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NATIVE HUMOUR AND IDENTITY CONTESTED THROUGH LITERATURE AND THE ARTS stories are about humorous mishaps with half-gods, mortals and the infamous trickster figure, who is to be found in every Nation, whether Cree, Blackfoot, Haida, Innu, or Anishinaabe. These stories are, according to Tomson Highway, interchangeable, just like the universal Trickster figure (721). Highway defines the trickster as an “insane, ridiculous, funny, hysterical, cowardly, clumsy, dishonest, deceitful, self-serving, arrogant, the ultimate over-the-top madcap fool. Strictly speaking, he has no shape, no physical dimension, not as a human, not as an animal; he was, [...] never anthropomorphized by the people who pay him homage” (798). Through contact with European settlers and the hostility Indigenous culture was faced with, the “Trickster figure could have disappeared forever” but it “hung on by a hair” and this was the “spark that Indigenous artists stoked to life” (929). NATIVE HUMOUR AND NATIVE LITERATURE Theatre has become an important medium for Indigenous writers as drama comes closest to storytelling, where humour is a major driving force. Contemporary Indigenous theatre provides a basis for oral traditions, ritual practices, and the formation of a new form of expression. This is a relatively recent development, which considers the works written and performed by Indigenous people discussing and depicting the culture and everyday life of Canada’s Indigenous population. As theatre in general, Native theatre also “provides the possibility of direct confrontation, brings people together, introduces thoughtprovoking ideas and fosters an openness to dialogue and change” (Hirch 102). Native theatre and drama are an experimental platform that combines Native American symbolism, rituals, beliefs and heritage with contemporary cultural trends and genres. The trickster figure, a relevant cultural entity in Indigenous culture is an integral element within Indigenous theatre and drama. The name of the trickster or trickster spirit differs from nation to nation: usually referred to as coyote in British Columbia’s southern interior (Highway 237); raven or Weesaa-geechaak in Cree; Nanabush or Nanabozho in Ojibway (Highway 725); and Iktomi (half-human and half-spider) of the Lakota Nation of South Dakota (Highway 818). The trickster figure traditionally connects the spiritual and the physical world and introduces the audience to the notions of magic, spirituality and the absurd. This allows for a dramatic range of the constant opposing entities of fantasy and reality on stage, as well as the projection of identities and stereotypical images as they adapt to the English language and non-native culture. The function of Indigenous humour, through the trickster, is therefore to “hold up a mirror to humanity in which we, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, can see ourselves” (Hirch 114). « 93 +
