Defoe, Ty, Larissa FastHorse, and Michael John Garcés. "The real work of centering Indigenous voices." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/the-real-work-of-centering-indigenous-voices. [Date accessed].
Collaborators Larissa FastHorse, Michael John Garcés, and Ty Defoe discuss what ‘centering’ Indigenous voices really looks like. In this conversation, these three theater makers reveal how institutions and their structures can mean well, while failing to acknowledge the power differentials their institutional perimeters create.
The institutional norms of theater, not unlike those of higher education, require self-reflection and revision in order to foster inclusive spaces. If we are to ‘center’ Indigenous voices, or any other voices from marginalized community, we must reflect on the way our institutions have created obstacles for and the erasure of BIPOC communities.
Centering these voices calls to a 500-year history of extraction—a history and present that should not go unacknowledged as we work to create inclusive and just futures.
