Dancing Chiax, Dancing Sovereignty: Performing Protocol in Unceded Territories

Spakwus Slulem after a performance at Klahowya Village in Stanley Park for Aboriginal Tourism British Columbia. Vancouver, BC, June 30, 2013. Photo by Mique’l Dangeli.

S7aplek¹ (pronounced Sah-ap-lok) is a composer, choreographer, and a dance group² leader from the Squamish Nation (Photo 1). His people’s traditional and unceded territory includes the lower mainland of Vancouver, Howe Sound, and the Whistler corridor in British Columbia.³ An Indian Residential School survivor, S7aplek (English name Bob Baker, born 1946) has dedicated his life to reviving, learning, and enacting Chiax (Squamish protocol) through his leadership and involvement in ocean-going canoe journeys, private Coast Salish ceremonies, and public performances with his dance group Spakwus Slulem. All of the members of Spakwus Slulem are from the Squamish Nation (Photo 2). Their name means “eagle song dancers.” They publically perform the songs that they have inherited the right to through their Nation, families, and communities as well as songs and dances that are newly created by S7aplek. Chiax (pronounced Chee-aak) not only governs the use of Squamish songs and dances in Spakwus Slulem performances, it is foundational to S7aplek’s process of song-composition, choreography, and collaborations. Through my analysis of his collaboration on Thunderbird (2011) and Trees Are Portals (2015), I will demonstrate that Chiax is much more than the boundaries of S7aplek’s practice or merely a set of restrictions. It is an artistic lens through which he creates performances affirming Squamish land rights, epistemology, and hereditary privileges. These assertions of sovereignty, which are grounded in Squamish governance, are an embodiment of politics and self-determination which I refer to as dancing sovereignty.

Dancing sovereignty is the theoretical framework I have created to critically engage the ways in which sovereignty is embodied in Northwest Coast First Nations dance practices through complex negotiations and responsive assertions of protocol—bodies of law which form Indigenous legal systems—both in the creation of performances and performances themselves.⁴ I define dancing sovereignty as self-determination carried out through the creation of performances (oratory, songs, and dances) that adhere to and expand upon protocol in ways that affirm hereditary privileges (ancestral histories and associated ownership of songs, dances, crests, masks, headdresses, etc.) and territorial rights to land and waterways among diverse audiences and collaborators. These assertions of sovereignty are not moored to Western legal definitions; rather, they are articulated through protocol foundational to Indigenous nationhood and governance. My theorization of dancing sovereignty is a confluence of my engagement with the literature on visual sovereignty,⁵ Anishinaabe scholar Gerald Vizenor’s concept of transmotion,⁶ and Canadian philosopher and dance artist Erin Manning’s work on relationscapes.⁷

Photo 1.

S7aplek (Bob Baker) performing with Spakwus Slulem at Klahowya Village in Stanley Park for Aboriginal Tourism British Columbia. Vancouver, BC. June 30, 2013. Photo by the author.

As will be seen in my analysis of S7aplek’s practice of dancing sovereignty, as exemplified in Thunderbird (2011), the transmotion of Chiax integral to his process of song-composition, choreography, collaboration, and dance group performances situates audiences and collaborators as guests in his Nation’s unceded territory. By affirming Squamish land rights through his transmotion of Chiax throughout the collaborative process, S7aplek activates the response-ability of his collaborators through forging Chiax-based relationships and generating host/guest relationscapes.⁸ Before my analysis, I must make clear that as a Tsimshian First Nations dance artist myself, I have personal connection to dance artists and dance groups throughout the Northwest Coast.⁹ Regardless of these pre-existing relationships, it takes a great deal of time to build the trust necessary for an in-depth inquiry into their practices. Holding myself accountable to shared protocol governing the use of songs and dances as well as the ethics inherent to conducting research in First Nations communities, I have sought and received S7aplek’s permission to research and write about his practice. Out of deep respect for Squamish, and other Coast Salish, winter ceremonies...