Native Earth to only cast Native actors for Native roles
By Barb Nahwegahbow
The Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts, Ryan Cunningham made a commitment at a May 26 community forum that in future, Native Earth would cast only Native actors in Native roles.
Cunningham’s statement follows the controversial decision to cast two Caucasian actresses as Indigenous women in a play called The Unplugging. The play, written by Yvette Nolan, herself an Indigenous woman of mixed heritage, was co-produced by Native Earth and Factory Theatre in March of this year. The story is about two Indigenous women struggling to survive in a world where technology has failed.
Native Earth brought together several cultural/ethnic groups on May 26 to discuss diverse casting. Unfortunately, this did not allow for in-depth discussion about the specific issue of Indigenous casting. Indigenous participants attending the forum – Rose Stella, Artistic Director of the Centre for Indigenous Theatre (CIT), playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, and writer and actor Shandra Spears Bombay were interviewed after the forum.
Rose Stella learned about The Unplugging cast in the Globe and Mail. “It was the first time I heard that these white actors were playing Native roles,” said Stella, “and that they cast that way because there weren’t any Native actresses that were good enough. A great number of Native women actresses were saying, what? We’re not good enough?”
Playwright Drew Hayden Taylor of Curve Lake First Nation said there are two perspectives on the issue. There are people who believe in colour-blind casting, he said, and, “for somebody to say a person can’t do a role because of the colour of their skin or their cultural background is a form of racism. On the other hand, people say Native people should do Native roles because it brings a certain amount of authenticity, understanding and nuance to the role.” His own personal position is, “I tend to lean more towards Native people doing Native roles.”
He’s faced situations where, “non-Native people have been hired to write Native stories for film and television, and I know I can do it. But I wasn’t given that opportunity, so yes, I do understand the hurt.”
Actor and writer Shandra Spears Bombay, citizen of Rainy River First Nation was disappointed that discussion at the May 26th forum included “settlers” from other cultural groups, and that Native Earth felt it wasn’t enough “to just listen to our community.”
“Representation of Indigenous people has historically been connected with our dispossession,” said Spears Bombay, “and today the way we are represented relates directly to the normalization of ongoing violence against us.”
“Theatre can be a resurgence of Indigenous inspiration and culture as we heal from colonial violence, or it can be further proof that Indigenous people keep vanishing and nobody notices or cares that we’re gone,” she said.
“Dialogues like the ones we have begun have been helpful, but we need to stand firm about what isn’t acceptable for us too,” said Rose Stella. “A lot of us women are very angry and feeling hurt to the bone… The good thing is that our anger has also generated intelligent, thoughtful and ferocious discussions about our worth and talents. ”