The Rez Sisters

Philomena, at 49 years old, is the second eldest of the eponymous Rez sisters. As such, she gets the second line of the play and is the second-to-last person to speak at its end. Highway gives her a steadfast character, one that is generally consistent over the course of the play. Philomena loves bingo, and her declaration that “I’m good at bingo” is substantiated when she wins $600 in Toronto (5).

Philomena’s winnings allow her to realize one public dream, but she does not realize her other, more private, dream. She is vocal throughout the play about wanting a new toilet and uses metaphors related to defecation or bathroom humor throughout the play, providing crucial moments of comic relief in a play that primarily deals with trauma and grief. Her public dream of buying a toilet, which Emily calls “helluva jazzy” (107) is achieved. However, in the dark of the van ride to Toronto, Philomena talks to Pelajia about her child that she had as a result of an affair with a married man and had to give up. Her child was born on September 8, the same date as the bingo game. Philomena confesses to Pelajia that she wants to find the child she gave up but, at the end of the play, her last discussion with Pelajia—in the sun, on the roof—is about her fancy new toilet. The lost child issue is not resolved, highlighting the space for ambiguity and potentiality, and emphasizing Philomena’s acceptance of her life on the reserve. Furthermore, she is a figure of balance in achieving one goal, but not getting complete closure in all aspects of her life.

Marie-Adele (39 years old) has many young children living at home, unlike her half-sisters Philomena and Pelajia. The Rez Sisters is the story of her initial resistance to leaving these children and their father and eventually being taken from them by cancer. Death’s representative, Nanabush, calls for her to come with him in Cree (“As-tum”) in the first scene that Marie-Adele appears in. She resists his calls for most of the play, growing increasingly emotional each time he visits her.

Marie-Adele finally succumbs to Nanabush while he is in the guise of the Bingo Master, and they are directed to be “waltzing romantically” (103). After he transforms into the nighthawk, she finally says both “take me” in English and echoes his “As-tum” in Cree. Accepting her death is how her character transforms over the course of the play.

Annie (36 years old) is Marie-Adele’s younger sister, and half-sister of Pelajia and Philomena. Like Pelajia, she has a daughter who is grown and has moved off of the reserve. Annie is a music lover who collects records and sings. Her romantic relationship with Fritz is intertwined with her life as a singer. Over the course of the play, she goes from visiting “Little Current to listen to Fritz the Katz” (10) to “singing back-up for Fritz weekends” (107). This change in her life is affected by neither the outcome of the bingo game nor the death of her sister.

However, Annie’s characterization does change after Marie-Adele’s passing. She is first introduced in Highway’s stage directions as “all cherry and fast and perky” (9). However, at the end of the play, her mood is not always so consistent. The stage directions read: “She’s lost some of her speed and frenetic energy” (106), and Annie remains moody until Philomena says she can borrow her record player, which makes her “happy” (116). Then, Pelajia notes that Annie is “walking fast” (116), echoing Philomena’s comment in the first scene, that Annie is “walking mighty fast” (9). Annie’s movements reflect her mood, which has more lows after her sister dies. Annie lives far from her daughter and was left by Eugene for her sister Marie-Adele; over the course of the play, Annie seeks reassurance that she is loved, both romantically and through public performance.

Emily, 32 years old, is Annie and Marie-Adele’s younger sister. After Marie-Adele dies, Emily reveals that she is pregnant. Although it is not known on the reserve, Emily discovered her bisexuality when she moved to San Francisco. There, she became intimate with Rose, a member of her motorcycle gang. Before Marie-Adele dies, Emily confesses to her that after Rose got into a motorcycle accident, she had to “wash my lover’s blood from off my neck” (97). It was this death that brought Emily back to the reserve and gave her time with Marie-Adele before she passed.

Emily’s transformation is linked to this confession. Early in the play, she claims—like Pelajia—to want to move off the reserve. She tells Zhaboonigan that if she won the big pot at the Toronto bingo game, she’d “take the money [...] beat the shit out of Gazelle Nataways and take you down to Frisco with me” (55). However, during her confession to Marie-Adele, Emily says, “I never wanna go back to San Francisco” (97). Also like Pelajia, Emily’s journey to Toronto and experiences with her sisters motivate her to prioritize her family and community at home rather than seek fate or fortune elsewhere. The last scene in Act II that features Emily shows her and Zhaboonigan working “playfully” and happily at the Wasy general store.

Veronique is the 45-year-old sister-in-law of the other women. Her in-law status is reflected in how several of the sisters who are related by blood gang up on Veronique in the general store fight: “Annie, Marie-Adele, and Emily start pushing Veronique, round-robin, between the three of them, laughing tauntingly” (48). After Marie-Adele’s death, the animosity between women remains. In the last scene that Veronique appears in, Annie says, “Veronique St. Pierre. I wish you would shut that great big shitty mouth of yours at least once a year!” (112). As this comment implies, the animosity the others have toward Veronique is due how she talks condescendingly to them.

Veronique, the adoptive mother of Zhaboonigan, is disliked because she believes that she is a better mother than other women on the reserve. Her dreams about bingo winnings include cooking “for all the children on the reserve” and adopting “all of Marie-Adele Starblanket’s 14 children” (36), even before Marie-Adele’s passing. After Marie-Adele dies, Veronique fulfills her dreams of cooking for those 14 children. She also is the most Catholic of the sisters—the one furthest from traditional Indigenous beliefs.