The Rez Sisters Analysis

In the play Tomson Highway uses his play The Rez Sisters to show the impact of white culture on Native culture and to show that there is a hope for Native culture. The women of the play are influenced by materialism and white societal beliefs especially in their materialistic dreams. They overcome these influences, and return to their roots at the climax of the play: Marie-Adele’s death scene. The play shows the aftermath of the cultural collision between white culture and Native culture. Highway uses the character of Nanabush to exemplify his solution to cultural collision, which is cultural integration.
The characters of the play are set into a dreaded cycle of routine, meaningless days, “I’m just plain old Pelajia Rosella Patchnose and I’m here in plain, dusty, boring old Wasaychigan Hill” (Highway 2). Their menial lives are defined by the exciting, which to them is mostly gossip and bingo. Bingo is thought of just a game in regular society but for the small, restricted society of the reserve, bingo …show more content…
Highway explains the future he envisions that, “My fellow Canadians [are] searching for this new voice, this new identity, this new tradition, this magical transformation that potentially is quite magnificent. It is the combination of the best of both worlds ... combining them and coming up with something new” (Highway “Interview” 345). Nanabush embodies Highway’s vision as he is able to seamlessly change guises between the seagull, nighthawk and the Bingo Master, characters who have both Native and white cultural significance in the play. Pelajia wants to “kick start” this healing process with her desire to build paved roads from the reserve to the outside world. This is a metaphor for the building of bridges between Native culture and white culture: the idea of trying to reconstruct a fragmented