Radio Healer: hacking the Wii remote to perform indigenous re-imagined ceremony

Abstract

Radio Healer is a performance project in residence at the Pueblo Grande Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. During Radio Healer performances, indigenous electronic tools (many of which are created from salvaged materials and hacked Nintendo Wii Remotes) are performed together with traditional indigenous instruments. The convergence of traditional and contemporary indigenous instruments demonstrates value-laden tensions between notions of what is considered traditional and contemporary. At the same time Radio Healer illustrates that despite these tensions, traditional and contemporary technology can connect to each other in useful and meaningful ways (Figure 1). By creating this rivaling complexity, Radio Healer provides an indigenous ground for inclusive public dialogues. Following performances, project artists facilitate dialogues that provide opportunities for audience interpretations of the performance, which often unpack Radio Healer as a metaphor for various lived experiences within the contexts of place, connected-knowledge, culture, relationships, and pervasive media.