Reclaiming symbols and history in multiple zones : experiencing Coast Salish culture and identity through performance at Hiwus Feasthouse

• Main Author: Scarangella, Linda
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: Hiwus Feasthouse (North Vancouver; B.C.); Coast Salish > Social life and customs; Coast Salish > Rites and ceremonies; Tourism > British Columbia > North Vancouver; Indian; First Nations
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12216

This ethnographic research project examines the re-creation, performance and dissemination of identity through performance (storytelling, song, and dance) at a tourist site, Hiwus Feasthouse. In general, this thesis examines how the Salish negotiate meaning and significance through performance. The overall objective is to explore what Hiwus, as a site for creating and performing identity, means to the Coast Salish people who work there. This thesis demonstrates how the Salish at Hiwus have a great deal of agency in terms of the content of performances, unlike many other tourist sites where the corporation often controls the program. I suggest that the Salish employees express layers of a "meshed identity" - local, ethnic-tribal, Canadian, and pan-Indian - at different times throughout the performances. I also suggest that the First Nations people at Hiwus deconstruct the "imaginary Indian" via performance and valorize their own re-imagination of history and identity. I propose that they do this by drawing on Salish epistemology and world-views. In particular, I demonstrate how Salish understandings of "place" and the use of a "ceremonial framework" at Hiwus provide the Salish a way of sorting through multiple zones of contact. This thesis contributes to the anthropological literature on tourism in that it focuses on First Nations people's agency, views, and perspectives. I also challenge problematic terms such as authenticity, "staged authenticity," and tradition. The current literature on tourism lacks a workable theoretical framework for examining the dialogical interactions at tourist sites. I attempt to deal with this dilemma by drawing on my own ethnographic data, complemented by the existing ethnographic literature, to examine how the Salish perform identity and culture at Hiwus. Arts, Faculty of Anthropology, Department of Graduate