DOCSLIB.ORG

Where the Blood Study Guide

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Where the Blood Study Guide Where the Blood Mixes b y K ev in L orin g a Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company and Belfry Theatre (Victoria, BC) revival production in association with The Savage Society (Vancouver, BC) co-presented by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad Study Guide THE NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE ENGLISH THEATRE PROGRAMMES FOR STUDENT AUDIENCES 2009-2010 SEASON Peter Hinton Artistic Director, English Theatre This Study Guide was written and researched by Jane Moore for the National Arts Centre, English Theatre, January 2010. UIt may be used solely for educational purposesU. The National Arts Centre English Theatre values the feedback of teachers on the content and format of its Study Guides. We would appreciate your comments on past Study Guides, on this current one, or suggestions on ways to improve future Study Guides. Comments may be directed to Martina Kuska either by email at [email protected] or by fax at (613) 943-1401. Note to Teachers This Study Guide contains articles on Where the Blood Mixes and its background, as well as an interview with the writer, Kevin Loring, and some suggested activities or students in Drama or English classes. It also includes some in ormation on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and on apologies made by churches and the government o Canada to the Aboriginal peoples. Teachers are expected to choose whatever topics they and their classes will ind use ul. The sub)ect matter o the play may not be suitable or everyone. It is a good idea to do some research be ore seeing the play, so that you can deal sensitively with the issues that arise. A backgrounder on Aboriginal Theatre in Canada may be ound on both these NAC websites: http:,,nac-cna.ca,pd ,eth,aboriginal.theatre.pd and http:,,www.artsalive.ca,pd ,eth,activities,aboriginal.overview.pd . TABLE OF CONTENTS Production Credits.............................................................................................................. 1 A Word rom the Costume Designer..................................................................................... 1 Kevin Loring ................................................................................................................. 2 - 2 Governor General3s Literary Awards 2005....................................................................... 2 Biography.................................................................................................................... 2 Excerpts rom an Interview with Kevin Loring............................................................. 3 - 2 The Play......................................................................................................................6 - 02 The Meaning o the Title, Where the Blood Mixes ............................................................ 6 Introduction to the Play................................................................................................. 6 The Purpose o the Play................................................................................................ 7 Plot summary.......................................................................................................... 7 - 8 Characters................................................................................................................... 9 Symbolism ..................................................................................................................10 :umour......................................................................................................................11 Setting........................................................................................................................11 Themes ......................................................................................................................11 Production Values........................................................................................................11 Excerpt rom Where the Blood Mixes......................................................................12 - 14 :istory o the Play.......................................................................................................02 :istory o Aboriginal Theatre in Canada ..............................................................................16 Some Characteristics o Native Theatre...............................................................................16 The Natural Setting ...........................................................................................................17 Residential Schools.....................................................................................................18 - 21 Timeline......................................................................................................................19 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission......................................................................20 Apology rom the Government o Canada ......................................................................21 Resources or Further Study...............................................................................................22 Activities ...................................................................................................................23 - 24 Theatre Etiquette..............................................................................................................12 Acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................26 Production Credits Who Helped Put the Production Together? Cast Billy MERASTY as Floyd Ben CARDINAL as Mooch Kim :ARVEY as Christine Tom McBEAT: as George Jason BARNSTICK as the Musician and Margo KANE as June Creative Tea Written by: Kevin LORING Directed by: Glynis LEYS:ON Set Design by: Robert LEWIS Costume Design by: Patricia SMIT: Lighting Design by: Itai ERDAL Visual Design by: Carl STROMCAIST Pro)ection Design by: Jamie NESBITT Original Music by: Jason BARNSTICK Stage Manage ent Stage Manager: Joanne P.B. SMIT: A Word from the Costu e Designer Where the Blood Mixes is one o those little gems o a play that has taken on a li e o its own. At the beginning o the 1008,08 season, we Die VPTC Production Dept.E were told that there was a possibility o workshopping a new play through a series o staged readings in the BC Interior, but only i the unding came through. The unding came through, and then some, and suddenly we had a ull sixth show to design in a short period o time. Costume-wise, it came down to it, shop, pack up the show, and push it out on the road in seven days. Within those time constraints, I still wanted the show3s costumes to re lect both the characters and the deeper meaning o the play. These are clothes worn by people who lead lives without rills, whose daily lives are a struggle to reconcile past and present. Set in a small town where the two rivers meet, I thought the clothing should echo the tones and colours ound there: salmon reds, greys, greens; the muted colours seen beneath the sur ace o the riverF the tough, utilitarian abrics o survivors. Patricia Smith, :ead o Wardrobe, VPTC February 2010 1 $evin Loring Kevin is the recipient o the Governor General3s Award or English Drama or this play, his irst, Where the Blood Mixes. “What a joy to witness ... a genuinely great piece of theatre about our nation’s dark secret… ” - Vancouver Sun Kevin Loring and Governor General Michaëlle Jean Governor General&s Literary Awards 2009 The Governor GeneralGs Literary Awards are given annually to the best English-language and the best French-language book in each o seven categories. Each laureate receives H12,000 and a specially cra ted copy o his,her winning book. Biography Kevin Loring, writer and actor, is a member o the N3lakap3mux First Nation IThompson Indians) in Lytton, B.C. :e has per ormed in many plays across Canada, including Marie Clements3 Burning Vision and Copper Thunderbird, and played the title role o Michel Tremblay3s :osanna at the Manitoba Theatre Centre. :e played most recently in the NAC3s 40th anniversary production o George Ryga3s The Ecstasy o Rita Joe. :e also starred in the 2007 eature ilm, Path inder. :e co-produced and co-hosted the documentary Canyon War: The Antold Story about the 1828 Fraser Canyon War in his homeland. :e stars in a new comedy series, :ealth Nutz, which premiered December 27, 2009 on APTN. Kevin will also be part o the closing ceremonies o the Aboriginal Pavilion at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Kevin, who is currently one o three Playwrights in Residence at the National Arts Centre English Theatre, was the recipient o the 2002 Vancouver Arts Award or Emerging Theatre Artist, and was Artist in Residence at The Playhouse Theatre Company in 2006. Where the Blood Mixes has won the Jessie Richardson Award or Outstanding Original Script, the Sydney J. Risk Prize or Outstanding Original Script by an Emerging Playwright, and most recently, o course, the Governor General3s Literary Award or Drama. Kevin is a graduate o Studio 28, and the Full Circle: First Nations Per ormance Ensemble Training Program, and is working on a new play. 2 E,cerpt fro an Interview with $evin Loring Schooling I grew up in Lytton. I went to Kumsheen Secondary School, and to university in Kamloops. An English class led me into theatre. I read Tomson :ighway3s Dry Lips DOughta Move to KapuskasingE and had to memorize and per orm a monologue. That was a key itting into a lock. I was hooked. I enrolled in an Introduction to Theatre class, did a year o that, and at the end o second semester
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 12. What We Talk About When We Talk About Indian
    12. What we talk about when we talk about Indian Yvette Nolan here are many Shakespearean plays I could see in a native setting, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Coriolanus, but Julius Caesar isn’t one of them’, wrote Richard Ouzounian in the Toronto Star ‘Tin 2008. He was reviewing Native Earth Performing Arts’ adaptation of Julius Caesar, entitled Death of a Chief, staged at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto. Ouzounian’s pronouncement raises a number of questions about how Indigenous creators are mediated, and by whom, and how the arbiter shapes the idea of Indigenous.1 On the one hand, white people seem to desire a Native Shakespeare; on the other, they appear to have a notion already of what constitutes an authentic Native Shakespeare. From 2003 to 2011, I served as the artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada’s oldest professional Aboriginal theatre company. During my tenure there, we premiered nine new plays and a trilingual opera, produced six extant scripts (four of which we toured regionally, nationally or internationally), copresented an interdisciplinary piece by an Inuit/Québecois company, and created half a dozen short, made-to-order works, community- commissioned pieces to address specific events or issues. One of the new plays was actually an old one, the aforementioned Death of a Chief, which we coproduced in 2008 with Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC). Death, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, took three years to develop. Shortly after I started at Native Earth, Aboriginal artists approached me about not being considered for roles in Shakespeare (unless producers were doing Midsummer Night’s Dream, because apparently fairies can be Aboriginal, or Coriolanus, because its hero struggles to adapt to a consensus-based community).
    [Show full text]
  • The Beginnings of Contemporary Aboriginal Literature in Canada 1967-1972: Part One1
    H ARTMUT L UTZ The Beginnings of Contemporary Aboriginal Literature in Canada 1967-1972: Part One1 _____________________ Zusammenfassung Die Feiern zum hundertjährigen Jubiläum des Staates Kanada im Jahre 1967 boten zwei indianischen Künstlern Gelegenheit, Auszüge ihrer Literatur dem nationalen Publi- kum vorzustellen. Erst 1961 bzw. 1962 waren Erste Nationen und Inuit zu wahlberechtig- ten Bürgern Kanadas geworden, doch innerhalb des anglokanadischen Kulturnationa- lismus blieben ihre Stimmen bis in die 1980er Jahre ungehört. 1967 markiert somit zwar einen Beginn, bedeutete jedoch noch keinen Durchbruch. In Werken kanonisierter anglokanadischer Autorinnen und Autoren jener Jahre sind indigene Figuren überwie- gend Projektionsflächen ohne Subjektcharakter. Der Erfolg indianischer Literatur in den USA (1969 Pulitzer-Preis an N. Scott Momaday) hatte keine Auswirkungen auf die litera- rische Szene in Kanada, doch änderte sich nach Bürgerrechts-, Hippie- und Anti- Vietnamkriegsbewegung allmählich auch hier das kulturelle Klima. Von nicht-indigenen Herausgebern edierte Sammlungen „indianischer Märchen und Fabeln“ bleiben in den 1960ern zumeist von unreflektierter kolonialistischer Hybris geprägt, wogegen erste Gemeinschaftsarbeiten von indigenen und nicht-indigenen Autoren Teile der oralen Traditionen indigener Völker Kanadas „unzensiert“ präsentierten. Damit bereiteten sie allmählich das kanadische Lesepublikum auf die Veröffentlichung indigener Texte in modernen literarischen Gattungen vor. Résumé À l’occasion des festivités entourant le centenaire du Canada, en 1967, deux artistes autochtones purent présenter des extraits de leur littérature au public national. En 1961, les membres des Premières Nations avaient obtenu le droit de vote en tant que citoyens canadiens (pour les Inuits, en 1962 seulement), mais au sein de la culture nationale anglo-canadienne, leur voix ne fut guère entendue jusqu’aux années 1980.
    [Show full text]
  • Urban and Historic Context
    Architectural Rejuvenation Project URBAN AND HISTORIC CONTEXT Barry Padolsky Associates Inc., Architects, Urban Design and Heritage Consultants February 13, 2015 Aerial view of National Arts Centre (2010) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction..................................................................................................................................2 Urban and Historic Context........................................................................................................2 . The Holt/Bennett Plan ................................................................................................................4 The Gréber Plan .........................................................................................................................6 The Parkin Plan ...........................................................................................................................8 Architecture and National Identity: the Centennial Projects .......................................................9 NAC: The Architectural Challenge ............................................................................................10 The Architectural Response .....................................................................................................13 Architectural Style: Polite “Brutalism” ......................................................................................16 Re-inventing “Brutalism”..........................................................................................................17 NCC Canada’s
    [Show full text]
  • Hill Times, Health Policy Review, 17NOV2014
    TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR, NO. 1260 CANADA’S POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT NEWSWEEKLY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 $4.00 HEARD ON THE HILL BUZZ NEWS HARASSMENT Artist paints Queen, other prominent MPs like ‘kings, queens in their people, wants a national portrait gallery little domains,’ contribute to ‘culture of silence’: Clancy BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT “The combination of power and testosterone often leads, unfortu- n arm’s-length process needs nately, to poor judgment, especially Ato be established to deal in a system where there has been with allegations of misconduct no real process to date,” said Nancy or harassment—sexual and Peckford, executive director of otherwise—on Parliament Hill, Equal Voice Canada, a multi-par- say experts, as the culture on tisan organization focused on the Hill is more conducive to getting more women elected. inappropriate behaviour than the average workplace. Continued on page 14 NEWS HARASSMENT Campbell, Proctor call on two unnamed NDP harassment victims to speak up publicly BY ABBAS RANA Liberal Senator and a former A NDP MP say the two un- identifi ed NDP MPs who have You don’t say: Queen Elizabeth, oil on canvas, by artist Lorena Ziraldo. Ms. Ziraldo said she got fed up that Ottawa doesn’t have accused two now-suspended a national portrait gallery, so started her own, kind of, or at least until Nov. 22. Read HOH p. 2. Photograph courtesy of Lorena Ziraldo Liberal MPs of “serious person- al misconduct” should identify themselves publicly and share their experiences with Canadians, NEWS LEGISLATION arguing that it is not only a ques- tion of fairness, but would also be returns on Monday, as the race helpful to address the issue in a Feds to push ahead on begins to move bills through the transparent fashion.
    [Show full text]
  • Ryga, Miss Donohue, and Me: Forty Years of the Ecstasy of Rita Joe in the University
    TRiC38#1x12.qxp_TRiC'16 2017-05-30 11:03 AM Page 11 ARTICLES Ryga, Miss Donohue, and Me: Forty Years of The Ecstasy of Rita Joe in the University MOIRA DAY This article is dedicated to the memory of Frank Bueckert (1922-2017), a valued friend, mentor, and teacher. While the seminal role that George Ryga’s 1967 classic, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, played in igniting the modern Canadian theatre has often been acknowledged, the extent to which its success also constituted a concentrated attack on what Ryga termed the “complacent educator” in 1977, and helped revolution- ize the publication and teaching of Canadian plays at the post-secondary level, may have been less well acknowledged. This article, which documents Moira Day’s own forty-year odyssey with the play in the (largely) prairie university classroom as both a student and an instructor, investigates the play’s initial impact on scholarship, publication, curriculum at the post-secondary level, and some of its ramifications on school and university production and actor training over the 1970 and 1980s. It also deals with the challenges of continuing to teach and interpret the play from the 1990s onward, as new practices and theories have continued to alter its meaning, and considers why this odd, iconoclastic text, despite its flaws, continues to fascinate us fifty years after its initial production. On a souvent souligné le rôle essentiel qu’a joué The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, une pièce qu’a écrite George Ryga en 1967, dans la mouvance du théâtre canadien. Or, on a peut-être moins insisté sur la mesure dans laquelle son succès aura constitué une attaque concentrée sur ce que Ryga appelait en 1977 l’« éducateur complaisant », ni même sur le fait que la pièce aura servi à révolutionner la publication et l’enseignement de la dramaturgie canadienne au niveau post-secondaire.
    [Show full text]
  • Green Tech Exchange Forum
    Green Tech Exchange Forum May 25, 2016 SFU Harbor Centre Presentation Chief Patrick Michell Kanaka Bar Indian Band “What we do to the lands, we do to ourselves.” The Indigenous People of Canada All diverse with distinct languages, culture and history. Canada • Celebrating 150 Years on July 1 2017 • 630 Bands • Metis and Inuit too British Columbia • Joined Canada in 1871 • 203 Bands The Nlaka’pamux Nation Archeology indicates an indigenous population living on the land for 7,000 years +. 1808: First Contact with French NWC with arrival of Simon Fraser. • First named Couteau Tribe. • Later renamed the Thompson Indian. 1857-58: Fought Americans to standstill in the Fraser Canyon War 1876: 69 villages amalgamated into 15 Indian Bands under the Indian Act 1878: Reserve Land allocations Kanaka Bar Indian Band • One of the original Nlaka’pamux communities. • Webpage: www.kanakabarband.ca • 66 members on reserve, 150 off • Codified: Election, Membership and Governance Codes in 2013. • Leadership: an indefinite term but face recall every 3rd Thursday. Land Use Plan (March 2015). Community Economic Development Plan (March 2016). Bi-annual implementation plans. Holistic: what one does affects another Kanaka Bar Indian Band Organization Chart As at May 2, 2016 Kanaka Bar & British Columbia Clean Energy Sectors Large Hydro Geothermal Tidal Wave N/A Applicable some day? N/A N/A Biomass Solar Run of River Wind Considered: not yet? 1.5 Projects 1.5 Projects Concept Stage How are we doing this? BC Hydro (the buyer of electrons) Self-sufficiency (off grid) Net Metering: projects under 100Kw Generating electrons for office, can connect to grid.
    [Show full text]
  • The NAC. Wherever You Are. Contents
    National Arts Centre Annual Report 2010–2011 The NAC. Wherever you are. Contents 14 Message from Julia E. Foster, Board Chair 37 Artistic and creative leadership 16 Message from Peter A. Herrndorf, President and CEO 37 Senior management 18 Report on strategic goals 38 Management Discussion and Analysis 24 Official languages at the NAC 43 Financial statements 25 Year in review 49 Notes to the financial statements 35 The Prairie Scene 63 National Arts Centre Foundation 36 Board of Trustees 70 Donor contributions 2010–2011 photopicturegarden/Taxi/Getty Images Role The National Arts Centre (NAC) raised its curtains for the first time in 1969. Created by the Parliament of Canada as a Centennial project during the 1960s, the NAC has become Canada’s foremost showcase for the performing arts. Today the NAC works with thousands of artists from across Canada and around the world and collaborates with dozens of arts organizations across the country. The NAC is strongly committed to being a leader and innovator in each of the performing arts fields in which it works: classical music, English theatre, French theatre, dance, and variety and community programming. It is also at the forefront of youth and education activities, supporting programs for young and emerging artists, presenting programs for young audiences and producing resources and study materials for teachers and students. The NAC is the only multidisciplinary, bilingual performing arts centre in North America and one of the largest in the world. Accountability and Funding The NAC reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages. Of the NAC’s total revenue, approximately half is derived from an annual parliamentary appropriation, while the other half comes from earned revenue— box office sales, the NAC Foundation, NAC catering, le café (restaurant), commercial parking and facility rentals.
    [Show full text]
  • To Read an Excerpt from Claiming the Land
    CONTENTS S List of Illustrations / ix Preface / xi INTRODUCTION Fraser River Fever on the Pacific Slope of North America / 1 CHAPTER 1 Prophetic Patterns: The Search for a New El Dorado / 13 CHAPTER 2 The Fur Trade World / 36 CHAPTER 3 The Californian World / 62 CHAPTER 4 The British World / 107 CHAPTER 5 Fortunes Foretold: The Fraser River War / 144 CHAPTER 6 Mapping the New El Dorado / 187 CHAPTER 7 Inventing Canada from West to East / 213 CONCLUSION “The River Bears South” / 238 Acknowledgements / 247 Appendices / 249 Notes / 267 Bibliography / 351 About the Author / 393 Index / 395 PREFACE S As a fifth-generation British Columbian, I have always been fascinated by the stories of my ancestors who chased “the golden butterfly” to California in 1849. Then in 1858 — with news of rich gold discoveries on the Fraser River — they scrambled to be among the first arrivals in British Columbia, the New El Dorado of the north. To our family this was “British California,” part of a natural north-south world found west of the Rocky Mountains, with Vancouver Island the Gibraltar-like fortress of the North Pacific. Today, the descendants of our gold rush ancestors can be found throughout this larger Pacific Slope region of which this history is such a part. My early curiosity was significantly moved by these family tales of adventure, my great-great-great Uncle William having acted as fore- man on many of the well-known roadways of the colonial period: the Dewdney and Big Bend gold rush trails, and the most arduous section of the Cariboo Wagon Road that traversed and tunnelled through the infamous Black Canyon (confronted by Simon Fraser just a little over 50 years earlier).
    [Show full text]
  • Falls Around Her
    Baswewe Films and The Film Farm Present FALLS AROUND HER Starring Tantoo Cardinal Written and Directed by Darlene Naponse PRESS KIT SYNOPSIS Falls Around Her follows Mary Birchbark (Tantoo Cardinal), a legendary singer who returns to the vast wilderness of her reserve to reconnect with the land and her community. Mary begins to sense that someone might be watching her. Unsure of what is real and what is imagined, Mary embraces isolation as she explores the psychological impact of her past and present. PRODUCTION NOTES Work and Walk in a Good Way Honour the Seven Grandfathers teachings: Honesty – Wisdom – Respect – Bravery – Humility – Truth – Love Those words and several others would accompany Falls Around Her’s first callsheet and would be included in every callsheet during the shoot. For the Anishinaabe people, the Teachings of the Seven Grandfathers is a set of teachings on human conduct toward others. As film crews employ many people from several different backgrounds, it’s a daily reminder to treat all creation with respect. And cast and crew took those words to heart every day and it contributed to a joyful set. Even more amazing given that there was a mix of crew of indigenous and non-indigenous people. The crew for Falls Around Her became an amalgamation of Toronto and Atikameksheng Anishnawbek/Sudbury/North Bay crews along with many indigenous locals. For the locals, it was the biggest production to ever have its home base on the reservation, and they were prepared for the challenge and the collective hard work of all is reflected on-screen.
    [Show full text]
  • Untold Stories of the Past 150 Years, Canada 150 Conference, UCD
    Untold Stories of the Past 150 Years, Canada 150 Conference, UCD [as of March 28, 2017 and subject to change] Friday, April 28, 2017 Registration: 11.30 am to 1 pm, Humanities Institute 1.00 pm – 2.15 pm: Panels - Panel 1A (Humanities Institute): Urban Indigenous Experiences Aubrey Hanson (Métis, University of Calgary), “Indigenous Women’s Resilience in Urban Spaces” Jeff Fedoruk (McMaster University), “Unceded Identities: Vancouver as Nexus of Urban Indigenous Cultural Production” Renée Monchalin (Métis, Algonquin, Huron; University of Toronto), “The Invisible Nation: Métis Identity, Access to Health Services, and the Colonial Legacy in Toronto, Canada” - Panel 1B (Geary Institute): Disrupting Normative Bodies and Gendered Discourses Kit Dobson (Mount Royal University), “Untold Bodies: Failing Gender in Canada’s Past and Future” Kristi Allain (St. Thomas University), “Taking Slap Shots at the House: When the Canadian Media turns Curlers into Hockey Players” Rebecca Draisey-Collishaw (Memorial University), “Listening Between the Lines: Curating the Normative Canadian” Jamie Jelinski (Queen’s University), “‘An Artist’s View of Tattooing’: Aba Bayefsky and Tattooing in Toronto and Yokohoma, 1978-1986” 2.15 pm – 2.30 pm: Break 2.30 pm – 3.45 pm: Panels - Panel 2A (Humanities Institute): Indigenous Aesthetics Sarah MacKenzie (University of New Brunswick), “Indigenous Women’s Theatre: A Tool of Decolonization” Lisa Boivin (Deninu Kue, University of Toronto), “Painting the Path of Indigenous Resilience: In this Place Settlers Call Canada” Shannon Webb-Campbell (Mi’kmaq, Memorial University), “On Reading Yourself Native: Notes from an Indigenous Poet to Established Aboriginal Writers” - Panel 2B (Geary Institute): Untold Diasporas Dagmara Drewniak (Adam Mickiewicz University), “‘We were coming back.
    [Show full text]
  • The Archaeology of 1858 in the Fraser Canyon
    The Archaeology of 1858 in the Fraser Canyon Brian Pegg* Introduction ritish Columbia was created as a political entity because of the events of 1858, when the entry of large numbers of prospectors during the Fraser River gold rush led to a short but vicious war Bwith the Nlaka’pamux inhabitants of the Fraser Canyon. Due to this large influx of outsiders, most of whom were American, the British Parliament acted to establish the mainland colony of British Columbia on 2 August 1858.1 The cultural landscape of the Fraser Canyon underwent extremely significant changes between 1858 and the end of the nineteenth century. Construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road and the Canadian Pacific Railway, the establishment of non-Indigenous communities at Boston Bar and North Bend, and the creation of the reserve system took place in the Fraser Canyon where, prior to 1858, Nlaka’pamux people held largely undisputed military, economic, legal, and political power. Before 1858, the most significant relationship Nlaka’pamux people had with outsiders was with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), which had forts at Kamloops, Langley, Hope, and Yale.2 Figure 1 shows critical locations for the events of 1858 and immediately afterwards. In 1858, most of the miners were American, with many having a military or paramilitary background, and they quickly entered into hostilities with the Nlaka’pamux. The Fraser Canyon War initially conformed to the pattern of many other “Indian Wars” within the expanding United States (including those in California, from whence many of the Fraser Canyon miners hailed), with miners approaching Indigenous inhabitants * The many individuals who have contributed to this work are too numerous to list.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unnatural and Accidental Women
    I See You Sisters Like Yesterday Today: The Unnatural and Accidental Women Sharon Sullivan is an Associate Professor of In “Archimedes and the Paradox of Theater and Chair of Women’s and Gender Feminist Criticism,” Myra Jehlen writes that Studies at Washburn University, Topeka, “feminist thinking is really rethinking, an Kansas. She is particularly interested in the examination of the way certain assumptions intersections between art and activism. Her about women and the female character enter current research interests focus on modern into the fundamental assumptions that or- slavery, domestic violence, and incarcerated ganize all our thinking” (Jehlen 1981, 89). women. Métis playwright Marie Clements examines and challenges assumptions about gender Abstract and indigeneity in her play, The Unnatural This paper argues that Marie Clements’ play, and Accidental Women (UAW). Based on a The Unnatural and Accidental Women, pro- true story of a man who killed at least ten motes a (re)creation of a women’s community indigenous women in Vancouver, British that empowers women and nurtures indi- Columbia (B.C.), by poisoning them with alco- vidual identity. Inspired by the true story of hol, Clements recreates/rethinks the events women murdered by a serial killer in Van- from the victims’ points of view. Ultimately, couver, British Columbia, Clements focuses she reveals not only what has been rendered on the indigenous women victims whose stor- invisible about the women’s lives, but also the ies were not told in the media. possibility of a different cultural reality based on both inclusivity and respect for difference. Résumé Marie Clements has been a perform- Cet article soutient que la pièce de Marie er, playwright, director, and artistic director in Clements, The Unnatural and Accidental theatres across B.C.
    [Show full text]