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...particularly poignant moment during of the final scenes in a production of Tomson Highway's play The Rez Sisters. I'm directing the play at The University College of the Fraser Valley (British Columbia), and I want to be absolutely sure that what the audience hears is authentic.
This is no easy feat, considering that I'm a native of the Scottish-English border area, who, after twenty years in this country, still has problems making himself clear to the average Canadian. This communication problem stems from the vestige of a Geordie accent that even seasoned English theatre professionals attempt to master at their peril.
But I have just taped instructions in Ojibway over the phone, via a not-particularly-clear connection; and I am about to find out quickly that this language (and its close cousin Cree) appears to have as many complex dialects as Gaelic or Hindi.
Almost everyone in the cast has a relative or friend who supposedly speaks either Cree or Ojibway. Those consulted tend to peruse the text, shake their heads sagely and leave, muttering softly under their breath that this is not the version of the language that they were brought up with: this is Swamp Cree or Flatlands Cree or perhaps some obscure slang dialect of Ojibway.
And who am I to argue? Remembering that in my old stomping grounds of Northumberland, England accents could vary consideably from village to village, even within a radius of as little as five to ten miles, I'm sympathetic. The problem of pinning down these Native...
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