The Trickster, the game of Bingo, and the comic elements in "The Rez Sisters"
Tomson Highway's play "The Rez Sisters" was released on November 26, 1986, talking about seven women, all related to each other, which have to go to Toronto to win "THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD". This decision and the activity that accompanies it, change their lives, as they, altered by the bingo game and Nanabush, a trickster spirit of the Ojibwa tribe, who accompanies them on their journey, poking fun at them all the time (or so it seems at a first glance), get back in touch with their inner selves and re-assess themselves.
At a first glance, "The Rez Sisters" is a very simple comic play about seven related to each other women, who live such empty, mundane lives that an ordinary event - namely the bingo game - becomes a pivot around which all their lives rotate. However, a deeper glance reveals the depths beneath that comic and limpid surface.
Primarily, though, "The Rez Sisters" is a humorous play, and it pokes fun at the lives of the inhabitants of Indian Reserves, places where the Native Americans supposedly preserved their cultures. However, as the heroines' actual names reveal, this idea failed to come true by a long shot: the relatively Aboriginal name of Pelajia Patchnose belongs to a half-sister of completely anglicized Annie Cook, showing the gradual assimilation of the Native people by the Europeans (primarily French and English). It seems that rather than keeping the Aboriginal culture and preserving it for the future generations, the inhabitants of the "Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve" seem to be forgetting it instead, allowing it to dissipate into thin air. Pelajia Patchnose describes this state of affairs to her sister Philomena Moosetail: "Everyone here's crazy. No jobs. Nothing to do but drink and screw each other's wives and husbands and forget about our Nanabush." (The Rez Sisters, 6)
Of course, on one hand, this mismatch of names - Pelajia and Zhaboonigan next to Anne and Marie-Adele, Dictionary vs. Dadzinanare - only helps to put the audience in a good mood, adding to the play's rather bizarre humor. On the other hand, however, it shows how the European Anglo-French culture is assimilating the Native American one, including the names, and consequently the identities, of the Native American people.
Moreover, as the play unfolds, we see further evidence of this moral and cultural decay and assimilation so complained about by Pelajia: the heroines gossip mostly about Gazelle Nataways' illegitimate relationship with Big Joey, as well how Little Girl Manitobi's daughter June Bug McLeod had won the last big bingo. All are casual, small, practically petty, things, but because nothing ever happens in "the Wasy" that can be considered big even by the standards of the audience, these topics are practically the only things the play's heroines talk about.
Tomson Highway describes Nanabush as the Trickster spirit of the Ojibwa culture, thus making him an ambiguous figure both in the play and the Native culture to begin with. For the Native Americans, various Tricksters - Raven, Coyote, etc. - were heroes of both funny stories and stories about creation. For example, the Raven brought forth the Sun into the world, Coyote introduced fire to humans (and in others - introduced death to the world), etc. Thus, Nanabush, also known as Nanabozho, is a spirit that figures prominently in many Ojibwa myths, including their creation myth - in short, a very important character; to forget him means to forget a large piece of the Ojibwa religion and culture.
However, even as Pelajia complains to her sister that everybody in the reserve are forgetting Nanabush and their culture, the author shows that Nanabush has never really gone away, he is still here, albeit in a guise of a seagull - a bird. (18) Quite often in native folklore, a bird is the symbol of the other world, world of gods and spirits. Furthermore, the only people who really notice or interact with him are Zhaboonigan Peterson, the mentally disabled adopted daughter of Veronique St. Pierre, and Marie-Adele Starblanket, Veronique's sister-in-law who is slowly dying from cancer, and thus can be considered to be currently residing between the worlds of the living and the dead, the humans and the spirits. However, this shows that Tomson Highway tries to tell the readers that culture, or spiritually, wise, things are not as bleak at the Reserve, as they appear in the beginning of the play. Apparently, Nanabush (and the rest of the Native American culture) is still present in the Reserve, you just need to know where to look, and be willing to - and you'll see Nanabush poking and laughing at the people of the reserve. Sadly, it seems that of all the characters in the play, only the mentally unstable Zhaboonigan and the dying Marie-Adele are willing (and able) to make that effort.
As Zhaboonigan (and to a lesser extent Marie-Adele) interacts with Nanabush, the rest of the women are busy planning for THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD, and thinking how it will change their lives. By now, bingo in the Reserve has become much more than a game; it is now something of a quasi-religious ceremony, a game of luck and skill, complete with its own champions, such as deceased Bingo Betty (16-17), who is treated, eventually, in the same way as Nanabush and other original Native American spirits and gods. (5) True, at one level this situation is funny, for in a regular society, bingo is never more than just a game, but for a restricted mini-society, such as the "Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve", bingo truly earned its role of a social pivot, since there is nothing to challenge it, as Pelajia Patchnose indicates. Instead, such an out-of-town event becomes a window of opportunity for the women, a period of change in their otherwise static lives. Naturally, all women save Zhaboonigan Peterson are full of dreams and plans, and they intend to use their to-be-won money to change lives - their own, or, everyone in the reserve, as Pelajia says to the other women:
[...]I know how to handle that tired old chief. He and I have been arguing about paved roads for years now. I'll tell him the people will stop drinking themselves to death because they'll have paved roads to walk on. I'll tell him there'll be more jobs because the people will have paved roads to drive to work on. I'll tell him the people will stop fighting and screwing around and Nanabush will come back to use because he'll have paved roads to dance on. There's enough money in there for everyone, I'll say. (The Rez Sisters, 59)
At one level, sure enough, Pelajia's inspirational speech will cause nothing but smiles, for it is absurd to believe that paved roads will solve all of the Reserve's problems. However, the money that could go into those paved roads can also go and improve the life in the Reserve in other ways too, most likely. Despite her external cynicism and expressed disgust for the Reserve, in her heart Pelajia is an optimist who wants to restore her people's culture and fix their current society at "the Wasy" instead. That is why she is contemplating becoming the chief at the end of the play. (114)
But yet, before Pelajia even started her inspirational speech, Zhaboonigan is talking to Nanabush, who has supposedly left, about her horrible misadventure with two white boys, who
"Put something inside me here. [...] Many, many times. Remember. Don't fly away. Don't go. I saw you before. There, there. It was a. Screwdriver. They put the screwdriver inside me. Here. [...]
During this last speech, Nanabush goes through agonizing contortions." (47-48)
Zhaboonigan's speech bothers Nanabush so because the latter is not just a Trickster spirit; like the Tricksters of other Native American cultures, he is the hero of the Ojibwa culture as well. Therefore, it is his duty of a hero and a spiritual guide to aid, assist, and protect those under him, and he has clearly failed with Zhaboonigan - and she can see and recognize him for what or who he really is, she knows that he is real. Zhaboonigan believes in him even more than Pelajia or Marie-Adele do. Sadly, for now Nanabush has to stay in the background as a seagull, unable to influence or affect the women directly, even though that does allow him to laugh at them behind their backs. However, this changes in act 2. Then, this situation changes.
By the time the audience reaches the second act of the play, it should be obvious to them that one of the heroines, Marie-Adele Starblanket, has cancer (49, 65), and has to have tests in a hospital to check on her condition. Sadly, she never makes it there, because she dies right on the bingo night in the middle of the game (104), putting a dumper on the initially humorous play. However, that scene is one of the most heart-rending, important, and the richest in the supernatural effects, parts of the play. Moreover, Nanabush is right in the thick of it, as well.
At first, he makes his presence known as a bird still - but not a seagull, a nighthawk (92), as the play's mood begins to darken from the initial light-hearted comedy of the first act. Of course, even back then Marie-Adele stood a bit aside from the others' excitement, but now, confronted by the bird that has a sinister meaning for her, she becomes terrified of it darting around her, and moves to the pivotal point of the second act.
"Who are you? What do you want? My children? Eugene? No! Oh no! Me? Not yet. Not yet. Give me time. Please. Don't. Please don't. Awus! Get away from me. Eugene! Awus! You fucking bird! Awus! Awus! Awus! Awus!
And she has a total hysterical breakdown." (92)
Now, earlier in the play (18), it was said that only Marie-Adele and Zhaboonigan had some recognition of Nanabush in relation to his real identity. Now, it becomes obvious that Marie-Adele actually has a very good recognition of the nighthawk/Nanabush, who, for her is the messenger of death (19, 56), which means that he is more than just a clown he was in the first act of the play. (Incidentally, Marie-Adele's constant linguistic slips between the English and Cree languages also indicate that the knowledge of the old Aboriginal ways is not as gone as Pelajia and other heroines presume.)
However, Nanabush's stunt as a nighthawk is nothing compared to his act as the bingo master, promising the players the world. He is "dressed to kill: tails, rhinestones, and all" (100). In other words, he is the ultimate snake-oil salesman, promising the innocent suckers the world, or more precisely - "HALF A MILLION SMACKEROOS!!! IF you play the game right", that is. (101) Sadly, his deliverance isn't like his promises - "the Bingo Master calls out number after number - but not the B 14" (102), which the women apparently need to win the jackpot. Moreover, parodying the classic scene of driving such a hustler out of town tarred and feathered, they grab the bingo machine and drag it out of the bingo palace, apparently planning to throw it in the lake. (103)
"And out of this chaos emerges the calm, silent image of Marie-Adele waltzing romantically in the arms of the Bingo Master. The Bingo Master says "Bingo" into her ear. And the Bingo Master changes, with sudden bird-like movements, into the nighthawk, Nanabush in dark feathers. Marie-Adele meets Nanabush." (103)
This is it; this is the climax of the play. All the chickens are coming to roost now, as the comic elements of the play get suspended and put aside for the time being. Marie-Adele was obviously afraid of dying or going insane (96), and put up a brave front to deny it, but no more, she is ready to move on into the afterlife. Nanabush was little more than a trickster, a half-forgotten nature spirit of the past, but now he reveals his true self of a divine power, as he takes Marie-Adele into the afterlife that she must deserve after dealing with 14 kids and a useless husband. Lastly, the audience understands that while by regular standards Zhaboonigan is crazy; by the supernatural Native American values, she has spiritual gifts, for she tries to follow her and Nanabush into the spirit realm. (104) (Furthermore, since it is Emily Dictionary, who prevents her from doing that at the last moment, it also becomes clear that despite her clearly modern and even urban appearance, the second youngest of all the seven heroines is more in touch with her inner self than she lets on.)
As the last words of the Ojibwa funeral dirge vanish into silence, and Pelajia says her epiphany to her deceased younger half-sister, the living women begin to recover from their trip to Toronto and prepare for the rest of their lives. Using the bingo game, Nanabush (who is absent for almost the rest of the play) has changed them all. Emily Dictionary has finally come into touch with the woman inside herself, and with both her new baby and Zhaboonigan to take care of on top of her old job she is going to need everything she learned in life to deal with it. Zhaboonigan has "passed" from Veronique's somewhat dubious care to Emily, who is growing genuinely fond of her. Veronique, for her part, is left to take care of Marie-Adele's 14 children and husband, a prospect that she seems to genuinely enjoy, unlike the deceased woman. Annie Cook, the most Europeanized sister of them all, has finally gotten enough courage to leave the reserve and try to live a new life with her boyfriend, Fritz the Katz. Philomena gets her new toilet, her fondest wish - no spiritual insights there. However, Pelajia, the oldest Rez sister, has re-discovered her native roots, and plans to ensure that the rest of the Reserve does as well, by running for the chief's position (113-14), and probably getting the paved roads or some other renovations in the Reserve. As she plans to do that, she is unaware that the supposedly missing Nanabush - the spirit of the traditional Native American values - is right there behind her, dancing to the tune of her hammer beat, "merrily and triumphantly" (118), using the absurd to hide the fact that he succeeded at last.
Tomson Highway's play uses the absurd metaphors, speeches, and situations to hide the darker themes of both the mundane side of living in an Indian Reserve, and the spiritual one. Using such distraction tactics as Philomena's obsessions with her toilet, Annie Cook's too-perky-to-be-true attitude, and Gazelle Nataways/Big Joey side plot as distractions, Tomson Highway hides the facts that life in an Indian Reserve is destructive upon both the physical and spiritual lives of its inhabitants, and that renovations must be done to prevent that from completing. This in turn needs money, which is apparently in a short supply in such a community. The author's attitude also makes itself felt in the actions of Nanabush, whose Trickster reputation hides the deeper, darker, more serious aspects of his role in the Native American folklore. Finally, the resolution of the play shows that the author believes that despite the importance of money, one does not need it to acquire happiness, as the surviving Rez sisters (except for Philomena) show the audience.
Works cited:
Highway, Tomson. The Rez Sisters. Canada: Transcontinental Printing, 06/23, 1988.