Six Nations artist’s new play tackles false claims of Indigenous ancestry, with humor

The seeds for the play were sown long before the controversy surrounding Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Indigenous ancestry, but there’s no denying that Six Nations artist January Rogers’ new work is timely.

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The premise of “Blood Sport” involves a fictitious game show in which contestants compete for Indigenous heritage. It was selected for a staged reading Nov. 10 at the Weesageechak Begins to Dance festival in Toronto.

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The allegations and headlines surrounding Sainte-Marie followed a CBC report last month that she falsely claimed her Indigenous roots. However, Rogers began working on the play well before that.

Coming off shooting her web series “NDNs on the Airwaves” last year, one of Rogers’ frequent collaborators, Yuma Dean Hester, commissioned her to write a play about the subject of people who claim to be Indigenous but aren’t.

Approaching the situation through the lens of satire, Rogers took inspiration from factual experiences “that we see happen in the Native community, more often than not these days,” she said.

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The play also touches on the emotional aspects, addressing both what Rogers described as the “ridiculousness of folks who are trying to pass themselves off,” as well as some of the “real, lived-experiences by people who are attempting to come back home in a truly honorable, and serious and authentic way.”

That coming home experience is something Rogers herself experienced when she returned to her community of Six Nations in 2019 after spending years living on the West Coast.

While her primary goal in writing the play was to create an effective theater piece, Rogers said she does hope it will spark others to “have those conversations among themselves and decide for themselves where their knowledge and reactions are going to land with this issue.”

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It may even serve as a bit of a tonic or a balm for people who are having a hard time in light of what has been said about Sainte-Marie, said Rogers.

“The feeling of being disappointed is never an easy one to get over. And when it’s done on this level, it’s probably even harder to come to terms with,” she said.

“My heart goes out to those who are struggling with that information and with where they’re going to land with that,” she said, adding “but come on out and have a laugh in the meantime.”

Celeste Percy-Beauregard is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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