Indigenous Storytelling: Cultural Political Performance

This program incorporates Greener Foundations. Greener Foundations is Evergreen’s 2-quarter introductory student success course, which provides all first-year students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive at Evergreen. First year students will get 14-credits from this program, and 2-credits from a Greener Foundations course. 

This program is for students who are committed to exploring critical pedagogies and Theatre of the Oppressed as they examine issues of orality and literacy, writing, storytelling, performance, language, culture, identity, and the arts. Students will explore the role of the radical imagination and the power of stories to cultivate agency, leadership, voice, and shape an understanding of the past, present, and future using the “River of Culture” history template. Over the year, students will work together on research and writing, and on community and indigenous arts and performance projects. They will apply their understanding to local and global issues related to decolonization, environmental justice, cultural and place-based learning, emergent leadership, social work, education, communication, and indigenous science, story, and sustainability, as they strategize and plan for transformative change.

In the fall, students will explore the “River of Culture” historical-timeline, critical pedagogies, and the Theatre of the Oppressed in the context of decolonization. They will work on research and writing, storytelling, poetry, improvisation, and they will investigate how stories and oral traditions emerge from a sense of culture and place. They will learn how the mythic and radical imagination--and an understanding of indigenous science, story, and sustainability--can cultivate language, culture, community, and change. They will apply their learning by developing stories, strategies, and structures to understand the past, serve the present, envision the future, and create transformative change. Skillsets from this work will build a foundation for careers in social work, education, writing, communication, and leadership, community service, the arts, sustainability, and other areas.

In the winter, students will: research the history of colonization and treaties; explore issues of orality and literacy; participate in oral history projects and community studies; and work with local leaders, activists, artists, scholars, tribes, museums, social workers, healers, educators, environmental organizations, or other groups to cultivate professional applications in the community. Students will incorporate the thematic program into the Generations Rising: Tribal Youth/Make Art event on campus. Along with individual projects, students will immerse themselves in indigenous arts and collaborate on writing a script and developing costumes for the production.

In the spring, students will continue to work with local tribes, activists, artists, and leaders. They will produce and perform a “theater in the round” and publish an anthology of writing. Through their work, they will explore storytelling as a tool for transformation, decolonization, and sustainability, and they will deepen their understanding of how stories help humans reflect on the past, promote resilience in the present, and cultivate and a vision for the future.

Schedule: This program meets in-person on Mondays (9-4), and online on Tues. and Weds (9-1). Students can register for variable credit options. Theory to Praxis meets on selected Saturdays (check with the instructors for details).