Canada’s West Coast is world-famous for its potlatch – a lavish gift-giving ritual practiced by First Nations. Long forbidden, the meaning of this celebration seems puzzling today. Yet material expenditure and the immaterial expenditure in dance are a pair. The de-scendants remain on the trail of the meaning – a journey to modern civilization in search of its roots
Let’s start with a description of a contemporary ritual that presently takes place before most perfor-mances in Canada. Someone from the theatre or from the company that is performing will step on-stage to name the traditional territory people are gathered on, recognizing the Indigenous nations who lived there for millennia before the arrival of European explorers. Such statements are often repeated in artist biographies and on the websites of arts companies. Typically, as in my hometown of Vancouver, land acknowledgments, as they are called, take the form of an expression of grati-tude, like the one on the webpage of an influential resource and support organization, The Dance Centre: