Decolonization Rider

Emily Johnson / Catalyst requires all Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders and Collaborating Organizations entering into agreements with Catalyst to comply with Indigenous Protocol and acknowledgement (i.e. Land Acknowledgment or Embodied Land Acknowledgment) of its host Nation in all announcements and press that references the work. Land Acknowledgement / Embodied Land Acknowledgment is one step in a process toward decolonization. It includes relational actions and is a living process inclusive of deep learning and unlearning.

For more information about land acknowledgements, please complete the Indigenous Land and Territorial Acknowledgements for Institutions.

On Decolonization
“Decolonization suggests a withdrawal or refusal of the colonialist entity, and is the means by which peoples work to (re)establish their independence and sovereignty. It is a project and a process that includes deconstructing and dismantling (colonialist) systems and structures at the same time that it works to revitalize Indigenous ways of being and knowing. As a path toward remediating the theft of land and relations disrupted by all those forces that enact violence against land and intergenerational relations, collectivity, and communality, there is an urgent need to recognize what is at stake.

Institutions can make deliberate and intentional steps toward greater accountability and action, by displacing their authority and moving to center and privilege Indigenous decision making and leadership.

Indigenous leadership must be resourced to develop structural initiatives that move the project of decolonization forward. These initiatives will fundamentally challenge, transform and, in some instances, replace existing cultural institutions and practices. With sharp attention to ongoing and embedded systemic and structural Indigenous erasure, racism and colonial and anti-Black representation within institutions, we must transform and change institutional systems and governance.”

—Excerpted from Creating New Futures: Phase 2 – Notes for Equitable Funding from Arts Workers

COMMITMENT
Working with Emily Johnson / Catalyst requires all Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders and Collaborating Organizations entering into agreements with Catalyst to be committed to the process of decolonization/Indigenization. The process of decolonization/Indigenization is ongoing and includes communication with, commission of, and permission sought from local Indigenous Nations, Elders, appropriate consortia, etc. All such partners must be committed to and prepared to engage directly with Indigenous community, leadership and agencies.

Decolonization processes can include, but are not limited to staff cultural competency trainings, discussions/workshops with Indigenous and accomplice leaders; plans toward adding to board, advisory councils, and staff First Nations / Indigenous representation; plans for ongoing, continued inclusion of Indigenous and BIPOC artists in programming; Land Acknowledgement processes in place; equitable relationships with local Indigenous community and in Lenapehoking, specific pathways that address and make reparations for the current and forced displacement of Lenape peoples.

DISCLOSURES
In advance of contracting work, all Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders and Collaborating Organizations entering into agreements with Catalyst will engage with the Decolonial Action Coalition’s institutional decolonial assessment (currently in development), which includes metrics for Access, Representation, Education, Indigenous Acknowledgement, Land Presence and Return.

Catalyst will be informed as to whether or not the Presenter, Presenting Partner, Funder and Collaborating Organization entering into agreements with Catalyst, and/or the institution of which it is a part, hold any Indigenous belongings/Ancestors; the status the land on which it is situated in relationship to any broken, unrecognized, or unlawful Treaties with the US government; benefits from current or historical forced labor of enslaved people; profits from investments in military industries, weapons, or extractive industries; holds contracts with the police or military; and has been, or is currently engaged in, investigations or lawsuits for alleged sexual misconduct, sexual assault, racial violence, discrimination or hostile work environment due to the actions of any of its employees.

PALESTINIAN CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL

Catalyst’s tenet is Land Back. We honor and recognize the broader movements for Land Back and sovereignty around the world. Emily Johnson / Catalyst aligns with and commits to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). We uphold the guidelines of PACBI to the best of our abilities. As such, we actively boycott, divest, and do not work with Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders and Collaborating Organizations that fit within the outlined PACBI guidelines, or have active contracts with public institutions or private corporations that fit within the PACBI guidelines. We ask Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders and Collaborating Organizations to review these guidelines, and inform Emily and Catalyst of any active relationships and contracts that do not align with them.

POLICING
All activities that are part of the research, development, creation and presentation of any Catalyst project will be undertaken without the presence of armed officers or officers in uniform.

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE PROTECTION
Catalyst works with a variety of Indigenous Elders, artists, scholars and culture-bearers, and respect for and protection of Indigenous Knowledges is essential in all of our partnerships. Intellectual and cultural property issues are critical to address in any context where Indigenous knowledge is being shared. Histories of settler-colonialism have created multiple contexts where Indigenous cultural knowledge is not properly recognized, valued and protected. This has ongoing consequences for how people are willing to share their knowledge, under what circumstances and with whom.

The current international system for protecting intellectual property was fashioned during the age of industrialization in the West, and it therefore privileges individuals and makes knowledge into property for exclusive possession. Further, copyright law has historically functioned as a mechanism for the dispossession of Indigenous knowledge from Indigenous peoples. In response to these histories, all knowledge shared during this work remains the intellectual property of Emily Johnson / Catalyst and/or remains collectively held by the collaborating community/ies. This includes any recordings – audio descriptions of stories, language, contexts of creation. Any material created during the development of a work, including audio or photography, remains under the ownership of Emily Johnson / Catalyst and/or remains collectively held by the community/ies also involved in the work.

PROCESS
Emily Johnson / Catalyst has developed a specific process for creating her works that relies on community relationships that center Indigenous voice through collaboration and engagement to vision collective desires for a present and future being and belonging. While this process is being shared through this work, Emily Johnson/Catalyst retains full ownership of the process that she has uniquely developed. When this process is reused in other contexts outside of the involvement of Emily Johnson / Catalyst, appropriate permissions, attribution and resource contributions will be made.

BUILDING & DEEPENING COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS
Within the scope of its contracted and/or funded work, Catalyst will direct its own efforts and processes to build relationships with local Indigenous Elders, artists, scholars and culture-bearers and other artists and communities of color. These relationships are not in the stead of the Presenter, Presenting Partner, Funder or Collaborating Organization doing its own work in respectful relation.

COMMUNICATIONS
Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders, Collaborating Organizations and their communications staff will review the following article on evolving Indigenous style-guides, and adhere to recommendations offered therein: https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/01/17/Copy-Editor-Indigenous-Style. Continued research and reflection should further inform and advance these evolving practices.

FONTS
The majority of fonts and typefaces used by institutions and organizations cannot accommodate the way Indigenous languages are written. This is an ongoing process of colonial erasure. In any and all instances in the development of advertising and promotional materials, the BC Sans font will be used. BC Sans is an Open Source font that ensures Indigenous languages can properly be represented.

See BC Sans Typeface

LAND-USE FEE
We encourage all Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders and Collaborating Organizations to directly support local and/or national land rematriation efforts by paying a land tax or land-use fee to local or national Indigenous led LandBack efforts. All Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders and Collaborating Organizations entering into agreements with Catalyst are responsible for a contribution at least equal to 10% of our agreed upon commission. However, institutional contributions for ongoing land-use should be calculated in response to land occupied:

●      Land-Grant institutions should calculate land-use fee based on the amount of benefits accumulated through the Morrill Act;
●      Any land-use fee should be increased in direct response to local current/emergency land protective efforts, a current example: Stop Line 3, Defend Atlanta Forest.

In addition, a land-use fee should be added to all individual ticket sales and contributed to the same efforts. Communications with the audience regarding the land-use fee should educate and direct audiences to continue “real rent.” Land-use fees offer material support while building awareness for direct ways institutions and individuals can support and work toward reparative justice. Some examples include: Real Rent Duwamish Land / U of M Theater Arts and Dance Land Use Fee / Resource Generation

 
NON-GENDERED RESTROOMS
A central tenet of the colonialist entity is the ways in which gender identity and expression is a tool to impede and control bodily and expressive autonomy, independence, and sovereignty. As Emily Johnson / Catalyst is committed to the work of decolonizing gender in the performing arts, we require all Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders and Collaborating Organizations to commit to this work as well.

In presenting and supporting our work, all Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders and Collaborating Organizations must provide non-gendered restrooms, either already installed and identified as such on placards and maps, or be converted into non-gendered restrooms by the time of Emily and the company’s arrival, for backstage, front-of-house, and audiences. Non-gendered restrooms make basic utilities accessible to people and communities that exist beyond the confines of gender essentialism and the gender binary, including Indigenous communities and nations.

All bathrooms that are not converted to non-gendered restrooms by arrival will be converted as such by Emily and the company upon the first day of arrival to the venue and will remain non-gendered until the end of the company's residency.


GOING FURTHER
Presenters, Presenting Partners, Funders and Collaborating Organizations seeking training and support in the process of Land Acknowledgment / Embodied Land Acknowledgment, decolonization and Indigenization in preparation for working directly with local and regional Indigenous communities can contract with Emily Johnson / Catalyst or other Indigenous led consortia or individuals for training and workshops, separate from the performance contract.

I agree to abide by the clauses of this Decolonization Rider and to undertake material efforts toward the ongoing decolonization of my programming and of the institution I work with/for.

____________________________________ ___________________________________ 

Name, Title Date

____________________________________

Institution

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RECOMMENDED ADVISORS and AGENCIES

Felicia Garcia, Samala Chumash
landacknowledgement@gmail.com / feliciarenee00@gmail.com

Melissa Shaginoff, Ahtna/Paiute; Udzisyu (caribou) and Cui Ui Ticutta (fish-eater) clans from Nay’dini’aa Na Kayax (Chickaloon Village).
Melissashaginoff.com / mshaginoff@gmail.com

Emily Johnson / Catalyst, Yup’ik
Catalystdance.com / emily@catalystdance.com

First Nations Performing Arts, Decolonization Track
First Nations Performing Arts / admin@firstnationsperformingarts.global

IllumiNative
Illuminative.org

RECOMMENDED READINGS and RESOURCES

A guide and call to acknowledgment
https://usdac.us/nativeland

Guide to Indigenous Land and Territorial Acknowledgments for Cultural Institutions
http://landacknowledgements.org/

Tuck, Eve and K.W Yang. 2012. Decolonization is not a Metaphor
https://www.latrobe.edu.au/staff-profiles/data/docs/fjcollins.pdf

Changing the Narrative about Native Americans, a Guide for Allies
https://www.firstnations.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/•MessageGuide-Allies-screen-spreads_1.pdf

Reclaiming Native Truth Research Findings
https://www.firstnations.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/FullFindingsReport-screen.pdf

Vowel, C. (2016, September 23). Beyond Territorial Acknowledgments. Apihtawikosisan.
http://apihtawikosisan.com/2016/09/beyond-territorial-acknowledgments/

Research on colonial structures in language:
https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/indigenous-peoples-terminology-guidelines-for-usage
https://www.monash.edu/about/editorialstyle/writing/inclusive-language
https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/01/17/Copy-Editor-Indigenous-Style 

QUYANA

Jane Anderson, ENRICH, New York University, Lenapehoking.
Chris Bell, Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, University of Minnesota, Mni Sota Makoce.

These are the known institutions/organizations working with the Decolonization Rider:

Abrons Arts Center, Bates Dance Festival, BroadStage, Bunnell Street Arts Center, Chocolate Factory, Counter Pulse, Creative Time, Dance/NYC, Danspace Project, EFA Project Space, Festival TransAmériques, Field Hall, Five Colleges, JACK, Jacob’s Pillow, Kennedy Center, Links Hall, Local Contexts, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Mellon Foundation, Movement Research, New York Live Arts, National Performance Network, Perelman Performing Arts Center, Performance Space New York, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Production Manger's Forum, Toronto Biennial, University of California, Riverside

The Decolonization Rider has been published in the following publications:

Sick Time, Sleepy Time, Crip Time: Against Capitalism’s Temporal Bullying – A Field Guide (forthcoming 2023)

Creative Time, Invitation to Reworlding (2020)