Indigeneity in the Contemporary World: Performance, Politics, Belonging

Resources

This page provides an overview of some useful websites for researchers working on Indigeneous performance. Items are listed alphbetically under the following categories:


Festivals

Canadian Aboriginal Festival
http://www.canab.com
Held annually in Toronto, the Canadian Aboriginal Festival is North America’s largest multi-disciplinary indigenous arts event. It includes everything from the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards to fashion shows, gigs by leading entertainers, workshops featuring traditional teachings, economic conferences and sporting competitions.

Daupará: Muestra de cine y video indígena en Colombia
http://www.daupara.org
This is the principal Indigenous film festival hosted in Colombia annually since 2009. Alongside the film programme the organisers convene workshops and seminars on key themes.

Dreaming Festival, Queensland, Australia
http://www.thedreamingfestival.com/
The Dreaming festival is a three day and four night international festival of Indigenous performing arts and workshops on the territory of the Jinibara Nation. The festival features – amongst other events – performance artists, physical theatre, traditional healing, campfire story circles, film & literature components, new media and digital technologies, comedy, ceremony, exhibitions, craft workshops, street performers, musicals and a youth program.

Festival Internacional de Cine y Video de Pueblos Indígenas
http://cineyvideo-indigena.onic.org.co
This is a biennial festival of Indigenous film convened by the umbrella organization for Latin American Indigenous Film and Video, the Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Comunicación y Cine de Pueblos Indígenas (CLACPI www.clacpi.org). The 10th edition was held in Quito in October 2010 and the 11th will be held in Colombia in September 2012.

Festival of Pacific Arts, American Samoa
http://pacartsas.com/
This festival is held every four years providing a platform for different peoples of the Pacific region to meet and share arts, culture, ideas and experiences.

First Nations\First Features Festival (held in 2005)
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2005/fnff/
First Nations\First Features was a one-off festival focusing on indigenous fiction film from around the world. Whilst this website dates from 2005 it is still active and provides a good overview of some of the key films of the last few years as well as distributor information.

First Peoples’ Festival, Montreal, Canada
http://www.nativelynx.qc.ca/
This annual festival features a wide-range of events, including poetry, theatre, filmmaking and visual art exhibitions, as well as workshops.

Garma festival, Gulkula, NE Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia
http://www.yyf.com.au/
The Garma festival is an important cultural exchange event designed to encourage the practice, preservation and maintenance of traditional dance, song, art and ceremony on Yolngu lands in Northeast Arnhem Land.

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
http://www.imaginenative.org/
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is held annually in the autumn and celebrates indigenous film, video, radio, and new media from around the world.

Laura Festival, Cape York, Queensland, Australia
http://www.lauradancefestival.com/
The Laura festival has been running for over 30 years showcasing the performance of Aboriginal dance and culture and providing a valuable platform for different communities to meet. The festival features dance, song, displays of hunting implements, weaving, lifestyle choice programs, employment and recreational workshops, a short film festival and night-time contemporary Aboriginal performances.

Native American Film and Video Festival
http://nativenetworks.si.edu/nafvf/index.aspx
This biennial festival is hosted by the National Museum of the American Indian, in New York, and presents a rich and diverse programme with films and videos from all over the Americas. The last festival was held 3 March – 31 April 2011.

Origins Festival of First Nations, London
http://originsfestival.bordercrossings.org.uk/
This biennial festival, initiated in 2009 by intercultural performance company Border Crossings, brings indigenous musicians, theatre-makers, visual artists and film-makers to London over a two-three week period. In 2013, the festival is scheduled from 22 October to 9 September in partnership with the Indigeneity in the Contemporary World project.

Weesageechak Begins to Dance
http://www.nativeearth.ca/weesageechak26/
Produced by Native Earth Performing Arts (Toronto, ON) since 1989. This annual festival supports and facilitates the development of new work. The Weesageechak Festival has helped develop over 100 new dance and theatre works by emerging and established artists, including Princess Pocahontas and the Blue Spots by Monique Mojica, Annie Mae’s Movement by Yvette Nolan, Tales of an Urban Indian by Darrell Dennis and Gordon Winter by Kenneth T. Williams.


Networks

European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR)
http://www.eniar.org/
The website of the European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR). This website provides regularly updated information on news and events related to Indigenous Australia.

Indigenous Peoples' Center for Documentation, Research and Information
http://www.docip.org/
DoCip provides a good archive of UN-related material on indigenous rights. The archive is available on-line through a simple database.

LANIC: Indigenous Peoples Portal
http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/indigenous/
Hosted by the Latin American Studies Department at the University of Texas (Austin), this website provides numerous resources in English and Spanish concerning indigenous peoples of Latin America. Resources are divided by country and by indigenous group.

National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC)
http://www.naidoc.org.au/
NAIDOC stands for the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee. The website has an archive of NAIDOC posters and information on the NAIDOC Awards for outstanding contributions by Indigenous Australians.

Native Networks Website
http://www.nativenetworks.si.edu/nn.html
The Native Networks Website is an excellent resource for research on indigenous media of the Americas. The site provides information on indigenous productions, distributors, directors and upcoming events at the New York and Washington centres. The website also hosts information on the annual Native American Film and Video Festival.

Survival International
http://www.survival-international.org/
This international NGO provides information on the injustices committed against indigenous peoples around the world. The website has up-to-date news, videos and information on the situation of indigenous peoples and on Survival’s advocacy campaigns.


Museums

Ara Irititja Project, Central Australia
http://www.irititja.com/index.html
This archive project is primarily for Anangu and non-Anangu researchers will need to go through a serious and well-considered procedure to be granted access. There are, however, a number of resources available on the internet which document the procedures used to develop and establish this archive.

Horniman Museum, London, UK
http://www.horniman.ac.uk/
The Horniman museum promotes the diverse cultures of the world through exhibitions and events. The website also has an online library collections facility which you can search by theme.   

House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany
http://www.hkw.de/en/index.php
The House of World Cultures is dedicated to the promotion of non-European arts. It gives priority to projects that explore the possibilities of both intercultural co-operation and its presentation.

Musée des confluences, Lyon, France
http://www.museedesconfluences.fr
The Confluence Museum seeks to redefine the interactions between the sciences and societies, highlighting cultural diversity and promoting collaborative museum projects. It hosted the Paroles Autochtones festival in Lyon (Indigenous Words Festival), France, in 2008 and 2009. The festival featured exhibitions, conferences, screenings, workshops and other events which related the cultural and political experiences of indigenous people from around the world. Audiovisual conferences are available online. The website is in French.

Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France
http://www.quaibranly.fr/
The Musée du quai Branly displays collections of artefacts and artworks from African, Asian, Oceanian and American civilisations, and holds conferences, workshops, shows, and temporary exhibitions. It has an interactive facility to view its permanent exhibition on-line. The website also has a searchable database of all their archives.

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
http://www.nmai.si.edu/
The website of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., contains a searchable database of the diverse collections held by the museum, and information on archives, research, conservation, film and video. There are also a number of exhibitions freely available online.

Tjibaou Cultural Centre
http://www.adck.nc/
As an instrument of the Agency for Development of the Kanak Culture (ADCK), the Tjibaou Cultural Centre is meant to enhance Kanak identity and culture. It is also dedicated to promote artistic creation from New Caledonia, the South Pacific region and the world.  

Wendake Museum in Quebec
http://www.tourismewendake.com/huronwendatmuseum.aspx
A non-profit organization, Tourisme Wendake was set up with the intention of promoting tourism and activities taking place within the Huron Wendat Community of Wendake and promoting Native culture in all its forms or guises. The website provides information on news and events being held at the Wendake Museum.


Media

National Indigenous Times
http://www.nit.com.au/

The Koori Mail
http://www.koorimail.com/ 


Practitioners

Bangarra
http://www.bangarra.com.au/
Bangarra Dance Theatre was established in 1989 as a dance company that embraces, celebrates and respects Australia’s Indigenous peoples and their culture. The website gives a taster of the vitality of their work and information on their productions.

Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Canada
http://www.indigenoustheatre.com/
The Centre seeks to elaborate a contemporary Indigenous performance culture through training and professional development opportunities for emerging and established Native theatre artists.

Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Cine y Comunicación de los Pueblos Indígenas (CLACPI )
http://clacpi.org/
CLACPI is the principal organisation for indigenous filmmakers of Latin America and organises the biannual International Festival of Indigenous Film and Video. The website provides information on its initiatives, forthcoming events and includes a few short clips of indigenous productions. It also provides the programmes of past festivals.  

Full Circle: first Nations Performance
http://www.fullcircleperformance.ca/
This performing arts organisation has been working with First Nations performing arts in Canada since 1992. It provides a fertile environment to produce and collaborate on productions and regularly hosts workshops. Full Circle also organises the annual Talking Stick Festival which encompasses a variety of Aboriginal Canadian performance arts.

Isuma Productions
http://www.isuma.tv/isuma-productions
The production company of renowned Inuit-language films Atanarjuat The Fast Runner , The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, and Before Tomorrow. Provides information on purchasing the DVDs.

IsumaTV
http://www.isuma.tv/hi/en
IsumaTV was launched in January 2008 by Igloolik Isuma Productions, independent producers of a number of Inuit-language feature films. IsumaTV provides an array of audio-visual material and is extremely up-to-date with recent developments in indigenous filmmaking.

Kooemba Jdarra
http://www.kooemba.com.au/
Kooemba Jdarra is an Indigenous performing arts company based in Queensland, Australia. The website provides information on their past and upcoming productions and provides a useful and well-presented archive of posters for their productions.

Las Américas Film Network
http://www.lasamericasfilms.org/
Las Américas Film Network is a media-arts organization that distributes a number of indigenous films from Latin America. Institutions can buy copies of the films over the website. The site also archives the Network’s monthly newsletter providing useful information on upcoming releases and events.

Native Earth Performing Arts
https://www.nativeearth.ca/
Native Earth Performing Arts is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating, developing and producing professional artistic expression of the Aboriginal experience in Canada.

Native Voices at the Autry
http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/nativevoices/index.php
Native Voices promotes the development and production of plays by Native American playwrights. The website provides details of upcoming performances.

Orotokare: Art, Story, Motion Trust
http://www.orotokare.org.nz
This New Zealand based not-for-profit trust has established the modern ‘whare tapere’ – a tribal village based ‘houses’ of storytelling, dance, music, games and other entertainments. Their work is research based utilising fragmentary knowledge of the historical whare tapere (which fell into disuse in the nineteenth century) to inform the modern whare tapere.

Taki Rua Productions
http://www.takirua.co.nz/
This New Zealand theatre company commissions, produces and tours original plays in both Maori and English, and is committed to working with young audiences.

Vídeo nas Aldeias (VNA, Video in the Villages)
http://www.videonasaldeias.org.br/2009/index.php ?
Vincent Carelli established Vídeo nas Aldeias (VNA, Video in the Villages) in 1987 and since then it has become one of the most important organisations working in the field of indigenous film production. The website provides details on how to purchase the films and also provides clips of films for public viewing. There is also a useful list of publications on VNA which can be accessed online through the website.

Yirra Yaakin
http://www.yirrayaakin.asn.au/
Yirra Yaakin is an Australian Indigenous theatre company based in Western Australia. The website lists all old and new productions and has an archive of stills.


Research Centres

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, Australia
http://www.uq.edu.au/atsis/index.html
This website provides a list of useful online resources as well as a list of unpublished honours, masters and doctoral theses completed at the University of Queensland in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. It also provides a link to a pdf version of the Torres Strait Islander Bibliography as well as an archive of the Unit’s annual reports.

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/
This is an extremely important website providing a great deal of information for researchers in the area. It offers a number of freely accessible articles on different topics such as Indigenous rights and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and contemporary culture and also provides links to the pdf versions of all the Wentworth Lectures since 1978.  

Centre for Sámi Studies
http://www.sami.uit.no/
The Centre’s website has a number of useful links for researchers working in the area of Sámi cultures. Much of the material is not free to access but it does provide the relevant information on how to order and purchase the related publications.

Centre for World Indigenous Studies
http://cwis.org/
This website hosts the Center for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS), an independent, non-profit research and education organisation working to promote the ideas and knowledge of indigenous peoples. The website gives an overview of CWIS activities, which include research, seminars, courses and fellowships. Selected issues of the Fourth World Journal are available and the site also includes news items, an online bookstore and a collection of links.  

Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
http://hemisphericinstitute.org/eng/index.html
This website is an extremely useful resource for researchers in the field, providing an online Digital Video Library (HIDVL) and scholarly journal (e-misférica), related to performance from the Americas. A large amount of the material is freely available to the public and the website provides all its information in three languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese).

Instituto de Estudios Indígenas, San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico
http://www.iei.unach.mx/
The Institute publishes the full text of its annual research report on its website which covers a wide-range of articles related to indigenous cultures in Mexico.  

Instituto de Estudios Indígenas, Universidad de La Frontera, Chile
http://www.estudiosindigenas.cl/
This research Institute provides a great deal of material for public access on the internet, organising its library holdings on indigenous culture (predominantly on the Mapuche of Chile) by theme and project. A number of theses are also available electronically. All material is in Spanish.  

International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
http://www.iwgia.org/sw153.asp
The website of the IWGIA provides up-to-date news on indigenous cultures and their precarious situation around the world. It also provides a list of publications and an overview of the projects the IWGIA supports, including fact sheets on a number of indigenous populations organized geographically.  

National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia
http://www.aboriginalartists.com.au/NRP.htm
This Project website outlines the research initiatives and archives produced to protect the endangered performance traditions of Indigenous Australia. The website provides links to places to purchase the recordings and publications produced as part of the project.   

Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga [National Institute of Research Excellence for Māori Development and Advancement]
http://www.maramatanga.co.nz/
This website provides some useful links to videos of the biannual Traditional Knowledge Conferences and seminars which have taken place under the auspices of this institution.

SOGIP (Scales of Governance: The United Nations and Indigenous People)
http://www.sogip.ehess.fr/
This website provides detailed information on the SOGIP research project, which examines comparatively the implementation of the United Nations principle of self-determination (Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) in 10 countries across the globe (Australia, Argentina, Bolivia, Botswana, Chile, French Guyana, India, Mexico, Namibia, New Caledonia). The website offers a presentation of each country and individual research projects as well as book reviews, updates on research events and current issues.

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/index.html
The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council, with a mandate to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights.

Site design by Cyberite Ltd © 2009.  Click here for image credits.