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!