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Virago Nation

January-February 2018

West-coast all-Indigenous burlesque group destroys stereotypes with their performances

Meet Virago Nation

Megan Jenkins

With the first chord of “Burn Your Village to the Ground,” the song accompanying a burlesque act titled “Not Your Stereotype,” a transformation begins. The figures on stage, dressed in racist caricatures of Indigeneity—feathered headdresses, wearing “Indian” Halloween costumes, carrying “Made in China” dreamcatchers—begin to shed their layers. The commodified image of the “Indian” is […] More »