Eco-erotic decolonisation and Khoisan revivalism: a research-performance study of the inseparable sensate exchange between land and body as a register for re-indigenisation

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dc.contributor.advisorPather, Jayendran
dc.contributor.advisorGillespie, Kelly
dc.contributor.authorAbrahams, Rehane
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-11T12:53:20Z
dc.date.available2026-06-11T12:53:20Z
dc.date.issued2026
dc.date.updated2026-06-11T12:50:54Z
dc.description.abstractThis thesis investigates the eco-erotic belonging of Land and body through performance practices as acts of embodied decolonisation and re-indigenisation through the Khoisan hydromythic figuration of Die Waterslang (The Water Snake). Drawing on ritual, trance and other tools of visceral performance-making in site-specific contexts, the study is produced from the bodied material power of Land, objects and practices in a relationality wherein the human is connected to a vaster field co-inhabited by beings that exist in entirely non-human modes. It is a performative ethnography that, in the processes of coming to matter, redefines ethnography (through rubbing against Khoisan anthropology) and performance practice. Methodologically, it is a research-creation study grounded in Indigenous epistemology that utilises an ecology of practices and techniques for intra-active1 making and thinking where there is a continual, inseparable sensate exchange and influence between practice and analysis. Conceptually located in the overlapping fields of Performance Studies, Indigenous feminism, New Materialism, Queer Ecology, Decolonial Studies and Sexuality Studies, it proposes the eco-erotic as a contact zone where the violent legacies of settler colonialism can be disrupted and new narratives and ways of being can emerge. It makes and thinks through three research-creation performance events presented at significant sites in and around Cape Town: Spier Estate in Stellenbosch, the Slave Lodge in Cape Town, and the Amazon development at the Liesbeeck River Confluence. Through these interventions, it proposes eco-erotic decolonisation and embodied knowledge production as a register of Khoisan Revivalism and re-indigenisation.
dc.identifier.apacitationAbrahams, R. (2026). <i>Eco-erotic decolonisation and Khoisan revivalism: a research-performance study of the inseparable sensate exchange between land and body as a register for re-indigenisation</i>. (). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43308en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationAbrahams, Rehane. <i>"Eco-erotic decolonisation and Khoisan revivalism: a research-performance study of the inseparable sensate exchange between land and body as a register for re-indigenisation."</i> ., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies, 2026. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43308en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationAbrahams, R. 2026. Eco-erotic decolonisation and Khoisan revivalism: a research-performance study of the inseparable sensate exchange between land and body as a register for re-indigenisation. . University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43308en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Abrahams, Rehane AB - This thesis investigates the eco-erotic belonging of Land and body through performance practices as acts of embodied decolonisation and re-indigenisation through the Khoisan hydromythic figuration of Die Waterslang (The Water Snake). Drawing on ritual, trance and other tools of visceral performance-making in site-specific contexts, the study is produced from the bodied material power of Land, objects and practices in a relationality wherein the human is connected to a vaster field co-inhabited by beings that exist in entirely non-human modes. It is a performative ethnography that, in the processes of coming to matter, redefines ethnography (through rubbing against Khoisan anthropology) and performance practice. Methodologically, it is a research-creation study grounded in Indigenous epistemology that utilises an ecology of practices and techniques for intra-active1 making and thinking where there is a continual, inseparable sensate exchange and influence between practice and analysis. Conceptually located in the overlapping fields of Performance Studies, Indigenous feminism, New Materialism, Queer Ecology, Decolonial Studies and Sexuality Studies, it proposes the eco-erotic as a contact zone where the violent legacies of settler colonialism can be disrupted and new narratives and ways of being can emerge. It makes and thinks through three research-creation performance events presented at significant sites in and around Cape Town: Spier Estate in Stellenbosch, the Slave Lodge in Cape Town, and the Amazon development at the Liesbeeck River Confluence. Through these interventions, it proposes eco-erotic decolonisation and embodied knowledge production as a register of Khoisan Revivalism and re-indigenisation. DA - 2026 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - performance studies KW - indigeneity KW - decolonial theory KW - eco-erotics KW - Khoisan revivalism KW - more-than-human KW - sexuality studies KW - ritual LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2026 T1 - Eco-erotic decolonisation and Khoisan revivalism: a research-performance study of the inseparable sensate exchange between land and body as a register for re-indigenisation TI - Eco-erotic decolonisation and Khoisan revivalism: a research-performance study of the inseparable sensate exchange between land and body as a register for re-indigenisation UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43308 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/43308
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationAbrahams R. Eco-erotic decolonisation and Khoisan revivalism: a research-performance study of the inseparable sensate exchange between land and body as a register for re-indigenisation. []. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies, 2026 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43308en_ZA
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanities
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subjectperformance studies
dc.subjectindigeneity
dc.subjectdecolonial theory
dc.subjecteco-erotics
dc.subjectKhoisan revivalism
dc.subjectmore-than-human
dc.subjectsexuality studies
dc.subjectritual
dc.titleEco-erotic decolonisation and Khoisan revivalism: a research-performance study of the inseparable sensate exchange between land and body as a register for re-indigenisation
dc.typeThesis / Dissertation
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationlevelPhD
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