in a multicultural world. This collection presents diverse viewpoints from both scholars and performers in this field, both Natives and non-Natives. Important and well-respected researchers and performers such as Bruce McConachie, Jorge Huerta, and Daystar/Rosalie Jones offer much-needed insight into this quickly expanding field of study. This volume examines Native performance using a variety of lenses, such as feminism, literary and film theory, and postcolonial discourse. Through the many unique voices of the contributors, major themes are explored, such as indigenous self-representations in performance, representations by nonindigenous people, cultural authenticity in performance and representation, and cross-fertilization between cultures. Authors introduce important, though sometimes controversial, issues as they consider the effects of miscegenation on traditional customs, racial discrimination, Native women's position in a multicultural society, and the relationship between authenticity and hybridity in Native performance. An important addition to the new and growing field of Native performance, Wilmer's book cuts across disciplines and areas of study in a way no other book in the field does. It will appeal not only to those interested in Native American studies but also to those concerned with women's and gender studies, literary and film studies, and cultural studies.

Reframing dance, performance, and traditional stories for a postmodern era. Inventing native modern dance : a tough trip through paradise / Daystar/Rosalie Jones -- Old spirits in a new world : Pacific Northwest performance : identity, authenticity, theatricality / Sarah Bryant-Bertail -- Owners of the past : readbacks or tradition in Mi'kmaq narratives / Anne-Christine Hornborg -- The Pocahontas myth and its deconstruction in Monique Mojica's play Princess Pocahontas and the blue spots / Maria Lyytinen -- The native body in performance. Stories from the body : blood memory and organic texts / Monique Mojica -- Acts of transfer : the 1975 and 1976 productions of Raven and Body Indian by Red Earth Performing Arts Company / Julie Pearson-Little Thunder -- Embodiment as a healing process : Native American women and performance / Shelley Scott -- The hearts of its women : rape, (residential schools), and re-membering / Ric Knowles -- Native representation in drama. "People with strong hearts" : staging communitism in Hanay Geiogamah's plays, Body Indian and 49 / Jaye T. Darby -- Coming-of-age on the rez : William S. Yellow Robe's The independence of Eddie Rose as Native American bildu…