THE CULTURAL TRUTH IN DRUM DANCE FESTIVAL OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE IN NORTHWEST TERRITORIES OF CANADA

Abstract

Dance is one unique art whose cultural truth has been misinterpreted based on individualism, assumption, and scholarly perceptive thinking because of its major functionalities of identity and entertainment, thereby suppressing the core truth of originality and essence. It is the originality and essence of any dance that makes it culturally communicative, culturally relevant, and culturally diverse anywhere performed. The problem of this study, therefore, interrogates the true interpretation and cultural communication of the Drum Dance festival beyond the mere aesthetics of beating drums and stylized dancing styles. The objective of this research is; to interpret the cultural truth of drum dance festival beyond the oral tradition of being a mere form of identification only in the Northwest Territories of Canada, to interrogate what truly gave rise to the origin of dance and this research will contribute immensely to any existing literature on Drum Dance because there are scanty research on the Drum Dance of Northwest Territories of Canada. To understand the essence of cultural truth in the dance, the content analysis would be used as the research methodology in giving the required scholarly detailed analysis and findings to the Drum Dance of Aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories of Canada. To justify claims or findings in this research paper the cultural consensus theory by Williams H. Batchelder (which states that people must communally understand and appreciate their culture with one tone before it would be accepted by others) would be used as the working theory for emphasis on Drum Dance festival of Aboriginal People in Canada. From the findings, there is scanty scholarly research and literature on the Drum Dance festival beyond the generalized assumption that the dance is a form of cultural identity in the Northwest Territories of Canada only, and this is what the researcher sets out to correct. This research recommends the following, the documentation of the drum dance should be done with strong literary backups(not the scanty write-ups on the internet) by dance scholars in Canada for further research, the government of Northwest Territories should sponsor research on the drum dance by University dance professors to do proper cultural analysis and interpretations on dance beyond been a mere oral tradition as it is now, the government of Northwest Territories should encourage their youth to strive harder and study dance as a course in the university, it will help to train notable Professors and PhD holders in dance that will help to preserve the dance from not going into extinction, the study of dance as a culture based on interpretation and appreciation should be introduced in primary and high schools in the Northwest Territories because it will help the children to value dance studies as communicative tool and not as mere indigenous performance. In conclusion, the potency of any dance must be fact-based on communally accepted truth on unaltered originality and essence, and not individualized ideology as mere identifying tools and entertaining amplifiers.