By examining the images and narratives found in colonial archives, we will revisit the biased portrayals of Amazigh (Indigenous) women imposed by French colonialism and how these perspectives traveled across the Atlantic to the United States. The talk will also reveal the lost treasures of our cultural heritage, such as traditional jewelry that was sold or stolen during that time. We will explore how, despite attempts at marginalization and the challenges posed by migration, we have managed to preserve and transmit this precious heritage from generation to generation. This journey of resilience and cultural reclamation that we undertake today is much more than a quest for restitution; it is a living affirmation of our identity and history in the face of forces that try to erase it.
Kif-Kif Bledi, a Paris-based dance company dedicated to the social and indigenous dances of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, using both a traditional and contemporary approach. will also be giving a performance on October 13 and a workshop on October 17.
Co-sponsored by the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, the Henkels Lecture Fund, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, and the Transnational France Research Cluster.
Originally published at raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.