„Jestem pustką". O koncepcji performowania rdzenności Mirosława Kocura
"I am a void": On Mirosław Kocur's performance of indigeneity

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes the experiences of Mirosław Kocur, a theater anthropologist and cultural studies scholar, during his expedition to the Prince of York Islands archipelago (New Guinea). Through the practice of immersion in nature ("submersion"), he formulates a paradoxical definition of indigeneity as "emptiness." By comparing the research in which Kocur participated with the French Dakar–Djibouti expedition (1931–1933), the text highlights the differences in approach between classical ethnography and the Polish researcher. The author considers whether Kocur, through his experiences, becomes an indigenous researcher—not a native, but someone who adopts the local philosophy of cognition and participates in cultural heritage. In this context, she refers to the concepts of heritage developed by Laurajane Smith and Rodney Harrison, which emphasize that heritage is a living, performative process rather than a collection of material objects. The text concludes with a reflection that indigenousness may be not so much an ethnic category as a choice of belonging and a way of being in a world open to other cultures, their rituals, and spirituality.

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