19 Canadian Plays of Indigenous Writers

Ms. Sanchayita Paul Chakraborty

Objectives:

This module will introduce the Canadian plays by the indigenous writers.
It will show how the indigenous plays have been the part of native Canadian culture and how it was revived in the late twentieth century.
The institutionalization of the indigenous theatres and establishment of Performing Schools.
The major themes and theatrical styles of the Canadian plays by the indigenous writers.
Detailed Study of selected plays.

Introduction

Performance of plays has been an integral part of the popular entertainment in the history of civilizations. The indigenous people have found their cultural recreation through theatre performance, songs, dance, masks and storytelling. Therefore, indigenous plays have been essential components of indigenous culture. These plays incorporate indigenous stories, myths, symbols and various indigenous performing tools such as masks, dance and songs. Before the colonial intervention and the North American dominance in Canada, the country had its own indigenous theatrical traditions, enriched by the native stories, legends and lived experience. The colonial rule in Canada marginalized these native rituals and performance to the peripheries. In consequence, many of the dramatic forms were suppressed and some were thrown to oblivion.

After the independence of Canada from the colonial rule, the picture changed. In the second half of twentieth century the indigenous narratives were revived as part of theatrical performance. There were serious efforts to reclaim the Canadian voice in the theatre and in writing the plays from the 1960s. But the ‘voice’ is multifarious. Representatives from the First Nations, the French Canadians, the sexual minorities and the diaspora communities came up with their plays. Canadian plays by the indigenous writers finally began in 1970’s. Indigenous playwrights, indigenous actors and indigenous directors came to the fore to enrich this genre which is now becoming an integral part of the Canadian theatrical landscape. George Ryga’s The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (1967), Herschel Hardin’s Esker Mike and His Wife (1969) and Len Peterson’s Almighty Voice (1970) are the early examples of plays where the indigenous voices are represented. Dramatic characters like Rita Joe, David Joe and Jaimie Paul from George Ryga’s The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, Sitting Bull in Sharon Pollock’s play, Walsh and the doomed native woman in Gwen Pharis Ringwood’s tragic trilogy, The Drum Song are the pioneering indigenous figures that represented the native voices in the non- native plays.

In the 1990s, another important indigenous playwright, Tomson Highway achieved fame with his play, The Rez Sisters. After the breathtaking success of The Rez Sisters and its tour to national and international stages, Indigenous plays began to thrive in the Canadian theatre scene, though The Rez Sisters has been the only significant reference point to the non-native playwrights. Along with Tomson Highway, Daniel David Moses and Drew Hayden Taylor emerges as prominent voices in the indigenous plays. Darrell Dennis and Kenneth T. Williams are the recent additions to this group of indigenous writers. Highway has been instrumental as a mentor bringing in budding indigenous playwrights and performers to enrich the culture of contemporary indigenous plays. Besides the male indigenous playwrights, indigenous women writers also come up. Marie Clements, Penny Gummerson, Monique Mojica, Turtle Gals and Yvette Nolan are the major indigenous women playwrights and directors producing indigenous plays.

Institutionalization of Indigenous Theatre: Proliferation of Training and Performance

For the regeneration of the indigenous theatre from the clutch of cultural censorship, racism and institutional oppression of residential schools of the non-native trainers and performers, it was necessary to establish indigenous theatre centers, professional theatres and performing schools so that the indigenous artists could go through professional trainings and could perform and give voice to their experience and culture. The institutionalization of indigenous theatre helped in the proliferation of the indigenous plays, playwrights and professional performance.

The contribution of the Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts (ANDPVA) is remarkable in the exploration of indigenous cultures and performing tradition. In 1974, the ANDPVA founded the Native Theatre School which is now known as the Centre for Indigenous Theatre. This theatre school helped to groom the indigenous artists in professional trainings of voice, movement and texts. The De-ba-jeh-mujig Theatre was founded in 1981 by Shirley Cheechoo at Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on Monitoulin Island in Ontario. It contributed in the propagation and performance of the cultural heritage and language of the Ojibway people. It also offered professional trainings and workshops to indigenous artists. Tomson Highway and Drew Hayden Taylor were also associated with it. In Cree and Ojibway, ‘De-ba-jeh-mujig’ which is also known as ‘Debaj’, means ‘storytellers’. As Joe Osawabine, Artistic Director of De-ba-jeh-mujig.

Theatre explains:

Ultimately, the intended impact of our work is to improve the quality of life for Native people in Canada, by nurturing positive relationships between Aboriginal cultural communities and the rest of society. Specifically, to share our stories, our characters, our knowledge, our worldview, our fears, and our visions with the rest of the world, so that seven generations from now, when we are leaves, there is a greater level of respect among inhabitants of this land, more honor shown for our elders and our ancestors, and a better quality of life for our descendants. This requires that we make a commitment every day to deepen our relationship with the storyteller within us. As keepers of stories, our very survival depends on it.”

Respect the Voice of the Child by Shirley Cheechoo and Billy Merasty, Shadow People by Shirley Cheechoo, A Ridiculous Spectacle in One Act by Tomson Highway are the early plays performed in the De- ba- jeh-mujig Theatre. In 1982, the Native Earth Performing Arts was established in Toronto. This was a seminal event in the history of indigenous theatre in Canada as it brought together the native theatre performers, technicians, designers and directors to translate the Aboriginal experience onto the Canadian stage. The De-ba-jeh- mujig Theatre along with the Native Earth Performing Arts have been well active in providing professional space both for performance and training to the generations of Aboriginal theatre artists in speaking about their lived experience, engaging with the First Nations politics and representing their vision of their country, their community and their people. These native theatre centers are now celebrating their decades of theatre creations enriched by the rich and varied repertoire of the Aboriginal playwrights.

Indigenous Theatre: Dramatic Style and Themes.

How can we differentiate the indigenous theatre from the non-native theatre? Is there any specific dramatic style which the indigenous playwrights follow? This section aims to explore certain dramatic forms and style of the indigenous plays in Canada. Most of the indigenous plays are concerned in giving the voice to the Aboriginal experience, to give a platform to the native artists to express their vision of the world. Indigenous plays incorporate various forms of performance such as songs, dance, masks, vaudeville and storytelling.

Survival

Indigenous theatre has a rich history of performance. The marginalization of the indigenous culture under the colonial intervention and its revival after the 1980s tell the story of survival and resilience even beside the dominant presence of non-native mainstream theatre. So how the indigenous plays represent survival at the face of hegemonic appropriation is an important concern.

Movement of Time

Indigenous playwrights experiment with the movement of time and reconceptualise the flow of time by breaking the chronological cycle of time. The concept of time is rearranged in the plays of the native playwrights like Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters, and Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing, Marie Clements’ The Unnatural and Accidental Women, Drew Hayden Taylor’s Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock, Turtle Gals’ The Only Good Indian, Yvette Nolan’s Annie Mae’s Movement and Melanie J. Murray’s A Very Polite Genocide etc.

Reclaiming the origin.

The Canadian plays by the indigenous writers in the 1990s retell the narrative of their ancestral roots. Monique Mojica’s Princess Pocahontas and the Blue Spots (1990) reclaims the history of the native people from the white gaze. Drew Hayden Taylor’ Toronto at Dreamer’s Work by representing three native men from three time segments of past, present and future aims to tell history from the native perspective and also to indicate the future of the native existence. History is also retold through the mode of storytelling in the plays like Drew Hayden Taylor’s Someday (1992), Brebeuf’s Ghost (1996) by Daniel David Moses, Annie Mae’s Movement (1998) by Yvette Nolan, Michael Lawrenchuk’s The Trial of Kicking Bear (1993), Lady of Silences (1993) by Floyd Favel etc.

The Trickster

The Trickster is an important theme in the Canadian plays by the indigenous playwrights. Popular in many names in the Aboriginal mythology as Nanabush, Weesageechak, Raven and Coyote, the Trickster figure is haunting the imagination of both the indigenous artists and academics. It dwindles between the image of man and that of God. Often it appears as the Great Spirit. It brings in the values of Aboriginal existence in earth and it sometimes epitomizes the Nature. Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing employ the Trickster character in Nanabush.

Tomson Highway, the Indigenous Playwright and His Plays

As a Native Cree and a registered member of the Barren Lands First Nation, Tomson Highway was deeply engaged with the native social work, before being skyrocketed to fame with the performance of his play The Rez Sisters (1986). In 1989, came its companion play, Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing, which was not only equal to its predecessor in achieving success but also “the first Canadian play in the history of Canadian theatre ever to receive a full production and extended run at Toronto’s legendary Royal Alexandra Theatre” in 1990.

Other plays and musicals written by Tomson Highway are The Sage, The Dancer, and The Fool, Aria, New Song…New Dance, Annie and the Old One, A Ridiculous Spectacle in One Act, The Incredible Adventures of Mary John Mosquito, A Trickster Tale, and Rose.

As an Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts from 1986 to 1992, he enriched the Aboriginal theatre industry and helped in training native theatre professionals and founding other native theatre platforms in Canada. This had been a catalyst in raising native literacy movement in Canada for spreading indigenous languages and culture.

The Rez Sisters

Aboriginal experience gained prominence in the mainstream Canadian stage with the performance of Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters in 1986. The play was directed by Larry Lewis. It tells the story of seven Aboriginal women at the Wasaychigan Hill Indian reserve. The word ‘Rez’ comes from ‘Reserve’. At the heart of the play is the Bingo game –“The Biggest Bingo in the World” as the seven sisters are trying hard to gather sufficient money to participate in this game and dream of transforming their lives and hardships by winning this game. Along with the seven indigenous characters was another male character- the Nanabush who is part of the Aboriginal mythology. The play ends in the grim reality in which the women’s journey reaches. The narrative blends the gritty vision of life with tinges of humour and it is intertwined with the snippets of Aboriginal spirituality. The language of the play also includes portions of Cree and Ojibway dialects.

Tomson Highway’s unfinished cycle of the seven plays begins with this play, The Rez Sisters. The septology is termed by Highway as ‘the Rez Septology’. The companion play of The Rez Sister is Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, which is originally named as ‘The Rez Brothers’ as this play performs as the ‘flip side’ of The Rez Sisters, presenting seven indigenous men as the cast.

Drew Hayden Taylor

Belonging to the Ojibwa, Drew Hayden Taylor wrote about his experience as a First Nations playwright and the doubt of authenticity of the Aboriginal identity which is haunting the native writers. He tells in one of his journal articles:

Twenty five years ago, I built my early writing career exploring and defending my decided lack of cheekbones sharp enough to cut a moose steak with. A four-volume series of books I wrote called Funny, You Don’t Look Like One dealt with not being perceived native enough to satisfy people. The continued irony was I had more so-called qualifications of what is thought of as native life than those questioning me.

Taylor has been instrumental in the flourishing of the Aboriginal Cultural Renaissance in Canada in the 1980s. One of the major features of Taylor’s plays is his use of humour. As a humorist, he not only fills laughter in the narrative but also uses the humour to expose the stereotypes and the bitter reality. His career as the Aboriginal playwright began in his involvement with the De-Ba-Jeh-Mu-Jig Theatre Group on Ontario’s Manitoulin Island under the mentorship of Larry Lewis. He engaged with the Aboriginal experience in the three plays- Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock (1989), Bootlegger Blues (1990) and Someday (1991). In Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock, three Aboriginal men from three time segments- past, present and future gather together at an ancient site to have vision of quests. Their quest is for their survival as the indigenous people under the domination of the settler’s culture. While writing about Toronto at Dreamer’s Work, one of the famous plays of Taylor, Jerry Wasserman comments:

Drew Hayden Taylor is probably the second most successful Canadian native Playwright after Tomson Highway…Like Shaw’s play, it’s really an embedment of a set of ideas of arguments, in this case, three characters…It’s very clever. Even though he is dealing with some very serious issues – you know – cultural genocide, Native alcoholism and so on, he sugar coats the pill substantially with laughter. It’s a delightful play.

Bootlegger Blues offers a comic perspective on the Aboriginal lived experience. Someday is a story of reunion where an Aboriginal mother meets with her grown-up son who was taken away by the settler authority to be adopted by a White family. Besides, Tomson Highway, Taylor has been an active member of the Native Earth Performing Arts as playwright and Artistic Director. Drew Hayden Taylor, along with Daniel David Moses drew attention of the non-native theatres as their plays often include non-native characters. Behind the appeal of Taylor’s plays to both the native and non-native audience and readers are his use of humour and his incorporation of the non-native characters as a foil to the native characters so that this juxtaposition reinforced the reality of the indigenous lived experience in Canada. Besides the abovementioned plays, Taylor highlighted the Aboriginal life in the indigenous plays like AlterNatives, The Buz’gem Blues, The Berlin Blues, In a World Created by the Drunken God and Heat Lightening.

Daniel David Moses: The First Nations Play wright

The First Nations playwright and poet, Daniel David Moses achieved fame as an indigenous writer of drama through the plays like Coyote City: A Play in Two Acts (1990) and The Dreaming Beauty (1990). He contributed in the proliferation and performance of indigenous plays as a member of the Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts, Native Earth Performing Arts and the Playwrights Union of Canada (now the Playwrights Guild of Canada). In a critical assessment of Moses’ plays, Nadine Sivak comments, Daniel David Moses’ work, with productions in both professional theatres and educational institutions, meets the needs of the country at a point in its history where the First Nations can no longer be ignored. He is unique in his position as a First Nations playwright with a body of work of consistent and superior quality who has made a strong commitment to both the development of his art form by the braiding of cultures and to the telling of the stories that created this country – a trajectory that is not always commercial, but has become essential in educational contexts…Moses’ exceptional artistry, demonstrated commitment, and ongoing creative growth serve to elevate the art form. His is a healing, exciting, historical and vitally necessary voice in Canadian theatre. Audiences and readers have just begun to experience the dazzling theatrical adventures he has to offer.

Moses has been intrigued by the ideology of ‘contact’- how the interaction between the traditional Aboriginal cultural values and the values of the urban North American and European culture wreaked havoc on the Aboriginal existence. This concept has been a moving issue in the plays of Moses. He presents in one of his famous ‘city plays’, Coyote City, how a woman is tempted by a mysterious phone call to go the city in search of her lover and how in turn, her native values are crushed under the corruptive forces of the urban culture. Moses’ other popular plays are Big Buck City, the second of his ‘city plays’, and Almighty Voice and His Wife. The narrative of the Almighty Voice and His Wife is centered on the character of the nineteenth century Cree hunter, Almighty Voice and his wife, White Girl. The hunting of a stray crow at the hand of Almighty Voice ignited the eighteen months long hunting of men in which seven people were killed. The first act portrays the lives of Almighty Voice and his wife in a naturalistic way. This act ends up in the death of Almighty. From the next act onwards, Drew begins to shutter the audience’s expectation as Almighty turned up as a ghost and his wife as an interlocutor. Their vaudevillian acting at the abandoned school in Duke Lake challenged the non-native perspectives about the native history and Aboriginal experience in Canada. Thus the play, in the frame of an indigenous story, problematizes the indigenous identity and the non-native’s portrayal of the indigenous life, thus offering a critique of the non-native appropriation of the native life and culture.

Marie Clements: The Voice of an Indigenous Woman Play wright

Canadian Métis playwright, Marie Clements raised her voice against sexism and racism in the play, The Unnatural and Accidental Women. She mixes the style of Aboriginal storytelling with the western theatrical conventions in her representations of indigenous themes with the poignant issues of sexual violence and racial subjugation. Reid Gilbert in assessing the value of Clements’ dramaturgy tells that she “explores important issues of women, aboriginals, and the realities of the urban core in innovative, highly theatrical staging”. Her first play, Age of Iron (1993) explores, as Clements points out, “sheer cold boredom and a serious desire to understand and integrate the elemental connections between Greek mythology and Native thought”.

An alternative historical perspective is offered in the plays of Marie Clements as she intends to problematise the process of historiography and thus reorients the authorized version of Western history. Clements’ treatment of Canadian history which is marginalized to the periphery is represented in her famous plays like, Burning vision and The Unnatural and Accidental Women. These plays engage with the issues of “counter-hegemonic remembrance practices”.

Yvette Nolan

Yvette Nolan belongs to the Algonquin people. She is one of the prominent voices of the women’s theatre in Canada. The representation of the native woman character, Rita Joe of George Ryga’s play, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s adaptation inspired her to write indigenous plays from the women’s perspective. She offered a significant contribution in the development and the performance of Aboriginal theatre. Her first play, Blade was premiered at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in 1990. Not only as a successful Aboriginal woman playwright, she also achieved fame as a indigenous woman director of the plays like George Ryga’s The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, Turtle Gals Performance Ensemble’s The Only Good Indian and Marie Clements’ Tombs of the Vanishing Indian and The Unnatural and Accidental Women, Kenneth T Williams’ Café Daughter and In Care, and Melanie J. Murray’s A Very Polite Genocide. She has been working with various native theatre centers like Agassiz Theatre, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Nakai Theatre in Whitehorse, Native Earth Performing Arts.

One of Nolan’s important plays is Anne Mae’s Movement which is centered on the First Nations politics. The protagonist of the play is Anne Mae Aquash, a Micmac woman from Halifax. She was the only female warrior of the American Indian Movement. The play moves on the suspicious death of Anne Mae, suggesting that Anne could have been died at the hand of F.B.I. or she could also be murdered by the other members of the American Indian Movement for her intense political association.

What we have learnt?

Theatre has been an essential part of the Aboriginal culture in Canada. But this tradition of native theatre performance was marginalized under the colonial cultural hegemony of North America and Europe. Indigenous culture was revived in the second half of the twentieth century by the indigenous playwrights, performers and directors. Native voices are getting represented in the plays of non-native playwrights like George Ryga and Sharon Pollock. With the performance of The Rez Sisters, a play by the indigenous playwright, Tomson Highway in 1986, indigenous theatre holds the centre stage in Canada. Besides Highway, Drew Hayden Taylor and Daniel David Moses, two other indigenous playwrights, are the prominent faces in the world of Canadian plays by the indigenous writers. Indigenous women playwrights also come up to offer the women’s perspective to the Aboriginal experience, the double-edged patriarchal subjugation both in the hands of non-native men as well as the native men. Marie Clements, Yvette Nolan, Monique Mojica and Turtle Gals are the indigenous women playwrights who also have contributed in the fields of production and direction of both native and non-native plays.

Institutionalisation of indigenous theatre helped in creating the space for the proliferation, production and training of the indigenous artists. These institutions of native theatre resisted the white cultural hegemony, racism and non-native appropriation of the native voices. Among the multiple native theatre institutes, Native Earth Performing Arts and De-ba-jeh mujig Theatre have significant contribution in producing Canadian plays by indigenous writers.

Canadian Plays by indigenous writers explores the themes of survival, reclamation of history, self-governance and the presence of the Trickster. The native performative modes of storytelling, use of masks, songs and dance are parts of the dramatic technique. These plays employ native humour to present the grim reality of the Aboriginal existence. Therefore, indigenous plays are gradually claiming its space in the world of the Canadian theatre.

you can view video on Canadian Plays of Indigenous Writers

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