White Settler Colonialism and (Re)presentations of Gendered Violence in Indigenous Women’s Theatre Sarah Emily MacKenzie Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Doctorate in Philosophy Degree in Women’s Studies Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ottawa ©Sarah Emily MacKenzie, Ottawa, Canada, 2016. Abstract Grounded in a historical, socio-cultural consideration of Indigenous women’s theatrical production, this dissertation examines representations of gendered violence in Canadian Indigenous women’s drama. The female playwrights who are the focus of my thesis – Monique Mojica, Marie Clements, and Yvette Nolan – counter colonial and occasionally postcolonial renditions of gendered and racialized violence by emphasizing female resistance and collective coalition. While these plays represent gendered violence as a real, material mechanism of colonial destruction, ultimately they work to promote messages of collective empowerment, recuperation, and survival. My thesis asks not only how a dramatic text might deploy a decolonizing aesthetic, but how it might redefine dramatic/literary and socio-cultural space for resistant and decolonial ends. Attentive to the great variance of subjective positions occupied by Indigenous women writers, I examine the historical context of theatrical reception, asking how the critic/spectator’s engagement with and dissemination of knowledge concerning Indigenous theatre might enhance or impede this redefinition. Informed by Indigenous/feminist poststructuralist and postcolonial theoretical perspectives that address the production and dissemination of racialized regimes of representation, my study assesses the extent to which colonialist misrepresentations of Indigenous women have served to perpetuate demeaning stereotypes, justifying devaluation of and violence – especially sexual violence – against Indigenous women. Most significantly, my thesis considers how and to what degree resistant representations in Indigenous women’s dramatic productions work against such representational and manifest violence. ii Acknowledgments Firstly, I want to extend heartfelt thanks to my supervisor Dr. Cynthia Sugars. Without Cynthia’s precise editing skills, constructive criticism, and thoughtful guidance, this thesis would not have been possible. I was extremely fortunate to have such an attentive, approachable, and brilliant supervisor to assist me with this journey and I’m very appreciative of her consistent and continued support of my research and career goals. Regardless of the situation, I was always confident that Cynthia would guide me in the right direction. This surety has provided me with heightened confidence in my work and helped me to accomplish what might have otherwise seemed impossible. Our shared love of theatre has made for a wonderful working relationship and I’m genuinely going to miss our meetings. I hope that, in the future, we find other reasons to get together and talk about plays. Cynthia, thank you for your attention to detail, for your academic rigour, and for reading numerous drafts of my (occasionally longwinded) chapters! I extend a huge thanks to my committee members: Dr. Georges Sioui, Dr. Kathryn Trevenen, and Dr. Claire Turenne-Sjolander. Thank you to Georges for your kindness and encouragement. Your advice – concerning both life and writing – has always been invaluable to me. Kathryn, your positivity and empathy have not only improved my scholarship, but also made me feel like I’m an important part of the academic community. Thank you for your help and friendship! Claire, I have always found your understanding and advice incredibly helpful. Whether as much-missed Director of the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, or as Vice- Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, your willingness to offer feedback and direction is greatly appreciated! I would like to thank my external examiner, Judith Leggatt, for her careful reading, thoughtful feedback, and kind encouragement. I was very fortunate to have had Judith join my committee. Her contribution to my work has been outstanding. I’m also particularly iii thankful to Dr. Dominque Mason, who, after the completion of my Masters degree, first encouraged me to apply to the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies’ doctoral program and to Dr. Christabelle Sethna, whose involvement in my academic life has assisted to make me a better scholar and person. Christabelle played a critical role in shaping my feminist theoretical perspective/s. I would like to thank the faculty and staff at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa, past and present. Thanks to Margot Charbonneau for all the organizational assistance over the years! I don’t know what I would have done without you. Thank you to our current departmental director, Dr. Michael Orsini, who has worked hard to construct an amazing feminist work environment. Thank you also to Dr. Corrie Scott and to Dr. Mythili Rajiva, for your open-mindedness and integrity. It was a pleasure working with (and getting to know) both of you. Thanks to my colleagues at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, for your kind words, great ideas, and inspiration. I would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Heather Hillsburg, Dr. Sasha Cocarla, Patricia Wawryka, Samantha Feder, and Celeste Orr, for your humour, support, and general belief in my work. You helped to make this fun. Finally, I want to thank my friends and family, near and far. You have all been incredible sources of reprieve from the seriousness of my work. Thanks to my roommate Adam Kates for the long talks, for your patience with my perpetual nervousness, and for your ability to make the terrifying seem trivial. Thank you to my dear friend, Anna Sharrett. Your serenity and warmth have always helped to ground me and diminish my anxiousness. When things became difficult, I always knew who to call and I’m forever thankful for your friendship. I cannot possibly thank my Mum and Dad enough. I don’t think I would have made it through without you. This dissertation is dedicated to both of you iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents v Introduction: Violence against Indigenous Women and Dramatic Subversion 1 Decolonization through Dramatic Resistance: Framing the Discussion 1 The “Discovery” Myth: Colonial Misrepresentations and Violence against Indigenous Women 6 (Post)Colonial Drama: Misrepresentations of Indigenous Women 15 Interpellation, Stereotyping, and the Perpetuation of Gendered Violence 22 Reverse Interpellation, the “Decolonial Imaginary,” and Resistance 29 Identity Politics and “Intercultural” Commensurability: The Ethics of Criticism 32 Indigenous Women’s Drama: Decolonization and Recovery 39 Chapter 2: Reclaiming Our Grandmothers in Monique Mojica’s Princess Pocahontas and the Blue Spots and Birdwoman and the Suffragettes: A Story of Sacajawea 47 Reimagining “Indian Princesses” in Princess Pocahontas and the Blue Spots 50 La Malinche/Malinalli Malintzin/Doña Marina 54 Deity/Woman of the Puna/Virgin of Colonial Peru 61 Marie/Margaret/Madeline: The Mothers of the Métis Nation 67 Princess Pocahontas 75 Reimagining Sacajawea in Birdwoman and the Suffragettes 83 Reviving Sacajawea: Transforming History 90 Recuperating Our Grandmothers and Reconfiguring Sexual Violence: “Una Nación” 96 Chapter 3: Community and Resistance in Marie Clements’ The Unnatural and Accidental Women and Now Look What You Made Me Do 100 Marie Clements: Performing “Interconnected Subjectivities” 100 Revisiting and Revising Violence in The Unnatural and Accidental Women 105 v Revenge, Reclamation, and Remembrance: The End of the Story 118 (Re)presenting Victimhood in Now Look What You Made Me Do 122 Sisterhood, Sex-Work, and Self-Representation: The Women’s Group 124 Cultural Impunity and the “Abused Abuser”: Narrating Resistance 132 Breaking “Cycles of Violence”: The End of Madonna’s Story 142 Chapter 4: Media, Gendered Violence, and Dramatic Resistance in Yvette Nolan’s Annie Mae’s Movement and Blade 147 Anna Mae Pictou Aquash: “Warrior”/Activist 155 (Re)membering Anna Mae in Annie Mae’s Movement 162 Masculinism, Maternalism, and Feminine Resistance 168 Heroism vs. Martyrism: The Rape and Murder of Anna 172 Blade: Identity Politics and Reception 176 Race, Representation, and Coalition Across Difference 178 Stereotyping, Sexualization, and Communal Resistance 186 Conclusion: Indigenous Women’s Theatre: A Transnational Mechanism of Decolonization 193 Decolonization, Collective Creation, and Dramatic Subversion 193 The Transnationalization of Indigenous Feminisms 200 Spiderwoman Theatre: Enacting Intercultural Resistance 204 Bibliography 209 vi Chapter 1 Introduction: Violence against Indigenous Women and Dramatic Subversion The truest poetic function of the theatre – to invent metaphors which poignantly suggest a nation’s nightmares and afflictions. – Robert Brustein (qtd. in Harbin et al. 359) If theatre is a tool of transformation, which we know it to be, then we have a responsibility that the stories that we tell will be stories of our becoming, of our becoming whole. – Monique Mojica (“Creation” 6) Decolonization through Dramatic Resistance: Framing the Discussion The violent conquest that facilitated the settlement of White settler societies has been well documented not only in the North and South American contexts, but in literature from Australia and New Zealand.1 So, too, is