Papers by Sarah MacKenzie
Canadian Literature, 2015
Settler Colonial Studies, 2021
ABSTRACT Examining representations of gendered violence in Marie Clements’ The Unnatural and Acci... more ABSTRACT Examining representations of gendered violence in Marie Clements’ The Unnatural and Accidental Women as they are used for decolonizing purposes, I aim to elucidate the complexity of the linkage between colonization, violence against Indigenous women, and contemporary Indigenous women's dramatic production. Employing Clements’ play as an example, this paper contends that plays by Indigenous women do not merely memorialize colonial transgressions, but they also provide an avenue for individual and potential cultural healing by deconstructing some of the harmful ideological work performed by colonial and occasionally postcolonial misrepresentations. Dramatic texts by contemporary Indigenous women, I argue, especially those containing revisionist historical components, revive and preserve cultural memory and function in direct opposition to colonialist disparagement of Indigeneity/Métissage. So, too, do these works educate readers/spectators concerning colonial histories of violence, ultimately facilitating a process of relearning, which can lead to reconciliatory understandings thereby creating potential for collective healing.
The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World
and surreal, the representation successfully relates the destructive nature of family violence. J... more and surreal, the representation successfully relates the destructive nature of family violence. Jay’s transformation, his gradual transition to abuser, is displayed visually as Clements uses bruise-like lighting effects projected onto Madonna’s body and “clear pipes of exposed liquid,” revealing blood, to abstractly – rather than gratuitously – portray the progressive escalation of violence. Notwithstanding the incremental character of Jay’s abuse, it is very early in the relationship that he asks Madonna “[h]ow Indian [she is]” (15), making clear the inextricable connection between racialization and violence: Madonna is considered violable because of her gender and her Metis heritage. Jay’s sexual demands and abuse increase in 105 In recent surveys, one-quarter (24%) of Indigenous Canadian women reported abuse at the hands of a current or former partner, while only 7% of non-Indigenous women reported an experience of intimate partner violence (Scrim 138 proportion to Madonna’s dimi...
In The Rez Sisters (1986), Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (1989), and Rose (1999) renowned C... more In The Rez Sisters (1986), Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (1989), and Rose (1999) renowned Cree dramatist Tomson Highway mounts a dramaturgical critique of colonialism, focusing most prominently upon the disenfranchisement of Native women and the introduction of ...
Educational Leadership, 2006
EJ745611 - Uncovering Teacher Leadership.
Journal of Settler Colonial Studies, 2021
Examining representations of gendered violence in Marie Clements' The Unnatural and Accidental Wo... more Examining representations of gendered violence in Marie Clements' The Unnatural and Accidental Women as they are used for decolonizing purposes, I aim to elucidate the complexity of the linkage between colonization, violence against Indigenous women, and contemporary Indigenous women's dramatic production. Employing Clements' play as an example, this paper contends that plays by Indigenous women do not merely memorialize colonial transgressions, but they also provide an avenue for individual and potential cultural healing by deconstructing some of the harmful ideological work performed by colonial and occasionally postcolonial misrepresentations. Dramatic texts by contemporary Indigenous women, I argue, especially those containing revisionist historical components, revive and preserve cultural memory and function in direct opposition to colonialist disparagement of Indigeneity/Métissage. So, too, do these works educate readers/spectators concerning colonial histories of violence, ultimately facilitating a process of relearning, which can lead to reconciliatory understandings thereby creating potential for collective healing. Marie Clements' understudied 2005 play The Unnatural and Accidental Women, this essay will argue, both dramatizes marginalized and murdered indigenous women reclaiming their voices and acts as a mechanism through which living marginalized indigenous women can reclaim their voices, all against the power regimes of the contemporary settler colonial society. My essay elucidates the extent to which Clements' play speaks to the systemic violence to which Indigenous women are subject on a regular basis, not only in North America, but in all White settler societies, while also emphasizing Indigenous resistance to the problematic settler colonial logic of elimination that has resulted in the sociocultural diminish-ment of so many Indigenous cultures. The violent conquest that facilitated the settlement of White settler societies has been well documented not only in the American context, but in literature from Australia and New Zealand. So, too, is it widely recognized that Indigenous women living in White settler societies are overrepresented as victims of gendered violence, in both intra and intercultural contexts.
November, 2020
Despite an increase in the productivity and popularity of Indigenous playwrights in Canada, most ... more Despite an increase in the productivity and popularity of Indigenous playwrights in Canada, most critical and academic attention has been devoted to the work of male dramatists, leaving female writers on the margins. In Indigenous Women's Theatre in Canada, Sarah MacKenzie addresses this gap by focusing on plays by Indigenous women that were written and produced in the sociocultural milieux of twentieth-and twenty-first-century Canada. Closely analyzing dramatic texts by Monique Mojica, Marie Clements and Yvette Nolan, MacKenzie explores representations of gendered colonialist violence in order to determine the varying ways in which these representations are employed subversively and informatively by Indigenous women. These plays provide an avenue for individual and cultural healing by deconstructing some of the harmful ideological work performed by colonial misrepresenta-tions of Indigeneity and by demonstrating the strength and persistence of Indigenous women, offering a space in which decolonial futurisms can be envisioned. In this unique work, MacKenzie suggests that colonialist misrepresentations of Indigenous women have served to perpetuate demeaning stereotypes, justifying devaluation of and violence against Indigenous women. Most significantly, however, she argues that resistant representations in Indigenous women's dramatic writing and production work in direct opposition to such representational and manifest violence. SARAH MACKENZIE is an Anishinaabe/Métis/Scottish feminist scholar and activist based in Ottawa. Her work focuses particularly on redressing colonial violence by engaging with decolonial aesthetics.
Drafts by Sarah MacKenzie
Uploads
Papers by Sarah MacKenzie
Drafts by Sarah MacKenzie