Indigenous Festival Research Articles

The Role of Traditional African Festivals in the Sustenance of the Ecosystem: Ikenge Festival in Utagba-Uno, Southern Nigeria as a Paradigm

This study examines the role of indigenous African festivals in the sustenance of the ecosystem. It aims to demonstrate how Ukwuani/Utagba-Uno indigenous festivals, cultural taboos, and sanctions have played a crucial role in preserving the environment and preventing its degradation. It explores the imperative of Ikenge festival in Utagba-Uno, in South-South Nigeria in environmental sustainability. Indigenous festivals are of special importance in the collective existence of a people because they represent their way of life and help them understand their natural environment. The conservation of biodiversity, therefore, calls for the integration of indigenous festivals in curbing the destruction of the ecosystem. The paper argues that an indigenous festival like the Ikenge in Utagba-Uno plays a significant role in the peaceful coexistence of the Utagba-Uno people and their immediate environment. The study employs the ethnographic research design which is a valuable tool for understanding the cultural practices, beliefs, and traditions of a particular community. In this case, the research design explores the natural resources conservation potentials of the Ikenge Festival in Utagba Uno.

Spirito-Physical Relevance of Iwure in Ekiti Ẹpa-Type Masquerade Festival: A Theoretical Appraisal

The erosion of Ìwúre ritual supplication one of the most significant aspect of Yorùbá indigenous communion which renders the spirituality and nobility attached to festivals irrelevant, making some of them to be at the verge of extinction is worrisome. Despite scholarly works on festivals, by seasoned scholars such as Enekwe (1987), Ògúndèjì (2005), Ògunbà (1987), Dáramo ̣́lá and Je ̣́je ̣́ (1975) etc. Concise attention has not been paid to this crucial aspect of indigenous festival. This study fills the gap. The study focuses on Ìwúre and its socio-religious relevance. This study is pivoted on Cultural performance theory propounded by Victor Turner (1981) which establishes ritual and mythico drama as form of dramatic performance. The study has employed qualitative research method for data collection and analysis in the study area. Namely Ikóro Ìlo ̣́ro ̣̀and Ajégúnle ̣̀ Èkìtì. This involves interviews schedules, focus group discussion (FGD) and participant observation. The finding of the study reveals that Ìwúre is not only vital aspect in Yorùbá festivals but in all socio strata of the society, engagements. It is believed that Ìwúre give succor and also helps adherents deal with difficult situation and also help people deal with difficult situations.

Kungkarangkalpa Inma Alatjila Kuwari Palyani: Dancing the Seven Sisters Songline Today!

The focus of this article is the cross-cultural translation space of bicultural bilingual performance of Inma, traditional Pitjantjatjara song and dance. The article structure reflects the two languages and cultural concepts of storytelling, song and dance in which the Kungkarangkalpa Inma—Seven Sisters performance was presented at the Centenary of Canberra Indigenous Festival in 2013. This method of bilingual bicultural translation of words, song, dance and choreography was intrinsic to the many acts of translation involved in communicating the power, passion and meaning of a traditional Indigenous Inma performance to a western city audience. Inma song and dance conveys the connectivity of people to their Tjukurpa, the Law and Dreaming of their country. The performance space of translation is one in which people choose to share their culture by performing it in language, written or spoken, song, dance or mime, and translation occurs through intermediaries with some knowledge of both cultures who translate each to the other. The authors acknowledge that the acts of translation involved in translocating the desert Inma to the Canberra stage and the presentation of this in the secondary formats of a dialogue at an academic conference and now in a written article are all abstractions from the real performance of meaning in country of the Tjukurpa. Translation is but a reflection of meaning, a narrowing of the breadth of cultural referends of language, time and place. In this case, through several portals: a condensed city performance, a film of this performance, an oral bilingual conference dialogue and now a written account. This article references these portals and incorporates direct and indirect bilingual speech and reflection in an attempt to convey the importance of Inma song and dance in the cross-cultural communication of Indigenous knowledge of country.

Maghi: The Festival Among The Tharus: Celebration of New Year

Nepal incorporates diversity of caste, ethnicity, language, social structure, culture and religion, among which Tharus are one of the indigenous groups of the Tarai and inner Tarai region of the country. The study is dedicated to explore the practice and process of celebrating Maghi as Tharunew year. This study has been conducted by employing both exploratory and descriptive research design. The data of the present article are based on published articles and books and on interviews with the elders of the Dangaura Tharus, ritual performers and educated persons of the community. This study represents the distinct socio-cultural structure and ethnic practice of Dangaura Tharu. Indigenous festivals are significant in anthropological research. So it helps to add specific knowledge about Maghi, the indigenous festival of Tharu people. But the central aspect of the celebration of Maghi is in the verge of gradual change. Because those characters which are not suitable for today is going to be abolished and those that are suitable are carried on continuously. Some factors that are core components cannot be changed and it is continuous even though they do not bear any meaning but continue in the respect of their fore ancestors.

Welcome to the Peoples of the Mountains and the Sea: Evaluating an Inaugural Indigenous Cultural Festival

Welcome to the Peoples of the Mountains and the Sea: Evaluating an Inaugural Indigenous Cultural Festival

Sustaining spirit: a review and analysis of an urban Indigenous Australian cultural festival

ABSTRACT Indigenous Australian festivals have long been tools for cultural maintenance and revival, cultural sharing and economic opportunity for Indigenous Australian communities. Recent research indicates the multiple benefits festivals may offer to Indigenous Australian communities and their contribution to building a more harmonious Australia, but also notes considerable knowledge gaps. This article reviews and analyses the Spirit Festival, a major annual urban Indigenous festival in Adelaide, Australia. It explores the issues in operationalizing and maintaining the Getz paradigm for responsible and sustainable events in an increasingly neo-liberal world. Based on in-depth quantitative and qualitative research, it highlights how the transformation of events from tools for community development to tools to attract tourists through event tourism may have serious repercussions for the sustainability of these events and undermine their social and cultural value, particularly for Indigenous stakeholders. Special attention is paid to the tensions between social goals and harsh economic reality, the complex issues surrounding management processes, funding and partnership, the importance for Indigenous peoples of positive visibility and the role of reconciliation that festivals can play. It poses the key question: who and what are Indigenous festivals for – a question applicable worldwide and to many forms of Indigenous tourism.

Indigenous Festivals and Community Development: A Sociocultural Analysis of an Australian Indigenous Festival

Festivals and events are widely recognized as having the potential to deliver sociocultural benefits for host communities and destinations. In countries such as Australia, Indigenous communities are looking towards festivals as vehicles to facilitate capacity building, self-determination, and reconciliation. Given this context, this article utilizes Brisbane's Annual Sports and Cultural festival as a case study to identify and critically examine the sociocultural benefits of festivals; and to identify and discuss those key critical factors which promote positive sociocultural benefits and sustainable community development through the staging of indigenous festivals. through a qualitative research approach, semistructured, in-depth interviews were undertaken with 18 Queensland local and State government actors and key stakeholders of the Annual Sports and Cultural festival. the findings revealed that the festival creates positive sociocultural benefits not only for festival participants and attendees but also for the wider indigenous community. Such benefits include the development of social capital, cultural preservation, and reconciliation, all of which are arguably significant factors in the facilitation of sustainable community development.

No more dancing for gods: constructing Taiwanese/Chinese identity through the Ilisin

In this paper, I examine media narratives of the Ilisin, a touristised indigenous festival in Taiwan. A number of previous studies have examined tourist events and ethnic/racial relations as well as detailed explorations of ethnic relations and dynamic identities in a Taiwanese context. However, through the examination of media narratives of the Ilisin through a Foucauldian lens, I hope to provide a different theoretical conceptualisation of the formation of identities, especially in a Taiwanese setting. In this paper, I analyse 417 articles related to the Ilisin from three newspapers and three magazines between 1996 and 2005 through a Foucauldian discourse analysis. This method enables explorations of discursive practices producing different identity formations. In the end, I illustrate how different identities of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ emerge against the same discursive backdrop. This conclusion argues against a determinist and essentialist view of identity. Hence, it could provide reconsideration towards identity politics, and re‐conceptualisation of the formations and practices of identities.

Plant Use in Mountain Pima Holiday Decorations

ABSTRACTThe Mountain Pima of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico, celebrate Holy Week, Christmas, All Souls' Day, and other Christian holidays, plus the indigenous Yumari festival. For several of these holidays they make artificial flowers from sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri) leaves, and arches and crosses covered with pine needles. During Holy Week and All Souls' Day they create elaborate displays of native and cultivated ornamental flowers. Christmas trees are of sabino (Cupressus arizonica) or tascate (Juniperus deppeana var. robusta) decorated with crepe-paper and oak galls.