We opened the proceedings with a one-minute silence in honour of the late Professor Mazisi Kunene, Poet Laureate of South Africa, poet, imbongi, writer and scholar, whose reverence for the high culture of the Zulu courts will be sorely missed. Lynn Maree, chair of KZN DanceLink, who chaired the symposium, said that he would have been her choice to open the proceedings had he still been alive and well.

The morning was devoted to defining indigenous, and to the sharing of information, particularly about the role dance plays in many cultures, in Zulu culture in particular, but also commonalities among the Bantu people across central and southern Africa. Origins; the migration of particular dance movements from one place to another; ceremonial situations where only men may be present, and others in which women can mock and poke fun at their men; the sharing by the community, through dance and song, of both good and bad times for individuals; the part dance plays (or played) in the socialisation of young people; the place for play and improvisation and the demonstration of high spirits.

Perhaps the point is whether or not the purpose is to perform in front of an audience or to take part in a ritual, a ceremony, an enjoyable event, a political event, where there is no audience, only non-performing participants. There was strong criticism of cultural tourism and the draining of all meaning from the Shakaland type of Zulu dance.

When we looked at dictionary definitions of indigenous, including notions of birth, nativity, natural production, we explored the indigeneity of carnival in Brazil, of the New Year Carnival in Cape Town, of jazz in the United States, of gumboot here: borrowings, influences, groupings (Clover, Dunlop, or your clan or tribe) We critiqued Western concepts of boxing and distinguishing, of professionalising and ranking as superior or inferior. And yet we agreed that research and analysis were necessary: what makes a Masai jump a Masai jump?
The most exciting realization was that this sort of dance can bind people together: it does not need to belong to one group: we can all be insiders if we do not walk on by: we are all Zulus under the sky…. “trees have roots, but men have legs”

In the afternoon we looked at what to do next. Some of our recommendations were small, and confined to next steps for KZN DanceLink; some of them were big, like trying to influence the way dance is seen in all our schools, as something done collectively and to a high standard of technical excellence, in which we connect back in time, we connect to our inner selves, and we connect to each other; and some of them were huge and philosophical such as talking with chiefs and elders, and all becoming insiders, one with another.

Lynn Maree
19th September 2006

INDIGENOUS DANCE

As I said at the start of today, this morning is about definitions, and this afternoon will be more political: how far do the definitions take us, given that we are in a society in a state of transformation, where the definition dictated by those who had the power, rather than by some abstract logic, and now those definitions, and particularly the ranking and value given by the old power-holders, are contested; and where people do not concern themselves about where they fit when they either perform a dance they already know, or make a new version, or create something new (cf. local dance)
• I START WITH A DICTIONARY DEFINITION -Born or produced naturally in a land;
-Native to the soil
“Yet were they (Negroes) all transported from Africa and are not indigenous or proper natives of America” is the quote in my Shorter Oxford Dictionary to illustrate the use of the word.
So, if we take North America, and this definition of who is indigenous, or what plants are indigenous, or what crafts are indigenous: we are confined to Native Americans….. No white people and no black people;
And if we look at South America, no Carnival, no tango, no samba
• OF COURSE, at this symposium here today we are interested in deciding what fits into the category of Indigenous Dance in KwaZulu Natal, and we may have a great many dance styles that are found here, and watched here, and flourishing here, that are not indigenous. We are only looking at one sub-section of dance. So exclusion from the category indigenous does not endanger anything or anyone.
• BUT STILL, deciding that Jazz and hip-hop are not indigenous to the USA or that Carnival is not indigenous to Brazil, or that our own “Coon Carnival” or what is now part of the Cape Town Festival is not indigenous to South Africa, seems a weird thing to do.
Ntombi has given us a list of what she feels is indigenous, so how does this definition affect her list?????
• AND WHAT DOES THE DEFINITION SAY ABOUT AGE: HOW NEW DOES SOMETHING HAVE TO BE TO FALL OUTSIDE THE CATEGORY????
• AND WHAT DOES “PRODUCED NATURALLY” MEAN?

• Does it mean produced/created without interference, like a natural birth, which means the mother needed no forceps, no drip, no outside assistance???? What does that do to Ntombi’s list? No music from America, no rubber boots to clap one’s hands on???
If we stick with the dictionary definition does it help us to distinguish anything? For instance, if we take “produced naturally” as an important element, must we leave out anything urban, as there is interference from everywhere and everyone in the town, and the township???
….must we leave out anything new, because once again, elements from outside have an influence, elements like choreographic techniques, or the proscenium arch in a theatre???
…can we include dances that come from elsewhere, but were themselves “produced naturally” like folk dances from Gujerat, or Scotland, or do they belong somewhere else, are they indigenous only to the place where they were first done?
….does it depend on where the people doing it were born????
SO ARE WE TALKING ABOUT BOTH THE PEOPLE AND THE ARTEFACT/THE OBJECT? MUST THEY BOTH BE ‘NATIVE’ TO HERE?
And then we definitely need to go back in time: how long ago must they have been here, making dances, for the dances to be indigenous? The first people here in KwaZulu so far as we know were the San…..or is land migration different from crossing the sea??? When is movement of people unnatural???? Trees have roots, but men have legs.
And if we go back in time, must the artefact (be it basket, drum, beshu, pot or indlamu) be now as it was then, untouched, unchanged, preserved???? Must it be traditional?

• OR PERHAPS we can use the definition to look at purpose: for something to be indigenous, must it be made to be useful????
San paintings had a spiritual purpose, folk dance had and has a communal purpose, initiation dances have a ritual purpose: in many societies dancing taught young people the value system of the tribe or the community. It did not have an audience, it was not done for an audience: those who watched were non-dancing participants, they were part of the activity. There are people who believe, and I am one of those people, that dance can be done by amateurs, that dancing together is a binder of people, a socialiser of people, and the more we all dance together the more we will feel connected and understand our common humanity, SO THAT INDIGENOUS does not come to be a category that divides us, but becomes one that brings us together (describe the papaya experience) PM
• The politics of the situation
Are we turning culture into a commodity? Cultural industries? For the tourist? For the market? (cf. Hopi, Hula, Yaqui)
And do we mean indigenous when we say culture and not arts? (cf. Sphelele Nzama’s Umphafa, performed at Jomba two weeks ago)
Should the National Arts Council fund culture?
What sort of dance should be taught in schools? Is every subject/learning area taught for vocational purposes? Should it be?
Can we think inside another culture? Again, cf. the Papaya experience. Is white music different from black music? Does everything fit inside a cultural box?
Is indigenous anything static? Does it need norm-guarders? Or innovators? Or both?
• Have we got anywhere? And does today’s discussion end here? If I had my way, we would look to the spiritual collective folk aspects of dance and share them with each other secure in the fact that our differences will not be wiped out, but our similarities of emotions: joy, sorrow, empathy, will be experienced. You can’t get the experience from watching, only from doing. “Trees have roots, men have legs, and are each other’s guests”

Lynn Maree
Durban, 16th September, 2006