The Indigenous Sovereign Body: Gender, Sexuality and Performance
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Art & Art History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 12-15-2017 The ndiI genous Sovereign Body: Gender, Sexuality and Performance. Michelle S. McGeough University of New Mexico Michelle Susan McGeough University of New Mexico Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/arth_etds Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation McGeough, Michelle S. and Michelle Susan McGeough. "The ndI igenous Sovereign Body: Gender, Sexuality and Performance.." (2017). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/arth_etds/67 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Art & Art History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Michelle S. A. McGeough Candidate Art Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Joyce Szabo, Chairperson Dr. Kency Cornejo Dr. Carla Taunton Aaron Fry, ABD THE INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGN BODY: GENDER, SEXUALITY AND PERFORMANCE By Michelle S.A. McGeough B.Ed., University of Alberta, 1982 A.A., Institute of American Indian Art, 1996 B.F.A., Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design University, 1998 M.A., Carleton University, 2006 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Art History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2017 Dedication I wish to dedicate these thoughts and words to the two women whose names I carry, my Grandmothers− Susanne Nugent McGeough and Mary Alice Berard Latham. I also write this for you, Diana. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I wish to extend my gratitude and thanks to my committee members. I especially wish to thank Dr. Joyce Szabo for her guidance and wisdom throughout this process. I also wish to thank Dr. Kency Conejo for her insight and encouragement. A special thanks to Dr. Carla Taunton for sharing your expertise in Indigenous performance art. I especially appreciate how you made yourself so available even though you were thousands of miles away. I also wish to thank Aaron Fry for his perceptive contributions to this project. I also want extend a very heartfelt thank-you to Dr. Sherry Farrell Racette. Who knew that the conversation we had over coffee would lead to the chapter on Go-won-go Mohawk? The conversation was an example of her generosity and the breath of her knowledge. Her words of wisdom have helped me stay the course. I also wish to thank Dr. Jolene Rickard, Ngahiraka Mason and Dr. Julie Nagam. The time I spent with all of you had a profound influence on my present as well as my future scholarship. This project would not have existed if it was not for the artists who have generously shared with me their wisdom, their vision and their time: Rosalie Favell, Barry Ace, Adrian Simpson, Thirza Cuthand, Dayna Danger and Erin Konsmo. I really can never thank you enough. You are all so brave, even though we seem to accept those who do not conform to the heteronormative expectations, this is still not a safe world. Throughout the process of researching, I was fortunate to come across a number of people who were so helpful. These include: Diane S. Tyink, Museum Archivist of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology; Marva Felchlin, Director, Libraries and Archives of the Autry Museum; Diana Purdue, Curator of Collections at the Heard Museum; Cheri iv Falkenstein Doyle, Curator at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Thank you for answering my queries and being so responsive to my requests. I also want to acknowledge the University of New Mexico’s Art Department for providing me with a number of teaching assistantships and graduate assistantships while I was enrolled in the program, and for awarding me the David Craven Scholarship. I was also the recipient of a Graduate Studies Travel Award, which I used to attend the Indigenous Knowledges and Methods Symposium in Montreal. I also wish to thank the Peabody Essex Museum Fellowship for helping me fund my trip to Montreal. During the final stage of writing my dissertation I was awarded a month-long residency at the Banff Center for the Arts. During that time I was provided space and the companionship of brilliant Indigenous minds and the conversations we had were so inspiring. To my cohorts, Joi Arcand, Jason Baerg, Lisa Boivin, Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Léuli Mazyar Luna’I Eshraghi, Tanya Harnett, Lindsay Nixon, Ahilapalapa Rands, and Kayla Schubert, thank you. To family, Diana, what a journey this has been. Little did either of us know what doing a Ph.D. would entail, but I thank you for sticking with me throughout this process. To my siblings, thank you for asking, Are you done yet? To answer your question, I think I am done. Thank you for all your support. v THE INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGN BODY: GENDER, SEXUALITY AND PERFORMANCE by Michelle S.A. McGeough B.Ed., Secondary Education, University of Alberta, 1982 A.A., Institute of American Indian Art, 1996 B.F.A., Photography, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design University, 1998 M.A., Canadian Art History, Carleton University, 2006 Ph.D., Art History, University of New Mexico, 2017 ABSTRACT Gender variance and artist production are not topics that are often discussed within the discipline of art history. In fact gender variance and in particular its relationship to sexual orientation was not a topic studied, much less discussed outside of the medical community until the mid-twentieth century. It was generally thought that sexuality and gender were “biologically determined” and deviation from the heterosexual norm was considered pathological. In contrast, Indigenous nations in Canada and the United States had a very different understanding regarding the relationship between gender, biology, and sexual object of choice. One area that provides us with a glimpse into how Indigenous people construct knowledge regarding gender and sexual identity is through the study of their artistic production. Before the 1990s, much of the discourse and research on Indigenous gender and sexual expressions written by explorers, medical professionals, and anthropologists vi dominated the field of research. This discourse reflected non-Native concerns and ideas and beliefs regarding gender and sexuality. In these contemporary times we have seemingly witnessed an increasing acceptance of gender variance, but nonetheless acts of violence against those who do not conform to a binary construction of gender and sexuality are a constant reminder of the vulnerability of those who do not conform to expectations. The stories of individuals contained in this dissertation not only show how Indigenous nations constructed knowledge regarding gender differently, but also that binary gender and sexual categories are not perdurable. My claims are informed by the retelling of actual historic and contemporary experiences of individuals who did not conform to settler nation state constructions of gender. This knowledge demonstrates that the binary construction of gender is a construction and we must ask ourselves, what are the consequences for Indigenous nation building and sovereignty if we maintain constructions of gender that perpetuate heteronormativity, and heteropatiarchy? vii Table of Contents List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... ix List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... xii Chapter One: Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Chapter Two: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 19 Feminism..................................................................................................................... 20 Art History and Anthropology .................................................................................... 21 Chapter Three: Hosteen Klah: The Embodied Synthesis of Hózhó ....................................... 35 What’s in a Word: Acknowledging Indigenous Gender Constructions and Ontology38 Dynamic Symmetry and Holism Asymmetry and the Expression of Hózhó ............. 47 Chapter Four: Go-won-go: Troubling Settler Colonial Constructions of Gender and Performativity ............................................................................................................. 68 The Cult of Domesticity.............................................................................................. 73 Life on the Vaudeville Stage....................................................................................... 81 The Wild West Craze .................................................................................................. 86 The Society of American Indians ............................................................................. 101 Chapter Five: Rupture, Renewal, Reclamation: Contemporary Expressions of Indigenous Gender and Sexual Identities .................................................................................... 106 Rupture ...................................................................................................................... 112 Renewal....................................................................................................................