As-tum

Hi everybody! Have you been thinking about Spivak? Well, today's post in going to be devoted to the eighth character in The Rez Sisters. Now, you must be wondering, “What is this person talking about? What eighth character? Did I get the right edition?”. Yes guys, you got the right edition, probably, and yes, there is an eighth character, Nanabush!

Nanabush is the trickster in Ojibway mythology and Weesagechack in Cree. The trickster is the central figure in Native culture, but that has been, as well as all other aspects, colonized. At the beginning of the play, Nanabush is somewhere in the reserve, but none of the women can see him, since “the old stories, the old language. Almost all gone … was a time Nanabush and Windigo and everyone here could rattle away in Indian” (5)

Even though at the beginning he is not there, later on he appears to accompany the women in their journey as they all grow stronger. Indeed it is Nanabush to whom Zhaboonigan confesses her rape, and it is him as well, who takes Marie-Adele in his arms when she passes away.

Nanabush (in general terms, the trickster), celebrates traditional native culture and religion by itself but also opposing Euro-Christian tradition; about this, Highway states that his play is not a tragedy in that Euro-Christian tradition, but transforming Native adversity into “humor and love and optimism, plus the positive values taught by Indian mythology.” He also says that while European mythology says we are here to suffer, “our mythology says we're here to have a good time.”

Regarding Nanabush, the key concept in its understanding is the fact that it has never been made flesh, so it can change his shape. Nanabush can be any human form or animal figure, male or female, or both. Unlike Christian tradition it cannot be classified.

Nanabush is yet another example of the gender differences between native and white culture. The trickster appears as a sexual complement, it is a man in The Rez Sisters and a woman in Dry Lips Ougtha move to Kapuskasing. Highway then, shows a culture that is free from the “European male-female-neuter hierarchy”.

Another interesting aspect about Nanabush is that only those who can speak Cree can see him. Language and Nanabush establish a connection with the Native culture, just as happens with Kyoti in Jeannette Armstrong's “This is a story”. The tradition, embodied here by the trickster, can only be revealed through language. Because of it, despite being near him (sometimes as a person, for example the bingo master, or as the nice seagull that choses Marie-Adele's fence to empty its stomach), most of the characters are unable to see his true nature.

So, Nanabush is the only figure that is always there, but it's not the centre of the play, but rather the way in which other characters relate to him. For example, Pelajia is always thinking of “our Nanabush”, Zhaboonigan calls him “nice white birdie”, he scares Marie-Adele on the jorney to Toronto, bothers her and then takes her with him. At the end of the play we can see “Nanabush, back once more in his disguise as the seagull, “lands” on the roof behind the unaware and unseeing Pelajia Patchnose. He dances to the beat of the hammer, merrily and triumphantly.” (118)

In his note about Nanabush, Highway writes this, “Some say that “nanabush” left this continent when the whiteman came. We believe he is still here among us – albeit a little the worse for wear and tear – having assumed other guises. Without him – and without the spiritual health of this figure - the core of Indian culture would be gone forever.” (XII)

Other rumors have it, that Nanabush will come back after the seventh generation after Columbus and now it is that seventh generation.

What do you think the differences between the Native and the European relegious believes affect the ways is which stories are told? When do you think Nanabush will come back?

You respect her!

How are my favorite readers doing? Today's entry won't be too long, but don't think that it is because it's not important, no, no, no.

Last time we were talking about the importance of the community in North American Native culture, and how it affected their narrative production, for example Highway's plays are choral works, or in Jeannette Armstrong “This is a story”, she puts all the focus on the community as an entity.

Highway emphasizes the importance of Native tradition not just in the relevanze of the group over the individual, but in some other aspects such as the importance of respecting old people, before the quarrel starts in the store, Philomena warns Emily about her manners,

“Emily Dictionary. You come back to the reserve after all these years and you strut around like you own the place. I know Veronique St. Pierre is a pain in the ass but I don't care. She's your elder and you respect her.” (43)

An interesting view of tradition in opposition to colonial influence is that of the matriarchy. Traditionally, many Native tribes were matriarchal, in the play this role is represented by Pelajia, who goes around wearing pants, with a hammer and is always rattling about the old chief.

Due to the contact with and assimilation by European culture these societies have slowly swifted into patriarchal roles, this being a white culture perversion institutionalized in the Indian Act.

This perversion has caused a lot of pain in native culture. In The Rez Sisters we see just the innocent (more or less) side of it, while in Dry Lips Ougtha Move to Kapuskasing, we get the cruelest view of reality. Big Joey could have prevented the rape of Patsy, and when questioned why he didn't do anything, all he says is “Because I hate them! I hate them fuckin' bitches. Because they – our own women – took the fuckin' power away from us faster than the FBI ever did.”

Very nice speech if you ask me, specially from an honest misogynist. Still, this is yet another colonization.

This perversion has created yet another colonizing entity over the native woman, that is, their own men. If you remember, some time ago I mentioned an article by Spivak and the colonization of third world women, well, now the figure of the colonizer changes into men, as I have just said, and these men reproduce the same imperialist ideology, indeed, the attitude of Big Joey could be represented in this quote by Spivak, “ Here the native “subject” is not almost an animal but rather the object of what might be termed the terrorism of the categorical imperative.” ( “Three women's text and a critique of imperialism”, 900)

Suming up, native women are colonized by two different waves let's say:

First: The white dominant culture that defines them as natives, women, and then according to their moral standards (in this particular case we have been talking about homosexuality and two-spirits). About this Spivak makes a reference about Antoinette or Bertha Mason, from Wide Sargasso Sea, that could be applied to The Rez Sisters as well, “In the figure of Antoinette, whom in Wide Sargasso Sea Rochester violently renames Bertha, Rhys suggests that so intimate a thing as personal and human identity might e determined by the politics of imperialism.” (901)

Second: Now that the “white man is gone”, they find a new oppressor, what the dominant culture has made of their own culture, here regarding men.

Well guys, I think we have had enough Spivak by now, but I want to know what you opinions on this subject are. Do you think these women are doubly oppressed? Do you think non-white or non-western women experience a different situation?

For all my sisters around here...

Hello again my loyal readers! Today I have some good news to share with you, here it goes … we are finally done with the sad things! Yes, yes, I know you can't hear me now over all the cheering, but we are going to talk about the conclusion to The Rez Sisters and how come that despite all that happens, you still feel good at the end. The answer, as cheesy as it might sound, is hope.

Still, it is important to keep in mind that Highway does not want to ignore or minimize the tragedies he depicts, but wants to focus on the good aspects of Native tradition.

Hope and sisterhood are key concepts in the understanding of this play, as well as native culture in general (change sisterhood for sense of community and you have it).

Who wouldn't like to do their shopping here?

These women start a journey not just to Toronto, but also to a new life, but they couldn't have done it without the others, they find empowerment through their relationship (actually they all are family, either sisters, half-sisters, sisters-in-law, and a daughter).

It is also in their sisterhood that they find dignity in all the tragedies that have happened to them and that happen during the narration. It is worth mentioning that none of these women are passive in their lives, instead of staying and conforming, they decide to start this adventure, together.

Author Oswald Yuan-Chin Chang writes in his article “Tomson Higway's “The Rez” Plays: Theater as the (E)erging of Native Ritual through Postmodernist Displacement” (Long right? Bad thing that blogs don't have footnotes), states that,

“While Euro-American plays most often reflect “the negativism, nihilism and spiritual void of Western postmodern society...”, a play such as “The Rez Sisters”, in spite of the similarity of its dramatic matrix, reflects the essential humanism, life-affirming and hopeful world view of Native peoples. Ironically, while the vast majority of Euro-American postmodern plays have given up on the idea of a humanistic society, Native playwrights such as Highway have embraced it, and have actually gone on to re-enforce it.”

Because all of this, they represent the new Native woman. One of the things by which you'll see the new woman is quite an obvious one, the clothes. In the very first page of the play we can see Pelajia (who else could it be?) in the roof her house, and this is the description we get, “ (… ) is alone on the roof of her house, nailing shingles on. She wears faded blue demin men's cover-alls and a baseball cap to shade her eyes from the sun.” (1)

Later on, Annie tells her, “(...) don't let those pants you are wearing go to your head” .(41)

The other character that shares this man-like attitude is Emily, and this is how she is described, “She is one tough lady, wearing cowboy boots, tight blue jeans, a black leather jacket – all three items worn to the seams – and she sports one black eye.” (37)

In the play we can see an evolution in them, and they become more assertive, they know what they want and how to get it. They go for determination and hope for the future. That is, for example, the case of Philomena, as we have seen already, when she decides that she is going to get a lawyer to find her lost child. Or Annie, who seems as a light character, someone to balance all the drama, but who shows her real self while talking to Emily,

“Annie: I'm singing back-up for Fritz weekends. 25 bucks a gig. That's something, eh?

(…)

Annie: I love him, Emily.” (108)

All of the women finally find and bring hope into their lives and the lives of those around them. Indeed the last thing we get from them are the very images of hope. That is the case of Emily and Zhaboonigan, from whom we get this extremely cute conversation,

“Emily: Gazelle Nataways'll see fit to kill... but I'm gonna have a baby. (…)

And the last we see of them is Zhaboonigan playfully poking Emily in the belly and Emily slapping Zhaboonigan's had away.” (110)

Marie-Adele, after her death (sorry about the spoiler, but you deserve it if you haven't read the play by now), has been able to find the peace she wanted, indeed her passing away in the arms of Nanabush is amazingly calm. Marie-Adele, whose only worry was the welfare of her family after her death, has gifted her fourteen children as the future of the reserve.

Veronique, Zhaboonigan's mother, as finally found her place taking care of Eugene and the kids. She is unable to have children of her own, but loves taking care of others. Actually with the money from the jackpot she wanted a new stove to cook for all the children in the reserve, but by now, she seems fine just the Marie-Adele's bunch,

“At Eugene Starblancket's house. Veronique St. Pierre is sitting on the steps, glowing with happiness, looking at the sky as though looking for seagulls.” (110)

Pelajia also decides to challenge the old chief, promising that had she been the chief they would have had some nice new roads.

So far you might have noticed, and I'm sure you have, you are really observant people, that most of what they do regards their reserve, their community. Now, of you remember, some posts ago I mentioned the fact that there is not a single protagonist, but that rather we have a choral work.

About this, in the already mentioned article,Change writes that “Native writers are also quick to stress that the use of “I” under these circumstances should not be taken in the same way as the “I” in Western cultures. It is not an individual “I” bur rather a communal one, once again reflecting a bringing together, a sense of union.”

Well, so, what do you think about these women's attitude? And how despite all the adversity there is not a glimpse but a big ray of hope? How different do you think this is from European literary tradition?

Here is Queer!

  Hello everybody, how are you doing? I bet you couldn't wait for my new post. And as I appreciate you very much, here I come with which will be almost the last theme discussed in the rez.

Today we are going to be dealing with homosexuality and homosexuality in native culture. Homosexuality is in this case represented by Emily Dictionary, who after leaving her house enrolled a motorcycle band. This band, called the Rez Sisters, had a leader, Rosabella Baez, Rose who was Emily's lover, as she tells Marie-Adele, “I loved that woman, Marie-Adele, I loved her like no man's ever loved a woman.” ( 97)

Sadly, Rose killed herself because of “how fuckin' hard it is to be an Indian in this country.” (97). But Emily gives us more clues about Rose and what drove her to suicide, “She was always thinkin' real deep. And talkin' about bein' a woman. An Indian woman.” (97)

If you remember we were talking about this some entries ago, about how native women colonized in two ways, one for being native and also for being women. Now imagine, how can it get any worst? Well, being gay.

So these women are now colonized in three different ways: Native, women, lesbian. Great.

This is a very interesting topic in which we can see how a dominant culture can destroy what it touches to the very roots.

Traditionally in many native American cultures, as it is the case of the Cree nation, there were people called two-spirits. They did not conceived the gender roles with have in our culture, for them the opposition man-woman didn't exist. To make it clear to us, two-spirits would be gays, lesbians and transsexuals, and basically anything in between.

The native tradition tells that these people were gifted because they carried two spirit, male and female and were revered and honored by their tribes. Women could marry other women and so men could marry other men. This type of gender identities have been reported in over 155 tribes in North America.

Two-spirit people held high positions in their societies, they were basic components in their social structures, being visionaries, healers, shamans and care givers.

It all seemed to be going just fine, until the colonizers came. When the first Europeans came to stay (French and English mainly), the existence of these two-spirit community was seen as a threat to them. First because it was against the Christian believes and morals and also because they were the spiritual leaders of the tribes. So, those Natives wearing skirts had to be gone, and so the persecution started, a persecution that has lasted until today, after their existence has been denied and almost destroyed.

Two-spirits unions were quite common

Thanks to that and the cultural assimilation that natives suffered, the two-spirit tradition has become that dirty secret nobody talks about in Christmas, being even rejected in their own communities.

This is one of the issues Highway explores in The Rez Sisters, being himself gay and very concern about the situation of queer native people. Taken from the essay “ Learning New Tricks: Re- Imag(in)ing Community in the Two-Spirited Writing of Tomson Highway” (this essay appears in following book , Dickinson, Peter. Here is Queer: Nationalisms, sexualities and the Literatures of Canada. By Peter Dickinson, University of Toronto Press, 1999) critic Sheila Rabillard, points out that “Highway's drama seems to invite the audience to see the opposition between the genders as a hurtful condition analogous to – if not the product of – the sufferings brought about by White colonization.” (180)

Emily has to face that situation when she goes back to Wasaychigan, the rejection of those around her. But before that, it is important to acknowledge that two-spirit is a broader concept than just sexual orientation or gender. And Emily fits perfectly into that category, she has been in love with Rose and after that she is pregnant with Big Joey's child, something that does not represent any type of problem for her. She is unconsciously fighting against the dichotomy imposed by European tradition.

According to Walter Williams and his book The Spirit and the Flesh, “post-contact and , in particular, post-independence regulation of sexual diversity and gender variance among various Indigenous cultures by white European settlers was accompanied by a decidedly nationalist fervour.”

Natives have been deeply affected by these process of colonization , that is the case, for example, of Veronique, a deeply religious (catholic, as a matter of fact) woman who in the quarrel scene shouts at Emily, “You have no morals at all. You sick pervert. You should have stayed where you came from, where all the other perverts are.”(45)

Veronique is clearly referring to her relationship with Rose (she comes from San Francisco, so... yeah, you do the math), and even though her traditional heritage wouldn't condemn Emily's relationship, she has assimilated the morals, believes and culture of the colonizer. Another author, Gary Kinsman, in The Regulation of Desire: Sexuality in Canada, argues that “ [a] crucial part of the subjugation of … Native peoples was the destruction of their erotic, gender, and social life and the imposition of European social and sexual organization … This story of extreme cultural, social, and physical violence lies at the roots of the Canadian State.” (178)

Colonization has done such a good job, that it has even destroyed one of the most important pillars in the creation and survival of Native culture. Not only has it denied the existence of these people, but it has made the Natives themselves believe that the people they honored for being special creatures, are nothing but perverts that should be destroyed. Inevitably, this situation has brought a new cultural collision, first with the white dominant culture, and then in the core of the Native life, making people fight one another.

And my hammer.

 Hi everybody! I'm back with a brand new topic right from the rez! This time we will be having a look at the representation of sexism in The Rez Sisters. Apart from all the other things we have been talking about, it can be mostly seen in Pelajia and her apparently “inability” to rule the reservation.

The character of Pelajia, as well as the others, but we are talking about her, right?, experiments a big change after the trip to Toronto.

At the beginning of the text, Pelajia complains about the reserve and her life there, for her everything is gray and static, and she seems to have turned part of the landscape “Ah, but I'm just plain old Pelajia Rosella Patchnose, and I'm here in plain, dusty, boring old Wasaychigan Hill … Wasy … waiting … waiting … “ (3)

She also talks about her children and her husband working far from the reserve, feeling like she is the only one left behind.

Pelajia and Nanabush

Then, Pelajia is always complaining about the dusty roads and how the chief promised to pave them and how they are still full of dirt.

“Pelajia: When I win me that jackpot next time we play bingo in Espanola... (…) I'm going to put that old chief to shame and build me a nice paved road right here in front of my house. Jet black. Make my lawn look real nice.

(…)

An if that old chief don't wanna make paved roads for all my sisters around here … “ (8)

At this point, Pelajia is just talking, not really thinking of actually doing anything. But after the trip she experiments a big transformation and challenges the chief's authority with the support of the other women.

“Pelajia: It's these dirty roads (… ). If I were the chief around here, that's the very first thing I would do.

Philomena: Oh go on. You'll never be chief.

Pelajia: And why not?

Philomena: Because you're a woman.

Pelajia: Bullshit! If that useless old chief of ours was a woman, we'd see a few things get done around here. We'd see our women working, we'd see our men working, we'd see our young people sober on Saturday nights, and we'd see our Nanabush dancing up and down the hill on shiny paved roads.

Annie: Pelajia for chief! I'd vote for you.” (113-114)

Pelajia seems to really care for the reserve and has ideas about what it should be done to improve people's lives. Unfortunately, she's unable to achieve that position in which she could act because she is a woman.

Here Pelajia encounters once again one of the big problems depicted in this play, that is, the clash of white and native culture. But we will see how and why this happens later on, in another entry.

What do you think about Pelajia? Do you like her as much as I do? Do you think she would be a good chief and get shiny paved roads? Should we already create the 'Pelajia fan club'?

Nice white birdie you.

 Hello everyone, last time we read each other, we were talking about rather funny stuff. Today we have to keep on talking about some of the topics which appear in The Rez Sisters related to gender.

Now, we are going to have a look at some sad stuff, that is, violence against women. In the play, violence against women appears mainly in two different ways, and it is embodied by Emily Dictionary and Zhaboonigan.

As we have seen already, these women are oppressed as women and as natives. And that is what the reader receives from these two examples.

Emily Dictionary left her home after ten years of being daily beaten by her alcoholic husband. Emily is mistreated in two ways, the first is quite obvious, she has been beaten for years, day after day. But, the fact that her husband is an alcoholic is a way of oppression and violence as well. This alcohol abuse is a way of escapism due to the cultural collision. This man has been driven to alcohol abuse because he (note, by “he” I mean not just him as an individual, but also as a group of native men), after being deprived of his cultural identity has not been provided with a new one. This alcohol abuse and the cultural collision on males is much better depicted in Highway's play Dry lips ougtha move to Kapuskasing (1989).

This is an example of how these women have to fight in two different fronts, as women in a male dominant culture and as natives in a post-colonial land. In her essay called “Three Women's texts and a Critique of Imperialism” (1985), Gayatri Spivak, argues her idea of feminism and imperialism from Homi Bhabha's notion of “not quite/ not white”, to her new “not quite/ not male”.The point she makes is that this emerging feminist individual excludes the native woman, as she puts it, “as the female individualist, not-quite/not-male, articulates herself in shifting relationship to what it is at stake, the “native female” as such (within discourse, as signifier) is excluded from any share in this emerging norm.” (897)

The second act of violence depicted here has already been mentioned, that is Zhaboonigan's rape. This rape has a double meaning, the first one is the actual physical rapes and sexual violence in general terms, that native women have been suffering. Indeed, we also talked about being based on a real crime.

Its second reading is as an allegory of all of the abuses inflicted in native culture by western culture. Zhaboonigan who is mentally disabled embodies the native culture, who is abussed by the dominant white culture. The native girl is abused by a bunch of white boys, which comes to represent the endemic violence of the colonizer over the colonized.

Nanabush and Zhaboonigan

I know this is some sad stuff, but it's even sadder to know that it is happening. So, what do you think of rape as a representation of coloniamlism?

It WAS you coming out of that house two nights ago!

 Halloooo! Whatchyou doing up here? This is Annie Cook calling!

In the previous entry we were talking about sex and sexual relationships in the rez. The theme in which we will be focusing today is unfaithfulness.

We already got a glimpse of it in the last entry, while talking about Philomena and her white lover, who were caught by the lover's wife.

Now you might be thinking, what is this person doing? What does unfaithfulness have to do with all these native literature? Well, it turns out that unfaithfulness is one of those native stereotypes, actually when they are first talking about Marie-Adele and her fourteen children they comment on the fact that they're all of the same father.

This unfaithfulness is also used to bring some humor to the story and relax all the drama going around. As Pelajia (extremely witty Pelajia) says, “Nothing to do but drink and screw each other's wives and husbands” (6), and that is what they do, or at the very least gossip about it.

Annie rushes to Pelajia's house to tell her, among other things, about Gazelle Nataways, that mean woman who leaves her babys “starving to death” in her empty kitchen just to be with Big Joey. And also to find out about Emily Dictionary, with whom Big Joey is cheating on poor Gazelle.

But that is not all! Actually, Eugene before marrying Marie-Adele was engaged to her sister Annie, something her two sisters, Pelajia and Philomena make fun of,

“Philomena: (…) Why, I do believe that cloud of dust over there is Annie Cook racing down the hill, Pelajia.

(…)

She is walking mighty fast. Must be exited about something.

Pelajia: Never seen Annie Cook walk slow since the day she finally lost Eugene to Marie-Adele at the church 19 years ago. And even then she was walking a little too fast for a girl who was supposed to be broken-heart … Stopping just in time and laughing … heart- broken.” (9)

Please, say hi to Annie Cook

I'm aware that this has been a short entry compared to the others, but every once in a while it is good to rest a little. Anyway, I want to know your opinion, what do you think about unfaithfulness as a topic? Do you think it bring humor to the story or do you think it helps to preserve a stereotype?

Let me know in the comments!