Defoe, Ty, Larissa FastHorse, and Michael John Garcés. "Creative practice as an act of service." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/creative-practices-as-an-act-of-service. [Date accessed].

Creative practice as an act of service

Fostering narrative reparations

Download the transcript
Larissa FastHorse
Arizona State University
Ty Defoe
Arizona State University
Michael John Garcés
Arizona State University

For the past several years Larissa FastHorse, Michael John Garcés, and Ty Defoe have been traveling around the world, visiting various Native communities to lend their expertise in theater and multidisciplinary arts.

The creative principles that guide FastHorse, Garcés, and Defoe offer insights into how to approach any creative endeavor, including pedagogy. At the center of their practice is a deep humility and interest in restoration and care. Focusing on listening and offering their support in roles that may appear to stem beyond the boundaries of theater-making, they demonstrate how attention, connection, and curiosity infuse creative spaces with value that cannot be quantified.

Further learning

Recommended

Video

The real work of centering Indigenous voices

In 2023, Larissa FastHorse, Michael John Garcés, and Ty Defoe collaborated to produce For the People, the first ever full-length Native American production at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They share their insights on how institutions can reorient to honor and center Indigenous communities.

Larissa FastHorse
Video

The Doctrine of Discovery

A brief history of how the Doctrine of Discovery became legal precedent for the seizure of Native lands across the world.

Scott Manning Stevens
Essay

The resources of sovereignty on Caliban’s island

Close reading opportunities to engage students in discussions of sovereignty and self-determination in Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Scott Manning Stevens