Oka Apesvchi: Indigenous Feminism, Performance, and Protest

Title: Oka Apesvchi: Indigenous Feminism, Performance, and Protest; Theatre Journal
Description: Essay by Bethany Hughes (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) analyzing protest performances about water using the Indigenous feminist concept of radical relationality to elaborate on relations and obligations of humans and water.
Creator: Bethany Hughes
Abstract: Using Chahta words—hvpia, we all are; oka ohoyo, water woman; apesvchi, to guard and care for—this essay builds an Indigenous-centered analysis of protest performances about water. A song, a dance, and a play created by three different Indigenous women and performed within a few months of one another focus the essay's analysis on the Indigenous feminist concept of radical relationality. By highlighting the relationship between water and humans, the obligations that that relationship demands, and the active care required to fulfill those obligations, it shows how Indigenous protest performances are not against something, but for something—for the water, for the future.
volume: 72
issue: 2
pages: 127-142
Date: June 2020
doi: 10.1353/tj.2020.0029
issn: 1086-332X
uri: Oka Apesvchi: Indigenous Feminism, Performance, and Protest
Is Part Of: See all items with this value State of the Salish Sea
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press