الفهرس 
CHAPTER 1: Survivance and Ecodramaturgy in Contemporary PerformanceOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Ecoperformance can be considered a new sub-genre of performance studies. It is an
interdisciplinary paradigm where nature plays a role as a performative element bringing nature
and human relationship to performance. Looking at Ecoperformances that engage with North
American indigenous presence provides an opportunity to re-examine not only human and nature
relationships but also to speak of the colonized bodies as dominated territories. Ecoperformances
which accommodate indigenous presence challenge notions of cultural identity that have been
imposed on Indigenous people for centuries. Being loaded with environmental, political, social
and economic references maintains their cultural function as acts of survivance. According to
Gerald Vizenor, who coined the term, survivance stands in opposition to the absence, fixation,
and passiveness associated with indigenous stories of survival. It is a dynamic and active act that
involves both survival and resistance. The aesthetic expressions of the Indigenous experience in
ecoperformances highlight survivance as a practice and a theme.
Analytical, interpretive and comparative approaches are advocated in this research in
order to examine how contemporary ecoperformance juxtaposes reflections of the indigenous on
the spiritual meaning of place, with views of non-natives who have their own perspective
regarding land and its sources. This study draws on four performances that highlight the
inseparability of ecological and cultural crises. These performances are Theresa May et al.’s
Salmon is Everything (2014), Violeta Luna’s NK 603: Action for Performer & e-Maiz (2009),
Marie Clements’ Burning Vision (2003) and Chantal Bilodeau’s Sila (2014). The aim is to show
how an ecoperformance, which deals with Indigenous people’s issues and questions, plays a
double role: first; it changes people’s consciousness and values towards nature; second, it acts as
a cultural carrier which transmits native stories addressing the connection between performance
and postcolonial ecology.