Performing Climates: Turning to First Nations Philosophies

As a traditionally live practice, performance is always rooted in a place with its own microclimate connected to broader systems and spheres of relations. So what does it mean to make, watch and think about performance in a climate emergency? Dr Lara Stevens speaks about her forthcoming book (co-authored with Eddie Paterson) Performing Climates, a book about messy relations between human and more-than-human entities, built and natural environments the past, the present climate emergency, and the future of the planet. In developing a mode of thinking about performance as composting, we learn from First Nations knowledges about animate Country, nonlinear time, kinship, climate injustice and adaptation. This paper argues against performance-as-usual and philosophy-as-usual in times of ecological collapse.