For Breaking Protocol, transdisciplinary artist Maria Hupfield embarked on a research project on the protocols of Indigenous performance—tracing Indigenous knowledge systems, land-preservation practices, and feminist scholarship to illuminate strategies for enacting refusal within decolonial frameworks. The book draws from Hupfield’s “Coffee Break”—a series of conversations held over Zoom during the pandemic, in which Hupfield invited international Indigenous performance artists to discuss their work (from dance to stand-up comedy), who in turn invited other artists to join the conversations. Building on these exchanges, Breaking Protocol centers on Indigenous place-based artistic modes of making and practice to open spaces for reciprocity and multiplicity.

“Building on the Coffee Break sessions, Breaking Protocol honors the strength and beauty of the artists who fuel and feed my practice; it comes from the desire to hold space together, connect, continue, resist, and thrive! These exchanges emphasize a diversity of practice, a grounding in Indigenous knowledge, and collective approaches to demanding sovereignty and critical accountability.”

—Maria Hupfield

Introduction by Maria Hupfield with written contributions and artworks by Jackson 2bears, Pelenakeke Brown, Katherine Carl, Re’al Christian, Christen Clifford, TJ Cuthand, Raven Davis, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, Candice Hopkins, Akiko Ichikawa, Ursula Johnson, Kite, Charles Koroneho, Carin Kuoni, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Cathy Mattes, Peter Morin, Meagan Musseau, Wanda Nanibush, Archer Pechawis, Rosanna Raymond, Skeena Reece, Georgiana Uhlyarik, and Charlene Vickers, and reflections on Rebecca Belmore, Lori Blondeau, Dennis Redmoon Darkheem, Natalie Diaz, the Dime Collective, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Jane Schoolcraft, and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory.