Language Reawakening Through Theatre

Language Reawakening Through Theatre

Indigenous peoples

Kristen Walker

Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta, Narges Montakhabi Bakhtvar, Atefeh Zargarzadeh

Routledge Handbook of Arts and Global Development

2024

Routledge

Book chapter

English

Canada

Restricted Access

Already challenged by the ravaging effects of colonisation over the past two centuries, Indigenous languages in Canada continue to face erasure due to the impacts of neo-liberalism and globalisation. Consequently, a high priority has been placed on the preservation of languages through ongoing research and language teaching. Here in Canada, despite the government’s financial and administrative aid for language awakening, reversing language loss has not yet been achieved. This chapter focuses on how applied theatre can support the cross-generational transfer of Indigenous languages and cultures as a community-based, participatory, and immersive tool to bring forward stories from page to stage and encourage discussion on critical social issues while speaking to the core elements of traditional culture such as storytelling, performance, and sharing knowledge. Moreover, this chapter discusses the urgency of utilising bottom-up and collaborative models of applied theatre via Indigenous and decolonising methodologies that work through reporting back to and sharing knowledge with (and for) Indigenous communities. The ethics of this anti-hierarchical and caring approach is equally significant in relation to the ethical foundations of Indigenous ontologies that contribute to the Indigenous people’s well-being and agency through respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility.