Revisiting Native Theater: Collective Storytelling and Sacred Survivance
Publication information:
Abstract
Workshop: Using Native American theater, we will present a play that informs the collective ways of knowing that continue to mitigate dislocation. As a form of anti-colonial practice, we will share testimonios and art-forms as a way to resist and heal from the effects of boarding schools, loss of religious freedom and identity whilst creating the sacred practices that foster survivance as defined by Gerald Vizenor.
Presenter Biography
Carolyn Hartness, Eastern Band Cherokee/Norwegian, is committed to a life of service assisting individuals, families, communities, organizations and Tribes to create holistic, collaborative, evidence and spiritually based wellness for themselves, and future generations. She facilitates gatherings and circles, including Talking/Listening Circles and Restorative Justice Circles.
Deborah Guerrero is an enrolled citizen of the Alaska Native Tlingit Nation. Her life work as an Indian Child Welfare social worker spanned 23 years. She currently serves as a ceremonial practitioner in women’s prisons where she shares her knowledge of traditional Indigenous ceremonial practices. Her years learning Indigenous spirituality led to her way of prayer through the Native American Church. She shares her prayers through drumming and singing.
Delores (Lola) Mondragón is a Chicana and a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Her research interests include militarization in Indian country, rites-of-passage, Two-Spirit survivance, rematriation and other forms of Native American Indigenous Religious Traditions.
Annette Mendoza-McCoy (Jumano Apache) is a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice, incorporating ceremony, ritual, and rites of passage into her work with clients. She supports various traditional ceremonies and provides community awareness around missing and murdered indigenous women. Her art-form focuses are sacred beading, regalia, and basketry.
Angela Rich is an afro-indigenous researcher and artist from the Taino Nation in Boriken. Her work brings forward voices and experiences of those silenced due to colonization and historical injustice. Her art supports BIPOC children to know themselves, love themselves and walk liberation forward for future generations.