Indigenous Languages on Stage: A Roundtable Conversation with Five Indigenous Theatre Artists

Abstract

Underneath the official languages of Canada and the languages brought here by numerous diasporas are the Indigenous languages of this land. These languages have been suppressed through legal assimilation measures, residential schools, and the social devaluing of Indigenous cultures and world views. Many languages and dialects are on the brink of extinction and yet Indigenous playwrights and artists are choosing to speak their languages on stage as an act of reclamation and resistance to assimilation into the colonial structures of western theatre and performance. Canada is at its root, an Indigenous country, made up of treaties and unceded territories. Many of our place names are Indigenous, including the name of our country.