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Accent and Language Training for the Indigenous Performer: Results of Four Focus Groups

ABSTRACT This article highlights the experience of Indigenous performers in Canada; it makes recommendations on how to better serve Indigenous actors-in-training, for appropriate and effective accent and language resource creation, and on how to improve the ways that professional Indigenous artists are supported in roles requiring Indigenous language and/or accents in theatre, television, and film. This project reviews the outcomes of four focus group discussions with Indigenous performers around the topic of accent and language training and its use in performance. Participants reported on their experience with accent and voice training in western and Indigenous performance training institutions, on their experience performing in traditional language and/or performing with an Indigenous accent of English, how they felt performance training can be decolonized, and on the accent/language resources they felt were important to improve training opportunities for Indigenous artists.