Canadian
theatre 
Nicholas Flood Davin
 |
| Nicholas Flood Davin |
Davin was a significant figure in nineteenth-century Canada, whose work as a writer, newspaper journalist, and politician brought him into contact with many of the key figures in post-Confederation Canada––among them Métis leader Louis Riel (just prior to his execution in 1885) and Prime Minister John A. Macdonald. Macdonald commissioned Davin to write what became known as the Davin Report (its formal title was "Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds"), submitted in Ottawa, March 14, 1879, which led to the establishment of the residential school system in Canada.
Davin's loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, The Fair Grit, attacked political hypocrisy. Yet Davin's apparent progressive thinking was mitigated by the tone and content of the "Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds" and the Riel interview, as readers can see for themselves via the links to these texts CASP has established below. The Davin Report was typified by statements such as the following:
"The importance of denominational schools at the outset for the Indian must be obvious. One of the earliest things an attempt to civilize them does, is to take away their simple Indian mythology, the central idea of which, to wit, a perfect spirit, can hardly be improved upon. The Indians have their own ideas of right and wrong, of 'good' Indians and 'bad' Indians, and to disturb this faith, without supplying a better, would be a curious process to enlist the sanction of civilized races whose whole civilization, like all the civilizations with which we are acquainted, is based on religion." (14)
The conflicted tone here, which acknowledges the integrity of aboriginal belief systems, is belied by the notion that "they" are uncivilized while "we" are civilized. Elsewhere in the CASP Spotlight one can see the importance of using theatre as a means of reclaiming the "Indian mythology" stolen from aboriginals as part of their education in white culture (see the comments made, for example, by Yves Sioui Durand in relation to Sakipitcikan and to the Production comany he heads with Catherine Joncas, Ondinnok, whose "mission is to create an Amerindian mythological theatre integrating traditions of initiation with contemporary theatricality" (Ondinnok).
Davin's self-serving interview with Riel, published in The Regina Leader, November 19, 1885 three days after Riel's execution, creates yet another astonishingly clear insight into nineteenth-century patronizing attitudes toward aboriginal culture. Significant portions of the interview have to do with Davin's own skills in tricking Riel's guards and Davin's banal questions seem more to elicit predictable (and highly conventional) Christian language from Riel regarding his impending death. As such, the "interview" (and readers must be warned that we cannot necessarily take Davin at his word regarding the veracity of Riel's own words as he ostensibly transcribed them) reinforces a rather safe notion of Riel and his revolutionary zeal. In addressing himself to John A. Macdonald, for example, the most Riel is represented as saying is to "not leave yourself be completely carried away by the glories of power. In the midst of your great and noble occupations take every day a few moments at least, for devotion and prayer and prepare yourself for death." Davin's interview accomplishes the contradictory function of establishing a hagiographic reading of Riel's last words, while reinforcing the values of settler culture Riel was fighting.
Perhaps the most intriguing question is how the apparently progressive politics evident in Davin's Shakespearean adaptation are to be reconciled with the backward thinking displayed in the Davin Report and the Riel interview. Could it be that the appropriation of a Shakespearean context served what were effectively fairly conservative ends that involved gathering authority to the authorial persona of Davin, while the writing Davin produced in relation to aboriginal culture displays a disturbingly familiar bigotry? The two forms of writing inform each other and CASP has sought to reproduce the apparent contradictions Davin generated in his varied writings as a way of thinking through the historical, political, and ethical issues related to the encounter between aboriginal and settler cultures.
Documents:
Link to "The Davin Report: Shakespeare and Canada’s Manifest Destiny" by Sorouja Moll
"His Parting Messages to
Mankind."
Davin's interview with Louis Riel before his execution: 19 November
1885.
The Regina Leader 19 November 1885
Front page of the paper in which Davin's interview with Louis Riel appeared.
Link to Online
Anthology:
The Fair Grit
