Tarik Elmoutawakil

The Tamazight Tapes: Reviving Ancestors on Dying Formats

Presented at:

Camden People’s Theatre (live) / TSOTFtv (online) as part of Care and Destruction 2019.

Join Tarik Elmoutawakil as he attempts to find himself within long dead conversations between his father and grandmother.

Calling upon his North African Tamazight ancestors (also known as Berbers), Tarik shares the tapes that his now deceased father recorded during the 80s and 90s, documenting the lives and folk wisdoms of his people. Inserting himself into his families indigenous narratives, recorded on fuzzy tapes in a language he doesn’t quite understand, Tarik talks amongst friends, relatives and translators, searching for meaning amongst ancient riddles.

What do you do with your family’s oral history when it's stored on a dying format? If cultural erasure is a form of planned obsolescence, what tools do we have to stay relevant now and to future generations? And what right does a queer second generation Tamazight immigrant who regularly fights against traditions even have to hold this conversation?

Tarik Elmoutawakil is the creator of Brownton Abbey, The Afro Futuristic Space-Church themed performance party that centres celebrates and elevates queer people of colour especially those of us with disabilities. Tarik is founder and co-director of The Marlborough Theetre, Brighton.

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