17 year old playwright reaches out with ‘Empty Regalia’
By Sharon Weatherall
“When I declare myself as an Aboriginal woman to all of creation, I am not singular. I represent all of those women who have come before me and will continue to come after me. I am Aboriginal. When I look at my hands, I see them holding an eagle feather. When I brush my hair, I can smell sweet grass and when I am walking my feet are enveloped in moccasins that my grandmother made. But, I also feel the pain of my sisters, aunties, grandmothers. I feel domestic abuse, rape, suicide, addiction, the list is endless…..”
These are lines from one of six vignettes in a play called ‘Empty Regalia’ written by Beausoleil First Nation youth – Ziigwen Mixemong. The 17 year old playwright and director is a grade 12 student at Eastview Secondary School in Barrie Ontario. Last month her play advanced to the district and regional levels in the ‘Sears Drama Festival’ winning awards and recognition in the competition.
This is Mixemong’s second year of involvement with the Sears Drama Festival. She came up with the inspiration for Empty Regalia last year after playing the lead role in another play that was student written and directed. While she has had a couple of opportunities to explore theatre writing, the play for this year’s event is the first task Mixemong has taken on by herself from beginning to end. Her inspiration came from the heart.
“I have always been an advocate for murdered and missing indigenous women and thought that theatre would be a great tool for me to reach mainstream audiences,” said Mixemong who used stories based from real life situations to get the message across.
“Growing up with most of my family living on reserve there were lots of stories similar to this so being able to do research with a close topic has been very beneficial. Last year as the production came to an end I was looking forward to participating in this year. I proposed the idea to my teacher who was very willing to allow me to write and direct Empty Regalia.”
Mixemong explained the background for the scene mentioned above involved a teacher not listening to a student when there was no First Nation education in the class.
“They should have been welcoming more educational opportunities and the teacher shot down bringing indigenous education into the class…this did actually happen so I made it part of the play,” said Mixemong.
Empty Regalia is about 35 minutes in length following festival guidelines, having each vignette chronical a different story about a different indigenous woman.
“It was a very important to me that this was about more than one woman so the audience gets it that it is happening to many women,” said Mixemong.
The school was very proud of the results of the play and its awards are the first non-sporting event in the display case says Mixemong.
Because the festival was in Cambridge the students had to fundraise to help pay for transportation and lodging of the 21 member cast (22 including Mixemong). Prior to the competition they hosted a fundraising performance which drew an audience of 100 public. After the show there was a talk-back session between the cast and crew and audience.
“The show was very well received and it was really eye-opening to hear the questions and know that people wanted to engage. It brought a lot of hope to the situation,” said Mixemong.
During the fundraising performance there were a lot of aboriginal community present said Mixemong noting the response was very good. There was actually an Elder on site to deal with anyone who was triggered by the play.
Also in preparation for the cast, there was a Cultural Awareness Day to help make sure they understood the roles. Mixemong said this was very helpful.
“Faculty advisors said the feedback from the cast was life changing for them. We saw kids become advocates for the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women,” said Mixemong.
“Some of the cast self-identified to me and told me they knew little to none of the native issues. I just want to say how amazingly brave and courageous my cast was for stepping into the unknown and not knowing about native issues.”
Kelly Brownbill, Ziigwen’s mother says that even though the play is over there is still much interest in it.
“She was able to introduce the issue and get people interested. I don’t think this is the end of Empty Regalia …. it is only the end of the chapter. I think there is enough interest in the subject matter that Empty Regalia will continue somehow, we just don’t know how yet,” said Brownbill.
Next year Mixemong looks forward to attending the University of Toronto for Aboriginal Studies and Law while focusing on Public Policy work. She says she will continue seeking new opportunities to pursue theatre while at school and doing her other studies.
“For the rest of my life I would like to be involved in theatre whether it is community theatre or another play I may audition for,” said Mixemong.