Art of Survival: A Black Indian Culture in Post-Katrina New Orleans An Interview with Chief Shaka Zulu of the Golden Feather Hunters

Carnival, a temporary and riotous disturbance of established order, is the most recognized of New Orleans traditions. What is less known is that it is a mostly white affair. The Black Indian tribes that parade through the African American neighborhoods of New Orleans on St. Joseph's Day constitute black carnival, a counter carnival enacted in the spirit of maroons who were brought together within the plantations and outside of them in the swampy refuges of the native peoples of the region. The effects of the neoliberal agenda that has accompanied the city's post-Katrina resurgence, however, have placed the status of the event in question, with divisions within the community regarding its future iterations. In this interview, Chief Shaka Zulu of the Golden Feather Hunters tribe discusses the survival of the Black Indian masking tradition in post-Katrina New Orleans.