(Not) Our Mother Tongue

Patti Flather

Nightswimming Pure Research 26 – Reneltta Arluk and Patti Flather

Research focus

An investigation of the use of text in a language that the audience, and possibly the performer, neither speaks nor understands, specifically in reference to Indigenous languages. Our theatre research examined optimal ways to design performance for communities reeling from language loss through colonization and genocide, and other audiences, and promote language revitalization.

Collaborators and credits

Caleigh Crow, Steven Mark, Kristen Padayas and Buddy Wesley, with Nightswimming’s Brian Quirt, Brittany Ryan and dramaturgy intern Jeff Ho, and U of C’s Bruce Barton.

Pure Research Calgary was part of a conference entitled Symbiont, which included a gathering of Nordic artists from Denmark, Iceland and Norway through the Performing Arts Relay, and a symposium of the Articulating Performance Research Seminar. All three activities were hosted by University of Calgary’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, November 12-14, 2018.