Entering into an Indigenous Cypher

Although music-dance making would seem, intuitively, to be part of leisure studies, music and dance very seldom appear beyond the simple form of “activity” and rarely as music-dance making. Many Indigenous peoples conceptualize music-dance making as essential to life, knowledge, and taking care of the earth and cosmos. Seeking insight and wisdom from Indigenous practices and words, this chapter enacts maieutic listening to engage with Indigenous music-dance making that has sustained and nourished Indigenous Kanaka Maoli, Kanaka ‘Ōiwi, and Diné peoples for generations. The aim of the discussion is to gesture to social and political insights that can emerge through dialogue between Indigenous music-dance making and knowledge systems and Western leisure: a dialogue that unprivileges Western leisure. As Indigenous initiatives related to sovereignty, self-determination, and concern for the earth crisscross the world, the presence, power, and survivance of Indigenous music-dance making, as an integral component challenges, enriches, or changes how leisure is imagined and practiced.