We began this unit by discussing assumptions and differences that we carry into our class. In “First Contact as Spiritual Performance,” Lutz makes an assumption about his readers (Lutz, “First Contact” 32). He asks us to begin with the assumption that comprehending the performances of the Indigenous participants is “one of the most obvious difficulties.” He explains that this is so because “one must of necessity enter a world that is distant in time and alien in culture, attempting to perceive indigenous performance through their eyes as well as those of the Europeans.” Here, Lutz is assuming either that his readers belong to the European tradition, or he is assuming that it is more difficult for a European to understand Indigenous performances – than the other way around. What do you make of this reading? Am I being fair when I point to this assumption? If so, is Lutz being fair when he makes this assumption?

As an artist I found Lutz’s article extremely insightful and interesting, it definitely gave me a lot to think about. I do strongly disagree with his assumption that Europeans seemingly will never fully understand indigenous performance. I do agree that there are many factors which make it difficult for the western world to understand Indigenous performances such as Hollywood’s Cowboys and Indians obsession or the lack of common knowledge in regards to the sundance or the potlatch. But may I be so bold to ask the question of whether it is impossible? Or is the Western world is unwilling to learn about the history of indigenous people and arts?

Lutz does point very specifically to being in the eyes of the Europeans at that time (pre colonization). That specifically, I am skeptical if the western world will ever be able to specifically put themselves in those shoes though, I don’t believe it would be impossible for them to empathize and become allies towards that kind of performance. I will further explain what I mean by allies later in my blog.

I am going to look at this question in the state of right now, because I do not have enough information to determine if Europeans would have been able to understand the performances pre-colonization and I certainly don’t have enough information to analyze the past understanding in the presence of residential schools and the Indian Act’s outlawing of the retelling of stories and also the banning of the sundance. I say this because a sort of extreme racism existed and there was no tolerance for indigenous cultures. So if I take this question from a modern day point of view and I believe that even though indigenous performance has remained traditional and the potlatch as well as the sundance are once again celebrated, there no longer remains an excuse to disregard indigenous performance because the western world cannot “understand it”.

Two weeks ago I was with my bestfriend in Jasper where her and her mother perform First Nations traditional drumming for tourists from all over the globe (this includes many Canadians) at the Fairmont hotel. They are called Warrior Women.  They acknowledge the gap in culture outwardly and have become educators just as much as performers. They explain why they use the drum and what it means to their culture, they also explain that they have built their own drums, named them and have given their drums a song to bring them into the world. As I was a roadie for the week I feel like I experienced a modern day example of this question directly. The truth is that some of the tourists frankly did not care and just wanted to see a show. Some of them shut down when Mack and Matricia began to talk about residential schools and stated facts, for example they tell the audience the odds of one’s survival in a residential schools was lower than if one had been a soldier in World War two. Some of them pulled out their phones after that sentence, this could also have been seen as empathy, we see this a lot in theater where sometimes audience members have a hard time processing what has happened and have a sort of denial (for lack of a better term). There were other audience members who cried, who empathized, who asked questions, who asked to beat the drum. This second group of audience members became allies in that moment. Although they could never be of First Nations blood they bridged a gap, they made an effort. Even though the drum wasn’t part of their culture they left that evening with a shared understanding and respect. They gained that understanding through curiosity and a willingness to be open to what was about to happen, from this group I heard “this is so cool” repeated on many different occasions. This is what I mean by becoming allies. I would like to be clear that I am not criticizing either group or stating one was negative or positive but rather I am just acknowledging the extreme difference in receiving what was being presented.

Now I am able to revisit the question of whether the Western world will ever be able to be a part of Indigenous art if they aren’t fully immersed in the culture.

Do they really need to be exactly in Indigenous people’s shoes? If this was true how come I am able to do Shakespeare even though I was born in a small farming community in Alberta? If we go to the very beginning when Europeans were sailing to America then of course they would not understand, but they did try (I’m assuming I have no way of actually knowing). But in the present I believe that even in a Western world, the western culture is able to understand by approaching the art with humility and an openness to learn, in this way I believe that they can become allies. A good metaphor I would use would be to watch from the eyes of an innocent child.

Works Cited

Lutz, John. “First Contact as a Spiritual Performance: Aboriginal – Non-Aboriginal Encounters on the North American West Coast.” Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigenous- European Contact. Ed. Lutz. Vancouver: U of British Columbia P, 2007. 30-45. Print.

Warrriorwomen.ca,. ‘WARRIOR WOMEN | Beautiful First Nation Drummers And Singers’. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 June 2015.

Tavare, Jay. ‘Hollywood Indians’. The Huffington Post 2015. Web. 16 June 2015.