INDIGENOUS DANCE IS A HOLISTIC CULTURAL LEARNING
A review of the literature on Indigenous dances reveals the great potential for teaching and learning cultural values through them, along with the values of harmonious cooperation between members of the community and with Nature that are central to them. At their heart, they communicate a worldview or “cosmic vision” which is primarily spiritual. As the cultures of the world have developed since their beginnings, they have left along the way a great deal of wisdom that serves as the fertile ground for the roots of many people’s existences. The greatest struggle for survival in my own background was that of the Indigenous people and their culture, threatened with destruction and colonization by the Spanish conquistadors.
The people were enslaved, and their knowledge exploited in the name of profit for the colonizers; in some cases, they were subject to genocide. At the time of the Spanish Conquest of the Incan Empire in Peru, “1532’, there were a great many thriving cultures in the land, including the Quechuan, Aymaran, Collan, Chancan and others (Prescott, n.d., p. 11). All were called “Indians,” or “Indigenes,” so this is where and when was born the term “Indigenous,” with no effort made to distinguish between the different groups (Remy, 2013, p. 7). When the European conquerors arrived at the territory of what would become the United States, they encountered any number of Indigenous American nations as well (Clare, 2000, p. 7), such as “Mohawk, Oneida, Ononda, Cayguga, Seneca” (Levine, 1998, p. 6). They called them “Haudenosaunee, the people of the long houses but at the same time they called them Indians because Christopher Colombus thought he was in India” (Deniss Y. W & Hirschfelder, A., 2010, p. 3). More recently, the area’s early inhabitants have been called “Native Americans,” or “First Nations.”
But who are the people designated by the term “Indigenes?” It is a term that is endlessly discussed—but I am going to cite Julian Berger in Ken Coates’ book (2004) A Global History of Indigenous Peoples, Struggle and Survival, who argues that one defining characteristic “central to Indigenous peoples” is “the notion of belonging to a separate culture with all its various elements– language, religion, social and political systems, moral values, scientific and philosophical knowledge, beliefs, legends, laws, economic systems, technology, art, clothing, music, dance, architecture, and so on...” (Coates, 2004, p. 5). Coates’ book contains information detailing the problems Indigenous communities have had to confront for many centuries in dozens of countries. These were a result of the arrival of Europeans and their subsequent establishment of empires. The book concludes with a discussion of the conflicts between tribal villages and the State, problems brought to Indigenous people by globalization, and the ravaging of lands and tribal societies. With the colonization of Native Americans came an interest in researching and documenting Indigenous knowledge and ways; researchers’ “purpose was to identify cultural and political ideologies that lay counter to the emerging western structures as a way of identifying the ‘otherness’ of the Native population.” This took place alongside the “acquisition of Indian lands,” i.e. their seizure from the Natives” (Moncada, 2016 , p. 4). Investigations were pursued from 1850 to 1920—but all were flawed by an inability to “collect with an unbiased analysis many practices and forms of traditional life” (Moncada, 2016 , p. 5).
From the time of the Conquest, Indigenous communities had suffered abuse from their forced assimilation by Imperialist governments to European ways. Still, since that time, Indigenous communities have survived, and even begun to thrive through a re-connection with their preserved cultural knowledge. This has had to take place against the counterforce of Statist efforts at conformist assimilation: “From the end of the 19th century and onward,” for instance, “the educational field has been a domain wherein the government of the United States has implemented its formal methods of assimilation and acculturation destined to replace Indigenous culture and its traditional ways of life with Western cultural practices” (Bigknife, 2006, p. 4). On the other hand, there has been an increasing recognition of the power of folk forms: “In 1903 the American educator Elizabeth Burchenal introduced folk dancing as physical education at Teachers College of Columbia University in New York. Later, as athletics inspector for the New York City public schools, she introduced folk dancing into the curriculum. She organized annual folk-dance festivals for schoolgirls; by 1913, 10,000 girls were doing Maypole dances in the New York City borough parks'' (Burchenal, n. d., p. 1).
Daily activities of Indigenous people are very much connected to Nature and are determined and heavily inflected by their world-view, or “cosmic vision.” Moreover, throughout the world, “songs and dances are profoundly rooted in the culture and life of Indigenous peoples” (Moncada, 2016 , p. 1). Customs and art forms are transmitted from generation to generation—with all strongly connected to Nature and daily, traditional life: “Each dance features steps that are intimately connected to activities in life or social functions...for Indigenous people dance becomes more than expressing emotion or recounting history; it is itself a form of knowledge and being, a place for voice, discourse and transformation” (Moncada, 2016 , pp. 1,2).
In this research project, Indigenous dance is explored as a means of preserving and disseminating ethical values within communities, inculcating respect for Nature and fostering intercultural comprehension. In the words of Akas and Egenti, Indigenous dance is an essential communicative social event, which not only accommodates, but also encourages and appreciates participation by spectators, and is elastic enough to expand or contract in time according to the quality of the performance and the interest of the audience. The cultural influence on the Indigenous dance defines its technique and style of expression, thereby strengthening the relationship between cultural expression and dance movement as a tool for positive propaganda. (Akas, N.C. & Egenti. MC., 2014, p. 16)
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In this research, the author explains the use of semiotics in Indigenous dance. The use of semiotics gives a subjective interpretation of the emergence of the dance movement in terms of its importance to the community and its mythology. In turn, the author explores the communicative power of dance as an interrogative tool in the search for truth.
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The following studies informed my research into the teaching of Peruvian Indigenous dance, as I noted their procedures and considered their findings. Kennedy (2016), in her study of Indigenous arts-based culturally relevant pedagogy, explores the ways a group of teachers put Indigenous art, dance and music at the center of a culturally-centered pedagogy for Indigenous students. She also relates the efforts of the teachers to decolonize education and promote safe spaces.
This study was carried out at a school near the Indigenous community of Toronto, with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations involved. The teachers discovered that for Indigenous students there is a strong separation between school and their families, and this makes the execution of any educational project more difficult. However, by using the Indigenous arts in the classroom, they were able to build a bridge from the students’ home lives to their school ones. This resulted in both family members and students recognizing a valuable truth: that learning about their customs and arts could be something related to their actual lives—not just an isolated lesson at school.
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This investigation concludes that meaningful learning brought to pass through a practice of the arts and centering on Nature creates a connection between students and their earth, teaches the great worth of their native culture and results in increased participation by the school’s Indigenous students. The investigation recommends as well the hiring of more Indigenous teachers or instructors in the relevant cultures, who then might act as the Indigenous elders or “grandfathers” did, demonstrating to the coming generations the value of Indigenous ways of life even as they offer knowledge of its various aspects. This study shows how Indigenous arts, dance and music, when properly taught, can be powerful tools in bringing about a higher consciousness of and respect for Nature among both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Our research project seeks to obtain the same result with only non-Indigenous students, i.e. a greater awareness of and reverence for Nature.
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Dunphy and Ware, in their 2019 case study "Dance and Quality of Life for Indigenous Communities in Australia,” studied the Indigenous Australian aborigines along with the Torres Strait Islanders, making use of an Indigenous dance called JUMBA performed in collaboration with the Milpirri Festival to evaluate its effect on quality of life. They observed Indigenous practices and focussed on certain aesthetic elements, Indigenous songs, literature and others in a holistic approach to health. They argue that “dance can improve the quality of Indigenous life in all seven of the realms of social and emotional well-being identified by Gee et al. (2014)—physical (body), mental, family, community, culture, earth and spirituality—as well as fulfilling the cultural commitments of the CDN (2017) to: creative stimulation, aesthetic enrichment, new knowledge and understanding, and a sense of belonging” (Dunphy, k. & Ware, V., 2019, p. 11). They then conclude that the “Milpirri festival collaboration between Indigenous cultural members and non-Indigenous dancers also engenders quality of life enhancements for participants, including the activation of intergenerational relationships, increased understanding between Indigenous and non- Indigenous communities, and a space for adaptation of traditional practices in the context of the dominant settler-society” (p 11). At the same time an emotional-spiritual benefit was felt by all, both Indigenous and non-, and on both a social and individual level. Through the performance of the dance and song JUMBA, connections were forged “across the community (between the living, and between the living and those who have passed on)” (p.11). This study is particularly interesting for its reference to the seven realms or areas of social and emotional well-being. We live daily in these realms, but not often with a consciousness of ways we might improve them. In the fieldwork of my project, realized with the participation of my students, I keep these always in mind in relation to the social enhancements that the teaching of dance can bring.
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One study on the incorporation of dance into education, “Using folk dance and geography to teach interdisciplinary, multicultural subject matter: A school-based study” (Rovegno, I & Gregg, M. 2007), describes “a research project focused on teaching a Native American folk-dance unit integrated with a classroom unit called ‘People and the Land: Native Americans and their Environments’ [that allowed us] to interrogate our curriculum decisions” (Rovegno, I & Gregg, M., 2007). Rovegno and Gregg instigated a qualitative investigation with African American students under two white teachers who team-taught this knowledge. They concluded that “Folk dance is undoubtedly a place where physical education can make a substantial contribution to the children's experience of the content” (p, 1). This project inspires me, for it is very similar to the one I am involved with in order to promote culture and cultural values. With regard to this research, others have asked to “what extent folk dance will contribute to a more holistic method of teaching. What this study pointed out, unlike some of the other studies...is that teachers must be careful in utilizing dance or other content areas as part of a more holistic approach to teaching their own content. This article is important because it reminds us to examine if we really understand what we are teaching, and if we are teaching children something incorrectly” (Fegley, 2010, p. 126).
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These projects show the importance of indigenous dance learning in the 21st century. The new generation needs to learn in different ways, Indigenous dance gives you, through practice, harmony, connection by yourself, with your fellows and with all nature around.