Performance embodies knowledge transfer, cultural expression, and intercultural influence. It is a method through which Indigenous people express their relations to land and continuously establish their persistent political authority. But performance is also key to the misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in settler colonial societies. Against the Current and Into the Light challenges dominant historical narratives of the land now known as Stanley Park, exploring performances in this space from the late nineteenth century to the present. Selena Couture engages with knowledge held in an endangered Indigenous language's place names, methods of orientation in space and time, and conceptions of leadership and respectful visiting. She then critically engages with narratives of Vancouver history created by the city's first archivist, J.S. Matthews, through his interest in Lord Stanley's visit to the park in 1889. Matthews organized several public commemorative performances on this land from the 1940s to 1960, resulting in the iconic yet misleading statue of Lord Stanley situated at the park's entrance. Couture places Matthews's efforts at commemoration alongside continuous political interventions by Indigenous people and organizations such as the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia, while also responding to contemporary performances by Indigenous women in Vancouver that present alternative views of history. Using the metaphor of eddies of influence - motions that shape and are shaped by obstacles in their temporal and spatial environments - Against the Current and Into the Light reveals how histories of places have been created, and how they might be understood differently in light of Indigenous resurgence and decolonization.

Selena Couture is assistant professor or drama at the University of Alberta.

Selena Couture's profile page

"Against the Current and Into the Light is an innovative, deeply researched, and thoroughly engrossing account of the acts of knowledge transfer embedded in both Indigenous and white settler cultural performances related to Stanley Park. Couture engages with several Indigenous scholars' own interventions into the politics of intercultural knowledge production and approaches the material she is writing about with humility, responsibility, and care." Peter Dickinson, Simon Fraser University

"A fascinating read and an excellent addition to the growing body of scholarship on Indigenous per-formance. The use of Stanley Park as a case study allows us to more deeply understand the power of place-based performances, particularly within the confines of and Indigenous resistance to settler colonialism." Native and Indigenous Studies Journal

"Couture's evocative narration draws the reader in, placing us in the audience with her through her rich descriptions of the performances. She seamlessly weaves the performance interventions into the larger story of historical interventions, deftly moving between theoretical analysis, archival materials, and the often ephemeral nature of live performance. The book is a fascinating read and an excellent addition to the growing body of scholarship on Indigenous performance." Native American and Indigenous Studies

“[Against the Current and Into the Light] successfully brings together theatre scholarship with historical analysis of Indigenous and settler performance, raising exciting possibilities for thinking about performance as a form of Indigenous historiography.” BC Studies