First Nations

Shakespeare and Canada’s First Nations

This gallery explores the appropriation of aboriginal culture by Canadian culture via Shakespeare, as evidenced in a wide range of artifacts that include rare materials from the 1961 production of the so called “Eskimo” King Lear, as well as from the cultural movement by First Nations peoples themselves to reclaim Shakespeare. Recent Aboriginal adaptations such as Death of a Chief and Ondinnok, serve to address First Nations issues regarding politics, race, gender, and nation, while reconfiguring the historical, cultural, and political hierarchies that were used to oppress and devastate First Nations peoples in Canada.