Dream, Change, Positivity: ‘Travel and Move’ Motif and Implications in the Canadian Indigenous Drama The Rez Sisters
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Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters (1988) is a two-act play by Cree Canadian writer Tomson Highway. This play piece humorously and movingly follows the journey of hope and dreams of seven Native women or ‘sisters’ living on the fictional Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. The seven women’s massive fundraising efforts to secure the cost of participating in The Biggest Bingo in the World, the twists and turns of the car journey to the big city of Toronto where the event is held, and the bingo game scenes where expectations and disappointments intersect, all unfold breathlessly. Throughout all of this, the humor, spirituality and indigenous language expressions unique to Native American women fill the stage. Each of the seven sisters has a dream about what to do with the jackpot prize from the bingo game. Their acts of leaving the homes and moving to the destination to participate in the bingo game held in Toronto are the first steps toward realizing their dreams. Their ‘travel’ and ‘move’ are also the first steps toward ‘change’ in their lives. Meanwhile, the ‘trickster’ character Nanabush and his/her mysterious transformation in the play well reveal the spiritual traditions, beliefs, and collective emotions of the Indian community represented by the seven sisters in the play. The most prominent motif in this play is the ‘travel and move’ motif. In this study, various implications of dreams and reality, continuity and change, life and positivity that branch out around the travel and move motif will be explored in connection with the aforementioned motif of Nanabush’s transformation.
Abstract
Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters (1988) is a two-act play by Cree Canadian writer Tomson Highway. This play piece humorously and movingly follows the journey of hope and dreams of seven Native women or ‘sisters’ living on the fictional Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. The seven women’s massive fundraising efforts to secure the cost of participating in The Biggest Bingo in the World, the twists and turns of the car journey to the big city of Toronto where the event is held, and the bingo game scenes where expectations and disappointments intersect, all unfold breathlessly. Throughout all of this, the humor, spirituality and indigenous language expressions unique to Native American women fill the stage. Each of the seven sisters has a dream about what to do with the jackpot prize from the bingo game. Their acts of leaving the homes and moving to the destination to participate in the bingo game held in Toronto are the first steps toward realizing their dreams. Their ‘travel’ and ‘move’ are also the first steps toward ‘change’ in their lives. Meanwhile, the ‘trickster’ character Nanabush and his/her mysterious transformation in the play well reveal the spiritual traditions, beliefs, and collective emotions of the Indian community represented by the seven sisters in the play. The most prominent motif in this play is the ‘travel and move’ motif. In this study, various implications of dreams and reality, continuity and change, life and positivity that branch out around the travel and move motif will be explored in connection with the aforementioned motif of Nanabush’s transformation.