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Cultures Are Not Anyone's Property

Cultures Are Not Anyone's Property Cultures Are Not Anyone’s Property Ariane Mnouchkine in conversation with Joëlle Gayot Introduction by Nora Armani ultural appropriation is a label that has been applied to creations not only in the performing arts, but also in fashion, food, film, books, and other C forms of cultural manifestation. When is a cultural element appropriated, and when is it used in a cross-cultural exchange experience enriching both sides of the cultural spectrum? Who does culture belong to? In 2018, the devised theatre piece Kanata, by Canadian writer and director Robert Lepage and the actors of the renowned French company Théâtre du Soleil, whose subject matter ranged over a two-hundred-year histor y of First Nations Canadian native peoples, was shrouded in controversy around issues of cultural appropria- tion and exclusion. “Kanata,” the Iroquois word for village, gave its name to Canada. The controversy stemmed from the fact that there were no Native North Americans in the cast, that none had been consulted while creating the play over its more than three-year process of creation, and that the histor y of First Nations was being told from an exclusively white point of view. Lepage was accused of cultural appropriation, and whether he had http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art MIT Press

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Publisher
MIT Press
Copyright
Copyright © MIT Press
ISSN
1520-281X
eISSN
1537-9477
DOI
10.1162/pajj_a_00487
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Cultures Are Not Anyone’s Property Ariane Mnouchkine in conversation with Joëlle Gayot Introduction by Nora Armani ultural appropriation is a label that has been applied to creations not only in the performing arts, but also in fashion, food, film, books, and other C forms of cultural manifestation. When is a cultural element appropriated, and when is it used in a cross-cultural exchange experience enriching both sides of the cultural spectrum? Who does culture belong to? In 2018, the devised theatre piece Kanata, by Canadian writer and director Robert Lepage and the actors of the renowned French company Théâtre du Soleil, whose subject matter ranged over a two-hundred-year histor y of First Nations Canadian native peoples, was shrouded in controversy around issues of cultural appropria- tion and exclusion. “Kanata,” the Iroquois word for village, gave its name to Canada. The controversy stemmed from the fact that there were no Native North Americans in the cast, that none had been consulted while creating the play over its more than three-year process of creation, and that the histor y of First Nations was being told from an exclusively white point of view. Lepage was accused of cultural appropriation, and whether he had

Journal

PAJ: A Journal of Performance and ArtMIT Press

Published: Sep 1, 2019

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