Cornell will host symposium on Native American representation

Cornell will be the host of a symposium titled "Indians' Indians: Persistence and Politics of Display" April 5-6 at the Society for the Humanities in the A.D. White House. This two-day symposium, featuring panelists from academia nationwide and performances by an acclaimed Native women's theater company, is free and open to the public.

Renowned women's theater troupe Spiderwoman Theater will perform April 5 and 6 in conjunction with the symposium "Indians' Indians: Persistence and Politics of Display." Martha Swope Associates

Native American researchers and academics from such universities as Columbia, Yale and Michigan and from the Six Nations Reserve and the Ganondagan State Historic Site will meet to discuss and explore topics that include "Disturbing Memory: Haunting and Dispossession," "Iroquois Art and Performance" and "Authenticity, Cross-Casting and Trickstery." This symposium is part of a yearlong celebration of Indian identity through the creative and performing arts titled "Indians' Indians: (Re)Presentation of Native American People in the Arts."

A highlight of the symposium will be the performances by Spiderwoman Theater, the oldest continually running women's theater company in North America, both evenings at 8 in the Class of '56 Dance Theatre in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $4 and $6 in advance; call 254-ARTS to reserve tickets.

Spiderwoman Theater, composed of three Kuha/Rappahannock sisters -- Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel and Muriel Miguel -- uses storytelling to weave words, song, music, film and dance into a cultural tapestry. Their work addresses issues dealing with ethnic heritage and contemporary topics of race, sexuality and community. The Cornell performances, titled "Persistence of Memory," will be a compilation of women's energies and experiences that the artists have collected on their travels as a theater group over the past 25 years. Spiderwoman Theater has performed in theaters and educational venues around the world.

"Spiderwoman Theater is incredibly funny," said symposium coordinator Rebecca Schneider, assistant professor of theater and performance studies. "But a lot more than laughter takes place. These are some of the most profound theater artists of our time. They take the Hopi goddess Spiderwoman's dictate seriously. Spiderwoman, the god of weaving, said that the people should always weave errors into their tapestries so that her spirit could come and go at will. So the 'story-weavings' that are Spiderwoman Theater are studded with tiny flaws, and these tiny flaws allow all of us to laugh, to think through our errors, to enter into the event with joy as well as with a serious consideration of the sometimes very painful and powerful memories Spiderwoman stitches with poetry and movement, sound and silence."

For more information on the symposium, which is sponsored by many offices and departments on campus, visit www.arts.cornell.edu/theatrearts/indiansindians.html.