Thursday, September 9, 2010

How do issues of race or gender and hegemonies between nationalities function in Tomson Highway's play Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing? Is...

"Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing" tells of hegemonies between the Native and non-Native Canadians. The play focuses on the men and women of the Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve in Ontario, Canada. Larger themes within the play hint at the inequalities between white and Native populations within Canada, but there are more overt hegemonies that take place within the reservation itself.


Most of the conflicts in the play involve seven Native men who live on the Wasaychigan Reserve. The men continually act out the frustration of their disempowerment through violence, alcoholism and other self-defeating acts. Their conflicts with each other mirror the larger conflict the entire reservation feels with non-Native society as it continues to take over.


Another primary conflict within the play lies between the Native spirituality practiced by the most devout inhabitants of "The Rez" and Christianity. Spooky is a local who has converted to Christianity and incites conflict within his community with his often aggressive attempts at proselytization. Spooky is a representative of the outside hegemonies between Native beliefs and the white male Christian power structure that has nearly erased them in this setting.

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