In April 2024, the Institute of Cultural Studies and the Trans-Indigena research team at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Silesia in Katowice will host Floyd Favel, a theater theorist, director, essayist, and cultural leader from the Poundmaker Cree Nation, an Indigenous community of the Cree people in Saskatchewan, Canada. Favel will share his knowledge and experience in Indigenous methodologies and performative processes rooted in Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies, traditional practices, storytelling, and architecture.
Favel considers Indigenous performance as an artistic genre, not one defined by any colonial category as one based on identity. Favel states that ‘Identity as a colonial category is obsolete, in regards to performance.’ His work is rooted in spiritual, land-based and intercultural approaches and practices.
Favel will offer a unique experience of his method shared in three parts: The first two (a lecture and workshop) are free and open to the university community as well as to secondary schools and artistic circles. These events are organized by the Trans-Indigena Research Team and will be held at the University of Silesia in Katowice. The workshops are primarily addressed to students interested in Indigenous methodologies, performance, arts, and culture, but are also open to secondary school students. The third and culminating part, a weekend experience of the NPC method in relation to the land will be organized outside of the University in Krzywa, Beskidy Niskie, between 12-14 April. Participation in this workshop only by registration.
Favel will also participate in a screening of his film about residential schools in Canada, followed by an open panel discussion regarding these schools in connection to the topic of minorities, recovery and the subjectivity of Indigenous cultures. Invited panelists will join Favel. This particular event, organized by Aneta Głowacka, PhD. Prof. at the University of Silesia will take place on April 15 at 18:00 at the Silesian Theater in Katowice (Teatr Śląski im. Stanisława Wyspiańskiego).
The proposed events serve an educational, promotional, and culturally immersive purpose, acting as a conduit for the application of scholarly insights in fostering cultural and social initiatives. Furthermore, these gatherings facilitate the ongoing international research and artistic collaboration between the Trans-Indigena team members and Floyd Favel.
PART I: Lecture
April 3, 13:45 -15:15, Sosnowiec, UŚ
ul. Grota Roweckiego 5 (Sala Rady Wydziału – SRW)
(open event, in English)
Topic: Indigenous Performance Beyond
Colonial Categories
BOOK PROMOTION: Piszący z ziemi. Teatr indygenny Floyda Favela, ed. Aneta Głowacka, Eugenia Sojka,
SIW, Katowice 2021
PART II: Two Days Workshop
April 8 & 10, 13:45 – 17:00, Sosnowiec, UŚ
ul. Grota Roweckiego 5 (Sala Rady Wydziału – SRW)
(for registered participants, limited places, in English)
Topic: Workshop on NpC – Indigenous
Performance Method and Process
Register: Sabina Sweta Sen-Podstawska, PhD sabina.sen@us.edu.pl
PART III: Weekend Workshop with Ceremony
12-14 April, Krzywa, Beskid Niski
https://fb.me/e/6BPD5gr8j
Register: sabina.sweta@gmail.com
A Film Screening and Panel Discussion
April 15, at 17:30, Teatr Śląski im. Stanisława Wyspiańskiego,
Rynek 10, Katowice (Scena w Malarni)
Minorities. Recovery. A Discussion
About The Subjectivity Of Indigenous Cultures
Contact: Aneta Głowacka,PhD aneta.glowacka@us.edu.pl
FLOYD FAVEL
Floyd Favel is a theatre theorist, director, teacher, and essayist. He studied theatre in Denmark at the Tukak Teatret, a school for Inuit and Sami Peoples, and in Italy with Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski. As the curator of the Poundmaker Museum, he won the 2018 International Indigenous Tourism Award, and he is the director of the Poundmaker Indigenous Performance Festival he calls ‘an experiment in ceremony, performance and art in an Indigenous community within Indigenous structures.’ He is deeply involved with his Indigenous community, living within it and is also one of the few traditional ceremonial leaders and a Sundance maker. In 2021, he produced and wrote the documentary Ashes and Embers, a film about the Delmas Indian Residential School fire of 1948, which premiered at the Presence Autochthone International Film Festival in Montreal, and was screened at the Imaginative Film Festival in Toronto. He is currently involved in another research project on Indigenous Residential Schools and is preparing a film. His book of collected essays on theatre methods and journalism was published in the Polish language in 2021 by the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. This is the first book published that articulates and outlines an Indigenous theatrical method. Since 2014, he has taught Indigenous Storytelling as an adjunct professor at Concordia University, Montreal.
