The Rez Sisters

“It is mid-morning of a beautiful late August day on the Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve, Manitoulin Island, Ontario.”

These are the opening lines of Act I. The Rez Sisters is split into two acts, with no scene numbers, although the staging indicates different locations. In the above quote, Highway sets the scene on a fictional reserve, or Indigenous reservation, in Canada. This stage direction also indicates the amount of time that elapses in the play. Since the bingo game at the climax of the play occurs on September 8, the play occurs over the course of a couple weeks.

“And the old stories, the old language. Almost all gone...was a time Nanabush and Windigo and everyone here could rattle away in Indian fast as Bingo Betty could lay her bingo chips down on a hot night.”

Pelajia laments the loss of Indigenous culture and language. While Pelajia is aware of Nanabush as a traditional trickster spirit, she—unlike Marie-Adele and Zhaboonigan—does not see him. This quote expresses her desire to keep the stories of Nanabush alive after the attempted genocide of Indigenous people by white settlers. This also foreshadows how the play ends with Nanabush dancing behind Pelajia, indicating that she may be the next person he guides through death.

“Wasy women want bigger bingos!”

This is a lighthearted moment in the play when Pelajia, Philomena, and Annie joke about starting a revolution with marches and signs. The humor comes from them not fighting for human rights, but for better bingo games. Highway frequently balances the darker moments in the play with comedy, and gives characters space to make jokes that touch on serious issues or ironically hint at the women’s alienation from their spiritual lives.

“And you know, to this very day, they say that on certain nights at the bingo here in Wasy, they say you can see Bingo Betty’s ghost, like a mist, hovering in the air above the bingo tables, playing bingo like it’s never been played before. Or since.”

This quote speaks to the theme of movement between life and death. The spirit of a famous bingo player haunts the reservation. One of Nanabush’s disguises is as a Bingo Master, which is someone who guides bingo players through their games. This foreshadows how Marie-Adele will die at a bingo game.

“Talking to the birds again, Marie-Adele Starblanket?”

This is how Veronique greets Marie-Adele when she is talking to Nanabush in disguise as a seagull. The word “again” is a clue that Marie-Adele has had cancer for a while. Nanabush has previously visited her, asking her to travel from life to death, and Marie-Adele has previously refused his call to leave her family and pass on to heaven.

“You and I can name the koo-koos-suk.”

This is a line that Marie-Adele says to Zhaboonigan; Highway includes a footnote—“The little pigs. (Cree)”—with a translation into English. The theme of movement between languages is developed here. Zhaboonigan is upset by being unable to tie a shoe, and Marie-Adele uses Indigenous language when comforting Zhaboonigan.

“Little Girl Manitowabi told me her daughter, June Bug McLeod, just got back from the hospital in Sudbury where she had her tubes tied and told her that THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD is coming to Toronto.”

This passage is an example of the gossip between the sisters on the reservation. Veronique tells Annie what Gazelle told her, and Gazelle’s information is also something that the person speaking to her was told by someone else. In other words, this demonstrates a chain of rumors with at least five human links sharing the same piece of gossip. Also, the big bingo game—the driving force of the plot—is juxtaposed with another female character and her contraceptive efforts/relationship to motherhood.

“I’m sure he’s got my Ricky Skaggs album.”

This quote is an example of the motif of music in the play. Annie goes to Marie-Adele’s house looking for her son Simon. This action is repeated at the end of the play, after Marie-Adele’s death. After the above passage, Marie-Adele tells Annie that Simon is not home; at the end of Act II, Veronique tells Annie that Simon is not home (112). Both moments revolve around a record, a motif that repeats even after Marie-Adele dies and emphasizes the cyclical nature of the play.

“Don’t let those pants you’re wearing go to your head.”

Here, the theme of gender roles on the reservation is developed. Annie says this to Pelajia in the heat of their argument in the Wasy general store. Pants are considered masculine, and connected to the sisters’ lived experience of being controlled by men who occupy positions of power (like the male chief). Pelajia wears pants because they do not hinder her roof-fixing work, and she frequently challenges male authority vocally as well as in her fashion choices.

“You fake saint.”

This passage speaks to the interpersonal dynamics at work in the play. Veronique, as a sister-in-law to the other women, is ganged up on by several blood-related sisters during the fight in the general store. Annie, in the above quote, and other sisters accuse Veronique of only becoming a foster mother for the extra money. The word choice of “saint” also speaks to Veronique being the most obviously practicing Catholic in the group.

“Red Lucifer.”

This is a line that Emily repeats several times in the play. One example is cited above; it also appears in Act I on Page 39, and in Act II on Page 106. Veronique, in her saintly guise, cannot repeat this phrase after Emily says it. Emily, however, is condemned for her bisexuality—ironically, her sexuality causes people like Veronique to characterize her as devilish.

“Rosabella Baez, Hortensia Colorado, Liz Jones, Pussy Commanda. And me. The best. ‘Rose and the Rez Sisters,’ that’s us. And man, us sisters could weave knuckle magic.”

Emily describes the motorcycle gang she was a part of in San Francisco. She later confesses that Rose, or Rosabella, was her lover who died. In this moment, Emily tells the story of her black eye. She knocked out Joey when he accidentally hit her (he was aiming to hit Gazelle), and her fighting skills—“knuckle magic”—come from fighting her abusive ex-husband, as well as fighting with her lesbian motorcycle gang.

“None of us has any money.”

This quote speaks to the socioeconomic class of the sisters on the reservation. There are not many opportunities for employment in Wasy. Other members of the sisters’ families have to travel to other cities for work, and even their travel is hindered by the fact that there are no paved roads on the reservation.

“She bangs the hammer regularly throughout the meeting.”

This stage direction refers to Emily. Pelajia loans Emily her hammer during the sisters’ meeting to discuss how to get to Toronto for the big bingo game. This moment can be read as foreshadowing how the oldest sister will pass down her ideas to the youngest sister, using the image of the hammer. Both Pelajia and Emily wear pants, they both challenge masculine authority, and they both wield the masculine hammer. At the end of the play, Nanabush appears behind Pelajia as she hammers her roof, signaling her death is near.

“The drive is underlined by a wild rhythmic beat [...] one that gets wilder and wilder with each successive beat, though always underpinned by this persistent, almost dance-like pulse.”

This is a musical stage direction for the sisters’ fundraising montage. As in a few other moments in the play, human speech is replaced with percussion. Drums function as a kind of language in the play. This is an example of the theme of the movement between languages, as well as a method of conveying a flurry of activities without including every step of these activities in a staged performance.

“That big, red, fish-tail Caddy.”

This is one example of the animal symbolism that runs throughout the play. Animal symbolism is used in both serious and lighthearted matters. Here, Philomena recalls the married man who fathered her child out of wedlock. The man is compared to a fish-tail to signify his metaphorical sliminess.

“Lotta Nishnawbs. [...] Indians. (Ojibway)”

This is another example of the theme of movement between languages. Emily tells Annie about the patrons of the Silver Dollar bar, and Highway’s footnote translates her words, as well as clarifies which language they are from. Here, Indigenous language is used to refer to Indigenous people.

“Apple Indian Annie. Red on the outside. White on the inside.” (86)

This passage is Emily’s response to Annie wanting to be around and date white people, specifically Fritz—a Jewish country musician. Annie’s stated belief that white guys treat Indigenous women better in romantic relationships causes Emily to feel like Annie is abandoning her people. While Emily does begrudgingly support Annie’s musical career (singing with her boyfriend’s band), Emily never passes up an opportunity to give Annie a hard time about it.

“Marie-Adele begins talking to the bird, almost as if she were talking to herself. Quietly, at first, but gradually—as the bird begins attacking her—growing more and more hysterical, until she is shrieking, flailing, and thrashing about insanely.”

These stage directions occur when Marie-Adele and Zhaboonigan wait by the side of the road for the others to fix the van’s flat tire. Nanabush antagonizes Marie-Adele while she refuses to accept his guidance toward death. Her madness comes from her desire to remain alive with her family. Highway’s word choice of “hysterical” speaks to how emotional outbursts are characterized as female.

“Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you will be witness to events of such gargantuan proportions, such cataclysmic ramifications, such masterly and magnificent manifestations that your minds will reel, your eyes will nictitate, and your hearts will palpitate erratically.”

This passage is one of the few moments where Nanabush, in his disguise as the Bingo Master, speaks. The trickster’s words—and the words of a showman running a big game—use alliteration, or repetition of the initial consonant “m.” This larger-than-life speech also utilizes a number of dramatic adjectives, like “gargantuan” and “cataclysmic.” These literary devices give the Bingo Master’s language an over-the-top feeling, one of melodrama and performance.

“The Bingo Master says ‘Bingo’ into her ear. And the Bingo Master changes, with sudden bird-like movements, into the nighthawk.”

This is a stage direction for the moment when Marie-Adele and the Bingo Master dance together. In contrast to the dramatic language that the Bingo Master (Nanabush in disguise) uses in the previous quote, this moment is almost a whisper. The drama here comes from the dancer playing Nanabush revealing a second bird costume, presumably hidden under the Bingo Master costume, rather than from words.

“When some fool of a being goes and puts us Indians plunk down in the middle of this old earth, dishes out this lot we got right now. But. I figure we gotta make the most of it while we’re here. You certainly did. And I sure as hell am giving it one good try. For you. For me. For all of us.”

This is part of the eulogy that Pelajia gives at Marie-Adele’s funeral. It helps the reader (or audience) understand Pelajia’s character arc from wanting to leave the reservation in the first moments of the play, to being unwilling to leave at the end of the play. Pelajia speaks to the importance of community, resilience, and humor.

“If that useless old chief of ours was a woman, we’d see a few things get done around here. We’d see our women working, we’d see our men working, we’d see our young people sober on Saturday nights, and we’d see Nanabush dancing up and down the hill on shiny black paved roads.”

This passage is another example of Pelajia challenging gender norms on the reservation. She believes that the socioeconomic issues and substance abuse (as well as other forms of abuse) that are prevalent on the reservation could be better addressed by a female political leader. Furthermore, she argues, women are better transmitters and preservers of Indigenous language and stories than men.