Princess Pocahontas and the Blue Spots

Cecily M. Barrie is a graduate drama student at Mount St. Vincent
University in Halifax.

[Monique Mojica refers to herself as a “word warrior” who both
writes and acts in Native productions. As a non-Native, I am hesitant to
review the two plays in this collection since—like other critics in
Canada today—I feel that Western culture’s critical tools are
inadequate for First Nations cultural expressions. But as Lenore
Keeshig-Tobias has said, “It comes down to sensitivity and respect . .
. a responsibility to both reader and subject.” Accordingly, these are
my critical observations.]

In Princess Pocahontas, the theme is transformation. Two actors play a
total of seventeen personae, who represent various Native women:
stereotypes from “white picture books, ballads and romantic poetry”;
contemporary Native women who closely resemble the two aboriginal
“women of the Americas,” Mojica and Nunez, speaking in their own
voices; and personifications of spiritual beings and rituals which move
the women through thirteen transformations, or scenes, matching the
number of moons in the lunar year.

The play’s structure, as Mojica observes, has neither temporal nor
spatial linearity, yet is “informed” by the narrative rhythm of the
two actors always transforming into “another reality.” This may make
the plot movement sound incomprehensible, but the script is in fact
well-written and humorous, with identified voices clearly speaking in
tones that range from pathos to bitter indignation to well-honed parody.
The barbed dialogue skewers not just the historic roles of aboriginal
peoples of the Americas, but specifically those roles aboriginal women
have had imposed on them over time by European culture and religion. And
there is a rich variety of language used, so that contemporary English
becomes less authoritative. Technically there is much movement on stage,
accompanied by mime gestures, poetry, and overlapping songs and dances.
Performances for non-Native audiences would be enhanced with program
notes to introduce the several personae and their significance.

Birdwoman and the Suffragettes: A Story of Sacajawea is a radio play
developed for CBC’s “Vanishing Point.” Its theme is appropriation.
In 14 scenes Mojica describes non-Native men and women who made monetary
and ideological profit from the Native woman Sacajawea. The play tells
“a story of Sacajawea . . . whoever she may have been.” Each scene
pivots around this woman, and the resulting layers comprise a rich
timbre; the voices of those people affected by Sacajawea’s experience
supplement her own poetic narration.

Mojica reminds even the women’s movement that appropriation is not
right, no matter what the cause. She points this out in the
suffragettes’ speech in Scene 7: “Out of a few dry bones I created
Sacajawea and made her a living entity . . . my heroine.” This
contrasts with the Native elders, who remember her “for who she was to
us . . . Let Sacajawea rest.” The final speech by Sacajawea is a
reminder that to appropriate is to vainly attempt to capture and cage
the free Native spirit.