Résumés
Abstract
While Home Rule negotiations between Kalaallit Nunaat and Denmark were underway, the Aasivik summer festivals, founded in 1976, proposed an alternative model of collective politics. Borrowing its name from a term for historical gathering sites, the modern Aasivik movement hosted debates on a wide range of topics, bringing political activity into settlements and camps. Although Aasivik’s influence on Kalaallit Nunaat’s political history has been widely recognized, the movement’s theoretical complexity has gone largely unacknowledged. In this article, I discuss several key episodes from the festival’s first decade, emphasizing how Aasivik mobilized cultural heritage as a means of responding to social inequalities introduced by Danish colonial rule. First, I outline Aasivik’s roots in local and global Indigenous decolonial movements and describe how these influences led activists to analyze topics such as dispossession, labor, Marxist thought, and collective land access in the festival’s early debates and public statements. I then examine how the presence of customary performance and avant-garde theater at several Aasiviit intersected with the movement’s political positions, focusing on the activities of the Tuukkaq Theater and the revitalization of uaajeerneq (mask dancing). Finally, I discuss the significance of Aasivik’s land-based model of politics for contemporary debates in Indigenous critical theory.
Keywords:
- Aasivik,
- Home Rule in Greenland,
- Qullissat,
- grounded normativity,
- Tuukkaq Theater,
- uaajeerneq
Résumé
Alors que les négociations sur l’Autonomie du Kalaallit Nunaat vis-à-vis du Danemark (Home Rule) étaient en cours, les festivals d’été Aasivik, fondés en 1976, encourageaient un modèle alternatif de politique collective. Empruntant son nom à un terme désignant des lieux de rassemblement historiques, le mouvement moderne Aasivik a organisé des débats sur un large éventail de sujets, amenant l’activité politique dans les campements et les camps. Bien que l’influence d’Aasivik sur l’histoire politique des Kalaallit Nunaat ait été largement reconnue, la complexité théorique du mouvement est restée largement méconnue. Dans cet article, j’aborde plusieurs épisodes clés de la première décennie du festival, en mettant l’accent sur la manière dont le mouvement Aasivik a mobilisé le patrimoine culturel comme moyen de répondre aux inégalités sociales introduites par la domination coloniale danoise. Tout d’abord, je souligne les racines d’Aasivik dans les mouvements décoloniaux autochtones locaux et mondiaux, et je décris comment ces influences ont conduit les activistes à analyser la dépossession, le travail, la pensée marxiste et l’accès collectif à la terre dans les premiers débats et les premières déclarations publiques du festival. J’examine ensuite comment la présence de spectacles coutumiers et de théâtre d’avant-garde lors de plusieurs Aasiviit a recoupé les positions politiques du mouvement, en me concentrant sur les activités du Tuukkaq Theater et sur la revitalisation de l’uaajeerneq (danse des masques). Enfin, je discute de l’importance du modèle politique d’Aasivik basé sur la terre pour les débats contemporains de la théorie critique autochtone.
Mots-clés :
- Aasivik,
- autonomie du Groenland,
- Qullissat normativité ancrée,
- théâtre Tuukkaq,
- uaajeerneq
Parties annexes
References
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