Historicizing the Mardi Gras Indians in HBO's Treme: An Emancipatory Narrative

International audienceThis study examines the process of historicization of the Black Mardi Gras Indians in the HBO drama series Treme produced by David Simonand Eric Overmyer. Grounded in a critical cultural perspective, and relatingfiction to reality through historical truth, we analyze the manner in which the producers recreate this minority's collective narrative as cultural performance of struggle and survival in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We base our analysison series narratives and interviews with members of the Black Mardi Gras Indian(artist) communities. We also rely on local experts and historians using a form of "demystifactory" or "prophetic" criticism in which artists comment on the artisticand historical representations of the Mardi Gras Indians as a unique subculture of the heterogeneous African Diaspora. Our analysis suggests how the Mardi GrasIndians' narrative speaks to the values of resistance and resilience in an otherwiseWhite dominant social order. Further, the characterization of the Mardi GrasIndians reveals an emancipatory and liberative narrative necessary to their culturalsurvival