Writing the Hamatša

Despite settler attempts to eradicate Hamatša, the ritual remains an important prerogative of the Kwakwaka’wakw people. When anthropologists sought to confine the cannibal dance to the past, the Kwakwaka’wakw adapted and preserved its dramatic choreography, magnificent bird masks, and aura for the future.

Writing the Hamatša offers a critical survey of efforts to interpret the ritual over the past four centuries. Going beyond postcolonial critiques that often ignore indigenous agency, Aaron Glass highlights how the Kwakwaka’wakw responded to the ethnographic encounter by transforming a set of specific performances into a broad cultural icon. The result is a fascinating study of how indigenous peoples repurpose and contest texts to shape their identities under settler colonialism.