On Inclusion and Resurgence: The State of North American Indigenous Theatre and Performance Scholarship

Abstract:

This article follows the structure of a pop song—verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus—to put into relationship scholarship on North American Indigenous theatre and performance, the current state of academia, the politics of Indigeneity, and critiques of recognition and inclusion from Indigenous Studies. Historicizing Indigenous theatre scholarship and production alongside Peter Morin and Jimmie Kilpatrick’s participatory karaoke performance, “Love Songs to End Colonization,” models disciplinary inclusion and how Indigenous performance challenges it. This essay turns to Glen Coulthard’s call for Indigenous resurgence and Dylan Robinson’s demonstration of disciplinary redress to explicate why Indigenous performance can be aesthetically and politically powerful. In singing these disparate ideas together, this essay considers the benefits and pitfalls of inclusion for Indigenous theatre into North American theatre production, scholarship, and higher education as well as issue a warning against complacent inclusion and mere celebrations of diversity. Indigenous performance asks more than theatre and performance studies often acknowledges; to engage with it robustly and productively, the field must be open to singing a song it is just beginning to learn.