The Rez Sisters
3 journalers for this copy...
I released 21 books into the wild this Canada Day. It seemed only fair that I should get one for myself. This is it.
It also happens to be the book that Yann Martel most recently sent to Stephen Harper. Bingo!
It also happens to be the book that Yann Martel most recently sent to Stephen Harper. Bingo!
Ha! I know these women!
Well okay, maybe not the very same women, Highway's women being fictional and all, but despite the fact that I've never seen this play performed, I heard all of the characters' very real voices. So this play was performed in my mind by people I know. As such it was authentic and real and a delight to read.
For fifteen years or so I served on the board of directors of a local women's resource centre. While not a native women's centre, many, perhaps the majority, of the board members and the community members it serves are First Nations and Metis women. I've come to know them and been fortunate enough to have been witness to many personal journeys of growth.
Reading this play was like being at our board meetings and community events. Like the women in the play, all of my women have or have had crap in their lives (abusive partners, lost children, diabetes and other illness, premature deaths, joblessness, addiction and mental health issues, poverty, leaking roofs and dead car batteries) and they like to talk and gossip about it. And, they would love to win at bingo.
To my knowledge none of my ladies has ever won big at bingo and so changed her life. And neither do the Rez Sisters.
Rather, the Rez Sisters' joint endeavour to get to "The Biggest Bingo in the World" is a spiritual journey of self discovery and empowerment.
According to the bio at the beginning of this book, "Tomson Highway's ambition in life is to make 'the rez' cool, to show and celebrate what funky folk Canada's Indian people really are." Well, he certainly did that for native women in this play. I was truly amazed at how real the Rez sisters were to me.
This is my first book by a Canadian male author (and seventh overall) for the 2nd Canadian Book Challenge, Eh?
I will likely release it at our new OBCZ at the Park Theatre in September unless some other brilliant and cunning plan comes to mind.
Well okay, maybe not the very same women, Highway's women being fictional and all, but despite the fact that I've never seen this play performed, I heard all of the characters' very real voices. So this play was performed in my mind by people I know. As such it was authentic and real and a delight to read.
For fifteen years or so I served on the board of directors of a local women's resource centre. While not a native women's centre, many, perhaps the majority, of the board members and the community members it serves are First Nations and Metis women. I've come to know them and been fortunate enough to have been witness to many personal journeys of growth.
Reading this play was like being at our board meetings and community events. Like the women in the play, all of my women have or have had crap in their lives (abusive partners, lost children, diabetes and other illness, premature deaths, joblessness, addiction and mental health issues, poverty, leaking roofs and dead car batteries) and they like to talk and gossip about it. And, they would love to win at bingo.
To my knowledge none of my ladies has ever won big at bingo and so changed her life. And neither do the Rez Sisters.
Rather, the Rez Sisters' joint endeavour to get to "The Biggest Bingo in the World" is a spiritual journey of self discovery and empowerment.
According to the bio at the beginning of this book, "Tomson Highway's ambition in life is to make 'the rez' cool, to show and celebrate what funky folk Canada's Indian people really are." Well, he certainly did that for native women in this play. I was truly amazed at how real the Rez sisters were to me.
This is my first book by a Canadian male author (and seventh overall) for the 2nd Canadian Book Challenge, Eh?
I will likely release it at our new OBCZ at the Park Theatre in September unless some other brilliant and cunning plan comes to mind.
Journal Entry 3 by Pooker3 at Park Theatre & Movie Cafe in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Sunday, September 21, 2008
Released 14 yrs ago (9/21/2008 UTC) at Park Theatre & Movie Cafe in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
You'll find this wonderful play on the shelf in the loft. Enjoy!
You'll find this wonderful play on the shelf in the loft. Enjoy!
This book is currently sitting on the Winnipeg Official Bookcrossing Zone bookshelf in the loft of The Park Theatre & Movie Café, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg MB.
It is waiting there for a new reader to take home, read, and release back into the wild!
Winnipeg bookcrossers meet at my location on the second Tuesday of every month at 7pm to chat about books, swap great reads, and release on the OBCZ shelves. Please join us! We love to see new faces! You will enjoy the comfy atmosphere, the fabulous coffees and teas, and the yummy treats!
It is waiting there for a new reader to take home, read, and release back into the wild!
Winnipeg bookcrossers meet at my location on the second Tuesday of every month at 7pm to chat about books, swap great reads, and release on the OBCZ shelves. Please join us! We love to see new faces! You will enjoy the comfy atmosphere, the fabulous coffees and teas, and the yummy treats!
Took this home from the shelf for a friend from work who was talking about this play last week. Thought she might get a kick out of it ;)
Feel free to keep and read for yourself, share with someone else, or leave anywhere you like to keep it traveling through the wide world!
Feel free to keep and read for yourself, share with someone else, or leave anywhere you like to keep it traveling through the wide world!
