Followup on Native Drama Posting

[Raymond Louter]

I would like to clarify my previous post by asking a second question: is
anyone aware of a comprehensive study of  traditional story telling and
performance among westcoast, plains, or Great Lakes native peoples?  Has
such a study been done of any of the native performance (storytelling,
dance) traditions in Canada? There was a time earlier in the century
when archivists travelled the country and captured the folk music of the
various European communities in notebooks and eventually with
audio-recordings.

I'm aware that our sensitivities on questions to do with this kind of
work might run high -- that we rightly fear another kind of
exploitation. "Oooh aah -- isn't that mask so coo!" kind of criticism is
not what interests me as much as the difficulty we have finding words to
describe what is going on in a dance or a performance in the broadest
terms. Words like drama and performance already bring with them enough
assumptions to cloud the water enough to suggest that a project like
this, if it were to be done, would need to be done respectfully and
carefully.

--
Raymond Louter
Redeemer University College
777 Garner Road East
Ancaster, ON
L9K 1J4
CANADA

http://www.redeemer.on.ca/academics/theatre/