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!

Always in Indian. Only

Welcome back to the rez everyone! In this new entry we'll be talking about the a fore mentioned themes in the play through which Highway portraits the new native woman.

The first thing we will be dealing with is sex and sexual relationships. If you have read the play, you will have noticed that it is very much physical, in violence or when Philomena shouts at all the other women to “let [her] shit in peace.” (43) (quick note before I forget, the edition of the play I'm using for the quotes is as follows: Highway, Tomson. The Rez Sisters, Fifth House, Markham, On :1988 . All the quotes come from this text) . So sex wasn't going to be an exception.

Sex as well as sexual relationships are portrayed in different ways in different characters.

The first character to be explored will be Marie-Adele. This poor woman, mother of 14, “Imagine. And all from one father.” (21), is dying from ovarian cancer. Yes, as bad as it sounds. She is shown as very devoted woman, both to her children and her husband, to whom she is very close. Her illnes is driving them apart, and Marie-Adele feels emotionally and sexually frustrated, as she reveals in her conversation with Pelajia,

“Marie-Adele: I could be really mad, just raging mad just wanna tear his eyes out with my nails when he walks in the door and my whole body just goes “k-k-k-k” …. he doesn't talk, when something goes wrong with him, he doesn't talk, shuts me out, just disappears. Last night didn't come home. Again, it happened. I couldn't sleep. You feel so ugly. He walks in this morning. Wanted to be alone, he said. The curve of his back, his breath on my neck, “Adele, ki-sa-gee-ee-tin oo-ma,” making love, always in Indian, only. When we still could. I can't even have him inside me anymore. It's still growing there. The cancer. Pelajia, een-pay- seek-see-yan.” (96)

A quick note before we follow, the language they are speaking, apart from English of course, is Cree, and, as I guess you are not very fluent, here are the translations:

“Adele, ki-sa-gee-ee-tin oo-ma” : “Adele, I love you”

“Pelajia, een-pay-seek-see-yan” : “Pelajia, I'm scared to death”

Back to the text, Marie-Adele is complaining about the lose of intimacy with Eugene (her husband) not only sexually, but emotionally, he has closed himself up and refuses to communicate. Still sex is the physical experience of the emotional link between them, and Marie-Adele can't help it but feel frustrated when they are unable to be physically together.

Adele is not the only one dealing with problems regarding sex, Philomena as well has some wounds to heal. In the van, on their trip to Toronto, Philomena tells the story of her baby:

“Philomena: Toronto. Had a good job in Toronto. Yeah. Had to give it all up. Yeah. Cuz mama got sick. Philomena Margaret Moosetail. Real live secretary in the garment district. He'd come in and see my boss. Nice man, I thought. That big, red, fish-tail Caddy. Down Queen Street. He liked me. Treated me like a queen. Loved me. Or I thought he did. I don't know. Got pregnant anyway. Blond, blue-eyed, six foot two. And the way he smelled.

God! His wife walks in on us.

Long silence

He left with her.

Long silence

I don't even know to this day if it was a boy or a girl. I'm getting old. That child would be … 28 … 28 years old. September 8. you know what I'm gonna do with that money if I win? I'm gonna find a lawyer. Maybe I can find that child. Maybe I wouldn't even have to let him … her... know who I am. I just … want to see … who … “ (81)

Philomena was forced to abandon the baby she had with her white lover. A man who, even though, seemed to love her, decided to stay with his wife. This mixes not only sexual relationships but also racial ones. Neither the lover nor Philomena would be allowed to have such relation, still the one who is forces to give up everything, as she herself says, is Philomena. Here she has to fight with being a native and a native woman.

Annie has to face racial issues in her relationship with the Jewish singer of the band Fritz the Katz. While she is trying to talk about it with Emily, she just keeps making fun of everything until they happen to be comparing white and native men,

“Emily: How about Fritz? What's his look like?

Annie: After an awkward pause.

He's Jewish you know.

(...)

Annie: Fritz buys me jeans and things. I'm gonna be one of them Jewish princesses.

Emily: What's wrong with being an Indian princess?

Annie: Aw, these white guys. They're nicer to their women. Not like Indian guys. Screw you, drink all your money, and leave you flat on your ass.

Emily: Yeah, right. Apple Indian Annie. Red on the outside. White on the inside.

Annie: Emily!” (85-86)

Poor Annie feels outraged about Emily's comment of her being white on the inside, still she makes a clear distinction between “Indian guys” and “white guys”. And she doesn't even know how to say that Fritz is not Native like them.

By the end of the book, these two seem to be catching up right where the left it,

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

Emily: Katz's whore...

(…)

Annie: I love him, Emily.” (105-106)

These women's sexual encounters are determined by their situation as natives, as Marie-Adele says “Making love, always in Indian. Only.”, Philomena had a white lover, but while she was in the city and wasn't so constricted by the rules regarding them in the reservation, and so happens to Annie, whose daughter lives with Raymond (“ Not Raymond. But Raymond. Like in Bon Bon. He 's French.” Annie Cook's French lessons everyone!), but not in the reserve either.

Well guys, what do you think about this? Do you think they are determined in any case? Let me know in the comments!

But... Women are women, right?

 In this play, the reader can enjoy the pilgrimage of seven women from their reserve, Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve, in Manitoulin Island, Ontario, to the biggest bingo in the world in Toronto.

These seven women are the protagonists of the story. Yes, seven protagonists, all equal in their importance. And you, dear eurocentric reader, might be saying, what!? Well, it is one the characteristics of Native literature, and we'll see what it means in a second.

The characters are Pelajia Patchnose, Philomena Moosetail, Marie-Adele Starblanket, Annie Cook, Emily Dictionary, Veronique St. Pierre and the lovely Zhaboonigan Peterson.

Again, all women, and this is the point we will be making here. These women exemplify the different themes in the play, adding as well, a very interesting gender perspective to the study of The Rez Sisters.

In the previous entry, we have saying that the play depicts many aspects of Native culture and society, some of the aspects are the sense of community, sexism, womanhood, consumerism, the consequences of the clash with white culture, etc... all of them have to do in one way or another with women, and therefore, ,with gender.

What Highway was proudest about was about the gender perspective of his work because “ it raised public consciousness of an specific segment of the women's community- Indian women and older women at that” (Tomson Highway, from Jennifer Preston, “Weesagediak Begins to Dance: Native Earth Performing Arts Inc.”, The Drama Review 9:1/2 (1987))

Women here have to deal with their situation as women in the reserve as well as in comparison to the dominant white culture that surrounds and affects all of them.

Highway himself was a product of that cultural collision or in more political terms exchange, so this mixture is very present in his text.

Indeed he will be showing us a new image of the Native woman through the several aspects that we'll be discussing here as the themes of The Rez Sisters.

Since we are taking a feminist perspective on a post-colonial text, it is important to talk about what post-colonial feminism is.

Some of you might be thinking, well, feminism is feminism, right? Well, yes and no. According to critic Chandra Talpade Mohanty, in her article “Under Western Eyes, Feminist scholarship and colonial discourse”,

“the critical assumption that all of us of the same gender, across classes and cultures, are somehow socially constituted as a homogeneous group identified prior to the process of analysis. This is an assumption which characterizes much feminist discourse. (…) What blinds women together is a sociological notion of the 'sameness' of their oppression.” (244)

It is true then, that women as a group are oppressed, but since feminist has been mainly constructed by western women, and therefore, they result in the implicit assumption of “the West” as the primary referent in theory and praxis.

The problem appears with the realization of the West being the dominant culture and unconsciously ignoring the situation of women in other cultures and situations, which falls as simple and unnecessarily homogenizing. Mohanty also says that the 'Third World Woman' is” an image which appears arbitrarily constructed, but nevertheless carries with it the authorizing signature of Western humanist discourse.” (242)

Do you remember when I said that the Natives were writing their own story?, The same point can be made referring to Native women, whose situation must be considered as different and studies as such. Because, as Mohanty states, “Sisterhood cannot be assumed on the basis of gender; it must be formed in concrete, historical and political practice and analysis.” (244)

This has been a short introduction about the perspective with which these type of texts should be approached, and also the approach I'll be taking to the comment of The Rez Sisters.

What's all this about?

Hello everyone! I knew you wouldn't be able to wait any longer for a new entry, so here I am.

We know that this blog is about the play The Rez Sisters, we have dealt with history, with the author and with some more theater. So now it's time to get work done, let's start with the sisters!

And that's how you start writing your own story

I am not going to summarize the play, because that would take too long, and I can almost assume that most of you have read it already (if not, what exactly are you waiting for?). I will just say this: Seven women, the biggest bingo in the world, one van and plenty of hidden stories. What could possibly go wrong?

Now I'll be briefly talking about the depiction of Native reality portrayed in the play. Somethings will be just mentioned and discussed in greater detail later on.

In the play there is an accurate depiction of the native reality (remember I told you about native people telling their own stories? There it goes), such as alcoholism and materialism. But, above all, there is an overwhelming sense of being left behind, for example, Pelajia's son works in Toronto and Annie's daughter “lives with this white guy in Sadbury”.

The younger generations are gone, and they are stucked in the reservation, in the middle of nowhere. As Pelajia (my dear and brilliant Pelajia) puts it, “Everyone here's crazy. No jobs. Nothing to do but drink and screw each other's wives and husbands and forget about our Nanabush” (6)

All this has to do with the post-colonial nature of the society that the play is talking about. In general terms, we could say that the play represents the collision of the cultural and spiritual values of natives and non-natives.

For example, the reserve functions as a representation of all the Native communities in Canada, indeed, its name, “Wasaychigan” means “window” in Ojibway. Outside the reserve, we can see an all powerful white economy, while inside it shows signs of self-destruction and self-preservation.

This play explores the problems that are destroying native society. White and native culture collide, for their differences are not accommodated.

A good example of this problem, are the goals the women want to accomplish by winning the bingo's jackpot. Pelajia wants paved roads, Philomela wants a need bathroom, Annie a record-player and Veronique a new stove.

While some might see these needs as mere materialistic desires, they are, indeed needs created by white society. On the other hand, these goals are unconscious ways to survive to the negative consequences derived from the collision with the white world: Emily was daily beaten by an alcoholic husband (here alcohol is an escape), Philomena was abandoned by a white lover and forced to leave her baby and finally Zhaboonigan, who was raped by some white boys.

This rape wants to express the violence experienced by the native community on the hands of white culture (and it also is a recurrent topic in Highway's work). Actually it is based on the rape and murder of Helen Betty Osborne, a native Cree girl, by a bunch of white boys. The most hideous thing about this crime is not just the crime itself, but the reaction of the people directly and indirectly involved in it. Even though everybody knew about it , it took ten years to get it to trial and only one of the four guys involved went to jail, and just with a light sentence. If you want to know more, nowadays there is a big movement in Canada for the crimes committed against native women.

Another example of this collision can be seen in the suicide of Rose (Rosabella Baez), driven to self-destruction by the destructive force of a dominant culture or, to put it in her own words, of “how fucking hard it is to be an Indian in this country”.(97)

Now, don't get all sad, because despite this tragic, native philosophy of rebirth and hope is also present throughout the play.

So, what do you think about the cultural collision? Do you think it is accurately represented? Do you think that the consequences Highway shows are realistic?

And the rez was born

Here I am, ready with some brand new information for you! We have been talking about theatre and how great “The Rez sisters” is, but I still haven't talked about the amazing man who wrote it.

The author of the play is Tomson Highway, a cool name for a very cool person.

Tomson Highway

Born in 1951, this full blood Cree is a registered member of the Barren Lands First Nation, the village for which is called Brochet, located in northern Manitoba, where it meets Saskatchewan and what is now called Nunavut.

Since his family was a nomadic caribou hunters, he didn't grow up in the reserve. When it was time to go to school, according to the policies regarding natives at that time, he was sent to Guy Hill Indian Residential School, from age 6 to 15, where he was abused by the priests who ran the school ( I won't go into further detail about it, but it is a very controversial topic until now, since many First Nations have issued Canada's government for the treatment these poor kids received. Anyways, if you are interested in it let me know in the comments).

After leaving (or surviving) the school, he got a double bachelor with honors in Music and English (1975- 1976). In case you hadn't noticed by now, he is an artist from head to toe, something he says he has inherited, because his mother was an artist of her own, being a very skillful person in bead-worker and quilt maker.

After graduating, he worked for seven years in the field of native social work, helping children, parents, inmates in prisons, women, two-spirits and other native social workers and activists.

Finally, in 1986, he published his 6^th play, The Rez Sisters. This was the first one in a planned seven-play cycle all based on the same set of characters, themes and settings. So far the play has been followed by two others: Dry lips oughta move to Kapuskasing and Rose.

Lucky Nanabush

In 1998, he published his first novel “Kiss of the fur queen”, in memory of his brother, native dancer and choreographer René Highway, who died from AIDS.

Highway has received many awards, such as the National Aboriginal Achievement Award (2001) or the Order of Canada (1994), but as his official web page (http://www.tomsonhighway.com ) says, he has also earned “others too embarrassingly numerous to list. In fact, at one point in his life, his trophy case collapsed from the terrible weight and killed three people.”

He has also been a writer-in-residence at several Canadian universities and has also taught Aboriginal Mythology at the University of Toronto.

And, just in case this wasn't enough, he holds more honorary doctorates than you could count.

That's all folks! At least by now. But before I go, let me show you an interview with Highway. I hope you enjoy it!

Life before the rez

So far we have talked very briefly about Canadian history and its people, so now we are going to move on to their writing.

This blog will be focusing on the most important play ever written by and probably about Native people in Canada, The Rez Sisters. This amazing play (something you either already know or are about to know) was written by Tomson Highway in 1986 and started a sort of revolution. But anyways, before we get to that, let's see if there was something before it... Yes! There is!

In 1967, the non-native (form Ukrainian origin indeed, so not quite close to the natives) author George Ryga premiered his play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, what native author Drew Hayden Taylor (the blue eyed Ojibway or the pink man, as he calls himself, which I highly recommend, but don't be lazy, read the [ab]original one!) describes as “the occasional flare-up of native performance in the theatrical community”.

This was the first play to portrait the tragic of aboriginal people, depicting the martyrdom of a native girl in the streets of Vancouver.

So far so good, right? Well, now comes the big BUT. The problem with this play is that it was written for white middle-class audiences, and reflected the eurocentric, patriarchal paradigm which, at the same time, reflected the assimilation policies of the time.

The play is a didactic indictment of a white society and state that have deprived the native communities of their traditions and then, have irresponsibly failed to provide them with new identities for the city.

The character are stereotypes, being the natives either part of the noble-savage or grateful kids. Generally speaking, there was this romanticized version of the natives, who would be prostitutes or drunks in an attempt to portrait the universal tragedy of hopelessness.

Truth be told, in general terms the play is well intentioned but inadequate for, as Ryga himself puts it “it is not so much indigenous, but universal.”

So, how would you feel about the new kid in school who stole your lunch, telling your own story? Not funny I guess.

Well, that is what Tomson Highway thought, and what led him to write his most famous play. The Rez Sisters meant a turning point when it first appeared in 1986; for the first time, a native writer wrote about native people. They were telling their own story.

Thanks to the big success of the play and those that followed, aboriginal theater became visible with other authors like Ojibway Drew Hayden Taylor (already mentioned, I know), Algonquin Yvette Nolan and also a bunch of aboriginal theater companies.

Are you impressed or what? If the answer is no (which I don't understand), just wait and see what's coming next!

Those British and French fighting again...

Since Canada is not a visible as, for example the USA, we sometimes tend to forget that it has a history too, and, surprise surprise, it is also a post-colonial one.

The first European contacts to be reported are previous to the Spanish discovery of America. The first attempts to colonize what is now called Canada were made by the Norse people, and they actually wrote about it, The Icelandic Sagas, if you liked Beowulf, you just can't go wrong with this one. This all was just an attempt, the poor Norsemen couldn't stand the weather and the harassment of the native people.

Later on and thanks to the Treaty of Tordesillas, Portugal obtained some right over the Canadian land, but it didn't last because around the second half of the 16^th century they decided to focus on Brazil.

But the land didn't stay 'inhabited' long, in 1534, the first French settlers arrived and in 1608 geographer Samuel de Champlain founded what today is Quebec city, first permanent settlement of New France.

Now, English and French can't be apart, and in 1583, the English claimed St. Jonh's,

Newfoundland as the first North American colony. Then in 1622 the first group of Scotish people was sent to Canada to start a new settlement, but this didn't succeed, and Nova Scotia settlements were not permanent after the Anglo-French War (1627 – 1629). Unfortunately for the English in 1631 these territories went back to French control. During this period the inhabitants of New France were rather busy trying to create an empire.

By 1700, the French were well established, but... hold on, the empire strikes back. Well, not the empire, the English, almost the same. French settlers stopped coming to Canada, resulting in their outnumber by English and Scottish.

All these tensions ended with the French and Indian Wars, and later on with some wars with the English. Not surprising, its genetics, if they have a chance to start a war between them, they will.

In 1710 the British conquered Acadia and after the Treaty of Utrech, France had to cede what they had gotten in the Battle of Hudson's Bay. But don't think they just stood there, France then founded the powerful Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island.

But the drama did not stop there, even after the treaty there was war and in 1755 the British ordered the expulsion of the Acadians to other French colonies (still, a big number of them went to Louisiana where they created the Cajun culture, remember The Awakening?).

By 1760 both Quebec and Montreal were under British control. After the Seven Years War and the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded almost all its territory in North America and took instead the Caribbean colony of Guadeloupe. Britain took over, but protected the religious, social and political rights as well as the culture of the French inhabitants. Something very clever if you ask me, I can totally understand that they wanted to preserve “poutine”, such a delicious thing.

Slightly off-topic, but here's a poutine picture. Typical food from Montreal,.

I think this is quite enough for an introduction, but now you get an idea of where the Canadian identity (or rather its European origins) comes from.

Now, you might have noticed that we have been talking about Canada as an empty land (definition that later on would be given to Australia), but that was not the case, there were plenty of people, people who didn't care about “poutine” at all.

Canada was a vastly populated land, with people going from the Artic to the actual US border (another interesting topic, since some of these nations are divided by a demarcation that they don't recognize, but we'll leave for another time maybe).

Nowadays the word aborigine is the one used since 1980, and according to the Constitution there are all of these nations: Abenaki, Akaitcho, Algonquin, Anishinaabe, Athapaskan, Atikamekwa, Blackfoot, Cayuse, Chippewa, Colville, Cowichan, Cree, Deh cho, Ditidaht, Dogrib, Dunneza, Gitksan, Gwich’in, Haida, Haisla, Heitsuk, Hurón-wendat, Iroquois (Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida, Tuscarona and Mohawk) , Kaska, Katzie, Ktunaxa, Kutchin, Kwantlen, Kwakiutl, Lubicon cree, Malecita, Micmac, Montagnais, Musqueam, Naskapi, Na-cho nyak dun, Nakoda, Nicola, Nisga’a, Nuxálk, Odawa, Ojibway-chippewa, Okanagan, Oneida, Palus, Potawatomi, Shatu, Sinixt, St’at’imc, Tahltan, Tanana, Tasltine, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Tsuu t’ina, Walastakwewinowok, Wasco, Wishram, Yakima and Yupik. Plus Métis and Inuits.

And all of us thinking it was just those British and French fighting again....

Here it is a map of the native lands and tribes at the time of the European contacts taken from http://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/1500/ a very useful page if you want to know more about Canadian history.

Regarding native people, and I know it is stating the obvious, they had their own languages and cultures, as well as a literary tradition. This tradition was oral, but thanks to works such as The Rez Sisters or authors like Jeannette Armstrong (who actually created the term “orature” as a reference to the new native literary tradition, that is, a mixture of oral and written tradition) among many others, they have survived until now, so we can enjoy them.

All of these cultural references and traditions, in addition to language will be found in the works of Native authors.

Ok everybody, I think this is it for today! Do you think natives and native culture are survivors?  

Welcome!

Canada is on vogue, and for better reasons than Justin Bieber or “How I met your mother”. This year, Alice Munro has become the first Canadian author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, a remarkable success, that nevertheless, should make us wonder, that's it? One could easily fall into the mistake of thinking that there is no more Canadian literature beyond Alice Munro or, luckily enough, Margaret Atwood.

What do you, my dear readers, think? I am sure you all are clever enough to know that that's not true, but if you want to know more, stay tuned for updates to come!