The Rez Sisters Digital Study Guide

ABOUT THE PLAY

The Rez Sisters
By Tomson Highway
Directed by Jessica Carmichael

The Rez Sisters House Program

Grade and Curriculum Connections

• Grade 9+
• Global Competencies: Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Learning to Learn/ Self-Awareness
• The Arts
• Canadian and World Studies
• English
• First Nations, Métis and Inuit Studies
• Heath and Physical Education
• Native Language
• Social Sciences and Humanities

Content Advisory for Students

• Deals with mental health, death, grief and abuse
• Contains coarse language and the depiction of violence
• English, Nēhiyawēwin (Cree) and Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) languages are spoken

Synopsis

They have their dreams and their difficulties, these seven women. One yearns for a singing career; another for a white porcelain toilet. One grieves for her lover, killed in a motorcycle accident; another harbours the memory of a horrific sexual assault. The cancer that afflicts one of them is not the only malignancy they confront. But one dream they hold in common is that of winning "the biggest bingo in the world" - and one day, accompanied by the transformative spirit guide Nanabush, they leave their Manitoulin Island reserve and set out for Toronto to do just that. Ribald, harrowing and mystical, this seminal work of Indigenous drama celebrates the spirit of resilience and the powerful beauty these women bring to the tough world in which they live.

Themes and Motifs

• Loss
  • Colonialism
  • Poverty
  • Trauma and Abuse
  • Illness and Death
  • Grief and Resilience
  • Hope and Humour
    
    
• Gender
  • Sisterhood and Friendship
  • Identity
  • Female Strength
  • Two-Spiritedness
    
    
• Transformation
  • Journey
  • Tradition and modernity
  • Fecundity
  • Appearance and reality
  • The supernatural and spirit world

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

PRE-SHOW

• What role does language play in your life and culture? Why is it important for people to be able to express themselves in their chosen languages?
• What is colonialism and what are its impacts in Canada and the United States?
• How would you define 'home' and 'community'? Why are they important? How do their definitions change across culture?
• What is materialism? What are the positive and negative effects of this phenomenon?
• What do you know about 'the trickster' figure? What do you expect this character's function will be in the play?
• This play focuses on seven female characters: Pelajia, Philomena, Marie-Adele, Annie, Emily, Veronique and Zhaboonigan. Tomson Highway wrote The Rez Sisters in 1986. Knowing this, in what ways do you imagine these characters might be portrayed? How has the role of women - and particularly Indigenous women - and their access to power changed since then? What still needs to be done in order to achieve equity?

POST-SHOW

• What makes someone resilient? How do the women in the play find resilience?
• What did the representation of Nanabush mean to you? Did anything about this character surprise you?
• What images or phrases from the production have stayed with you after seeing it? Why do you think the playwright and/or director chose to include these?
• What is the significance of the road trip? In what ways does it change the women?
• What is the function of comedy in this play? Why do you think comedy sometimes helps us to engage with difficult subject matter?
• Does this play resonate for you with regard to today's understanding of gender identity, sexual orientation, diversity and expression? Why or why not?

MINDS ON

Objective: This pre-show exercise invites students to identify and explain some of the key themes, ideas and issues explored in the play while learning about playwright Tomson Highway. As a post-show extension, you may wish to invite students to re-visit the discussion questions in order to incorporate specific examples from the Stratford Festival production.

Materials: Access to Tomson Highway's CBC article and embedded video links
Please note that the video links contain mature language and discussion of residential schools.

Directions:

1. Share the article, video links and bio with students. Explain that this article includes interview footage with Highway from 1987 and 1999 about his stage success with The Rez Sisters.
2. Invite students to respond to the debriefing questions independently, in conversation with a partner or in small groups, or in a written reflection.
3. Then, after students have watched the production, invite them to reflect on the same debriefing questions. Ask students to add at least two specific examples from the Stratford Festival production.

Debriefing Questions:

• In the 1987 CBC interview, Highway describes the Cree language as a "laughing language". What do you think he means by this? How does this perspective on the Cree language expand your understanding of how language shapes culture and identity? How would you describe the languages you speak? Are any of them "laughing languages"?
• Highway describes the presence of the trickster Nanabush in The Rez Sisters as a 'mythological, magical element' rooted in Indigenous storytelling. What do you already know about the trickster figure in Indigenous cultures? How does Nanabush influence the events or themes of the play, and why do you think Highway chose to include this character?
• This play and this interview is more than 35 years old. What, if anything, surprised you in terms of contemporary connections between The Rez Sisters and our lives today?

Extension Activities:

• Trickster Figure Research: Invite students to research a trickster figure from Indigenous or world mythology. Students will then create a multimedia representation (poster, slideshow, podcast) answering the following questions:
  • What are the trickster's traits?
  • What stories involve them?
  • How do they challenge social norms or reveal truths?
  • Suggested Resources:
    • The Trickster in Indigenous Culture - The Canadian Encyclopedia: overview of the Trickster figure in Indigenous mythologies, its role, and cultural significance.
    • Biboon, Nanaboozhoo and Carnival: Winter Trickster Stories - Toronto Public Library Blog: Explores winter-themed Trickster stories, especially the character Nanaboozhoo in Anishinaabe storytelling.
    • Weesageechak Begins to Dance - Native Earth Performing Arts: A look at how Trickster figures appear in contemporary Indigenous theatre and performance.
      
      
• Cultural Exchange Wall: Create a bulletin board or a digital sharing document where students contribute stories, sayings, jokes, or expressions from their own culture or language. Invite students to include notes about the cultural meaning or context. As a class, add quotes from The Rez Sisters and from Highway's interview to make connections. Suggested debriefing questions include:
  • What patterns or surprises did you notice in the languages and expressions shared by your classmates? What do these patterns suggest about how language connects to emotion, humour or worldview?
  • How did participating in this exchange affect your understanding of your own language/s or cultural background/s? Did it make you view any part of your identity differently? Explain your perspective.
  • Why might it be important to celebrate linguistic and cultural diversity in our school spaces? How does this connect to the themes of The Rez Sisters and the role of Cree as a "laughing language"?

CONNECTION TO THE ARCHIVES

The 2021 production of The Rez Sisters was the first show to be performed at the site of the new Tom Patterson Theatre. It opened on July 13, exactly 68 years to the day after the Stratford Festival's first show (which was Richard III - you can see an image of that production below). In what ways has the Stratford Festival changed since 1953? In what ways do you think it will continue to change?

 Irene Worth as Queen Margaret in Richard III, 1953. Directed by Tyrone Guthrie. Design by Tanya Moiseiwitsch. Photography by Peter Smith. Stratford Festival Archives, GPO_1953_002_0215

The Stratford Festival's Archives maintains, conserves and protects recent and historical records about the Festival and makes those materials available to people around the world. Our multi-media archival holdings date from 1952 and extend through to contemporary materials. We house correspondence, production records, Board minutes, photography, design artwork, scores, audio-visual records, costumes, props and set decoration, press releases and other promotional materials: these document the processes that bring a production to the stage and reflect all aspects of mounting a play from the administrative to the creative and beyond.

RESOURCES

Director's Resources

Reading and Listening List
Jessica Carmichael, director of The Rez Sisters, offers suggestions of reading and listening material to accompany your experience of the show.

Indigenous Knowledge and Education

All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward - Tanya Talaga | 2018 CBC Lecture

Indigenous Canada Course | University of Alberta

Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada | Canadian Geographic

Key Moment Videos | National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Reclaiming Power and Place | The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Tomson Highway, Indigenous Theatre, and Performance

LaFlamme, M. "Highway to the Valley." Canadian Theatre Review. 151.1: 55-59.

The Rez Sisters Showstarters | The Digital Meighen Forum at the Stratford Festival

Nothof, A. (1995). Cultural Collision and Magical Transformation: The Plays of Tomson Highway." Studies in Canadian Literature. 20.2: 34-43.

Tomkins, J. and L. Male.  "Twenty-One Native Women on Motorcycles: An Interview with Tomson Highway," Australasian Drama Studies. 24 (1994): 13-28.

When Tomson Highway found success with The Rez Sisters | CBC Archives

Trickster Figure in Indigenous Culture

Biboon, Nanaboozhoo and Carnival: Winter Trickster Stories | Toronto Public Library Blog

Perkins, L. "Remembering the Trickster in Tomson Highway's The Rez Sisters." Modern Drama. 45.2 (2002): 259-269.

The Trickster in Indigenous Culture | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Weesageechak Begins to Dance | Native Earth Performing Arts

EDUCATION SUPPORT PARTNER

TOOLS FOR TEACHERS SPONSORED BY

 PROUD SEASON PARTNERS 

PRODUCTION SUPPORT IS GENEROUSLY PROVIDED BY KARON C. BALES & CHARLES E. BEALL AND BY M. FAINER.

SUPPORT FOR THE FILMING OF PRODUCTIONS IN THE 2021 SEASON IS GENEROUSLY PROVIDED BY RICHARD & MONA ALONZO, THE JOHN AND MYRNA DANIELS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, THE HENRY WHITE KINNEAR FOUNDATION, MARTIE & BOB SACHS, ROBERT & JACQUELINE SPERANDIO, ALICE & TIM THORNTON AND BY AN ANONYMOUS DONOR.