The Western Front

Unpacking the Indigenous Female Body is a two-day event organized by the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, Simon Fraser University. The nature of this symposium will be one of creative celebration and critical
investigation.

Dana Claxton, the Ruth Wynn Woodward Chair in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, will lead the critical investigation as Presenter and Moderator.

On Friday Skeena Reece and Lori Blondeau, two of Canada’s leading Aboriginal performance artists, will present a new work in response to the film trilogy “A Man Called Horse.”

On Saturday Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, the Director of the C.N. Gorman Museum and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Native American Studies at University of California, will present the keynote address on aboriginal womanhood and the screen.

The critical investigation will continue with a series of panels presenting research by professors and graduate students working in a variety of disciplines including Women’s Studies, Film History, Communications and Indigenous Studies.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Friday, April 23
The Western Front, 303 E 8th Avenue

Opening Remarks 7:30PM
Catherine Murray, Chair of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, SFU
Dana Claxton, Ruth Wynn Woodward Chair
Performance 8:00PM
Lori Blondeau
Skeena Reece

Saturday, April 24
SFU Harbour Centre, Room 1600-515 Hastings Street

Salish Welcome and Opening Remarks 9:30AM-10:00AM

Keynote Address 10:00AM
From the Red Dragon Fly’s Diary: Portraits of Aboriginal Beauty
Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie
C. N. Gorman Museum, University of California, Davis

Panel: The Photo 11:15AM-12:30PM
Photography and the Fashioning of Ellen Neel’s Indigenous Identity
Dr. Carolyn Butler-Palmer
Gazing at “The Mohawk Princess”: Considering E. Pauline Johnson Tekahionwake as performer through a micro-historical consideration of the publicity shot
Sasha Kovacs
Indigenous Women in Burton Frasher’s Foto Postcard Collection
Jerold A. Blain

Panel: The Screen 1:30-2:30PM
Pocahontas’ Persistence: The Framing of an Indigenous Girl in News Media
Bridget Keating
The Good, the Bad, and the Sultry: Indigenous Women in Video Games
Beth Aileen Lameman
From ‘Indian Princess’ to ‘Indigenous Chief’: The Transformation of Indigenous Women’s Leadership on the Screen
Beth Aileen Lameman

Panel: The Stage 2:30-3:45PM
Pauline Johnson and Maggie Papakura: Indigenous Acts of Performative Resistance in Canada and Aotearoa, New Zealand
Carla Taunton
“My Body Knowing”: Witnessing, Truth, and Jouissance in Marie Clement’s Theatre
Alessandra Capperdoni
Mourning the Body in Pain; Aboriginal Women’s Revisionist Re-enactments of Murder
Dr. Michelle LaFlamme

Panel: The Performance 4:00-4:45PM
Queens, Princesses, Miss and Majorettes: Constructions of femininity among Quebec Native Women (20th-21st centuries)
Anny Morissette
Lori Blondeau and Margo Kane: Reinventing Cowboys and Indians
Sophie McCall

Closing Remarks 4:45-5:00PM
Dana Claxton

For more information and to register please CLICK HERE