Walk manhattan walk, or what is not mine and never should be.
On Sunday, October 28, 2018 at 7:00am, I embarked on a 32-mile walk with the goal to circumambulate the perimeter of Manhatta. 32 miles is a long way. It is 5.8 miles longer than a marathon, an activity in which only 0.5% of the US population participates. Marathons typically take about 5 hours to finish at an average running pace. The 32-mile walk took 12.5 hours which included intermittent pauses for lunch and sore feet (read, global body pain).
I chose to attempt the perimeter as the next installation of my practice as a performance artist. Recently, I have been questioning the individual artist’s responsibility towards acknowledging indigenous lands and peoples. I had noticed the uptick in recognition practices in contemporary and experiment performance venues such as Gibney, Movement Research, and Abrons Arts Center, but I was curious how the pre-show acknowledgments transferred into and around the presented artists’ work, practice, and life as artists based in on the lands of the Lenni Lenape past, present, and future. Were we really just leaving the emotional labor of working through the realities (that New York City is increasing colonized by white capitalism, a continuation of “traditional” colonization that started in the 15th century and frankly still continues to this day) to institutions? Is this the best practice? And, if young artists like me are not being presented by these institutions, what is my role within the conversation and can I develop my own recognition practice? - Rebecca Fitton, Fall 2018
I chose to attempt the perimeter as the next installation of my practice as a performance artist. Recently, I have been questioning the individual artist’s responsibility towards acknowledging indigenous lands and peoples. I had noticed the uptick in recognition practices in contemporary and experiment performance venues such as Gibney, Movement Research, and Abrons Arts Center, but I was curious how the pre-show acknowledgments transferred into and around the presented artists’ work, practice, and life as artists based in on the lands of the Lenni Lenape past, present, and future. Were we really just leaving the emotional labor of working through the realities (that New York City is increasing colonized by white capitalism, a continuation of “traditional” colonization that started in the 15th century and frankly still continues to this day) to institutions? Is this the best practice? And, if young artists like me are not being presented by these institutions, what is my role within the conversation and can I develop my own recognition practice? - Rebecca Fitton, Fall 2018
Compiled Resources
The following are the sharable resources I have engaged with as a non-native person. Other learning and access points for me have occurred through open and public events. These resources have also been, in part, compiled with my colleagues in Dance/NYC's 2019-2020 Junior Committee as we explored integrating land acknowledgments into our meetings.
All My Relations Collective
All My Relations Podcast
Amerinda
American Indian Community House
Beatrice Glow, "Mannahatta VR"
BlakDance
"Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Dance/NYC's compiled resources
"Decolonizing is not a metaphor" by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang
Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance by Edgar Villanueva
"Does Abstraction Belong to White People?" by Miguel Gutierrez
Eagle Project Arts
Emily Johnson | Catalyst Dance
"Home in Lenapehoking" by Joe Baker and Hadrien Coumans
Indigenous Geotagging
Info about Wampum
Lenape Talking Dictionary
"No Poems on Stolen Land" by Clint Burnham
Park Avenue Armory: United Lenape Nations Pow Wow Press Release
Spiderwoman Theater
Tecumseh Ceaser's Wampum jewerly
The Lenape Center
The Welikia Project (I can't find if there is indigenous support/contributions to this project, if anyone knows please let me know!)
Ty Defoe
UN Global Indigenous Youth Caucus
Wampum factory in Albany
Wiki page on the American Indian Religious Act of 1978
Park Avenue Armory: WNYC article
NYC Walking related
"What if you could walk to the airport?" by Karrie Jacobs
The Shorewalker's "Great Saunter"
