The Rez Sisters

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A play by Aboriginal Canadian writer Tomson Highway, The Rez Sisters, was first performed on November 26, 1986. The Rez Sisters was produced by Act IV Theatre Company and Native Earth Performing Arts. The Rez Sisters is partially inspired by Michel Tremblay’s play Les Belles-soeurs, as it focuses on the hopes and dreams of a group of seven woman on the Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve comparable to actual people found in the playwright's home community. Unlike Tremblay’s mocking treatment of his characters, Highway presents his characters in a gentler light. The Rez Sisters is the first of a cycle of seven plays the playwright refers to as his “Rez Septology,” which also includes the follow up to The Rez Sisters, 1989’s Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, originally entitled The Rez Brothers.

The Rez Sisters features an ensemble cast of seven women dreaming of winning (and working toward raising enough money to attend) “The Biggest Bingo in the World,” and one male actor/dancer in the role of Nanabush (originally played by the playwright’s brother René Highway). The play melds the sometimes dark realities of life on an Indian Reservation with humour and elements of Aboriginal spirituality.

[edit] Characters

Main Characters	Background	Affliction	What happens to characters at the end
Pelajia Patchnose	Her sons are in Toronto, while her husband is in Espanola. Her mother is dead. Sister of Philomena. Works as a contractor.	She is trapped at the reserve which she has come to hate.	She is back where she started (on the roof) still trapped in the reserve. Considers becoming the chief.
Philomena Moosetail	She had an affair with her boss (garment district) in Toronto and conceived a child. But she gave the child away. Her mother is dead. Sister of Pelajia.	Her lover (her boss) got her pregnant but then left with his wife. She knows nothing of the child she bore, not even its gender.	She wins $600 from the bingo. Buys her new shiny, porcelain toilet bowl. But no major change occurs in life, as she is also back where she started, on the roof.
Marie-Adele Starblanket	Took Eugene from Annie, who drinks a lot. Has fourteen kids with him. Half-sister of above.	She has a growing cancer.	Her cancer kills her as the rest of the women lose the bingo game.
Annie Cook	Has a daughter, Ellen who lives with Raymond in Sudbury. Sister of Marie-Adele.	She lost her love to her own sister Marie	She gets a job as a back-up singer for Fritz at Little Current. She also comes closer to achieving her love, Fritz.
Emily Dictionary	She works at a store. Mistreated by her husband forcing her to abandon him and her children. Former member of the Rez Sisters’ motorbike gang, she left when her lover killed herself. Sister of Annie.	She was severely mistreated by her husband, who tried to kill her once. She was part of the Rez Sisters’ gang in San Francisco.	Comes back to her store, but is pregnant with Big Joey’s baby.
Veronique St. Pierre	Adopted Zhaboonigan with Pierre. Sister-in-law of the above.	She is disliked by almost everybody. Husband Pierre drinks all the money away.	She gets her new stove and is delighted to be cooking for Eugene and the fourteen Starblanket children
Zhaboonigan Peterson	She is mentally challenged. Her parents died in a car crash. Adopted daughter of Veronique St. Pierre.	She is mentally challenged and was sexually abused by two white men.	Originally afraid of Emily Dictionary, she comes to trust her and in her final scene in the play is learning to help Emily at the store.

[edit] Notes

Zhaboonigan Peterson and Helen Betty Osborne

In the play, the details of Zhaboonigan's sexual assault - including her being abducted and attacked with a screwdriver - closely parallel the details of the real-life murder of Helen Betty Osborne of Norway House Indian Reserve (Manitoba), who was killed in 1971. Despite overwhelming physical evidence (blood, hair and clothing fragments were found in one of the suspects car’s) it was not until 1987 (a year after Rez Sisters opened) that two out of the three suspects in Osbourne’s murder were charged. Highway’s deeply sympathetic character, Zhaboonigan, can be seen as a statement against the injustice inflicted upon Osbourne.

Emily Dictionary - Queer characters in the 1980's

At the time that this play was written, being openly gay was an extremely risky endeavour. Though Highway subtly veils it, it can be understood that Emily Dictionary’s love of the biker-women, and her “butch” leanings and subtle aversion to the male characters of the play point to her implicit lesbianism.

[edit] Awards

• Won 1986-87 Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play.
• Runner-up for the Floyd Chalmers Award for the outstanding Canadian play of 1986
• Nominated for the Governor General’s Award.