A lecture about the political power of Indigenous dance practices, preceded by a conversation between Mique'l, Gerald McMaster and Tammi Gissell
Co-presented by the Power Institute and Powerhouse Museum
This lecture critically engages with the work of Indigenous dance artists from the Northwest Coast of Canada whose work continues and expands upon ancient practices of asserting land claims through the creation and performance of new songs and dances. My analysis centres on the protocol (bodies of law which form Indigenous legal systems) integral to their creative process, collaborative practices, and performances. Through strategic negotiation and assertion protocol, these artists carry forward a powerful form of Indigenous governance which I have coined in my scholarship as “dancing sovereignty.” I defined dancing sovereignty as self-determination carried out through the creation of performances that adhere to and expand upon protocol in ways that affirm hereditary privileges and territorial rights among diverse audiences and collaborators.
People
Mique'l Dangeli
Born and raised on the Annette Island Indian Reserve, Mique’l Dangeli is of the Tsimshian Nation of Metlakatla, Alaska. She is an Assistant Professor in the School of Creative Arts at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Mique’l is a dancer, choreographer, and curator. Her work focuses on Indigenous performing arts, photography, resurgence, sovereignty, protocol, decolonization, and language revitalization. As one of the youngest advanced speakers and teachers of Sm’algya̱x, she is dedicated to teaching her people’s language in community-based and university-accredited classes as well as mentoring learners and educational staff in their process of language acquisition and the creation of pre-K to high school curricula and programs. Since 2003, Mique’l and her husband, artist and carver Mike Dangeli (Nisga’a Nation), have led the Git Hayetsk Dancers, an internationally renowned Northwest Coast First Nations dance group specializing in ancient and newly created songs and mask dances.
Tammi Gissell
Born out the back of Bourke in North-West NSW, Tammi Gissell is a Muruwarri and Wiradjuri performer, performance theorist and researcher currently in the role of Collections Coordinator, First Nations at The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, NSW. Prior to this role, Tammi led the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Assessment Team for the Collection, Relocation and Digitisation Project for the new Powerhouse Parramatta from 2020-2022. Tammi holds a Bachelor of Performance: Theory and Practice (Honours) from the University of Western Sydney (UWS); where she was inducted into the Golden Key International Honour Society for achievements in performance theory in 2004 and later graduated Deans' Medalist and Reconciliation Scholar in 2005. Tammi has presented research to the World Dance Congress, Our Dance Democracy in the UK, the Sydney Science Festival as well as the DanScience & BOLD Festivals in Canberra. She has been commissioned to write for Critical Path, the Queensland Museum and Art Gallery, the Precarious Movements: dance and the museum project, The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, Performance Paradigm and co-written for the Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities. Tammi has previously guest lectured at the University of Newcastle, The University of NSW, Queensland University of Technology, Victorian College of the Arts (Willan Centre) and has joined the Board of Directors at Critical Path Choreographic Research Institute in 2023.
Image Credit: Lorand Szasz / Wagana Aboriginal Dancers / Coastal First Nations Dance Festival, Vancouver March 2023
Gerald McMaster
Gerald McMaster is the Director of Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge at OCAD University in Toronto, and a leading voice nationally and internationally, with over 30 years of experience in contemporary art, critical theory, museology, and Indigenous aesthetics. He is Plains Cree from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation and a member of the Siksika Nation. He has served as the Canadian Commissioner for the 1995 Venice Biennale, Artistic Director of the 2012 Biennale of Sydney, and Curator for the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture. He is the recipient of Governor General’s Awards for Visual and Media Arts from the Canada Council for his prolific curatorial legacy. McMaster has served as Adjunct Curator for Remai Modern since 2018.
