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The Buz'Gem Blues
The Buz’Gem Blues is the third play in Drew Hayden Taylor’s ongoing zany, outrageous, often farcical examination of both Native and non-Native stereotypes in what is to become what he calls his “Blues Quartet.”
Marianne has talked her mother, Martha, into attending an Elders conference with her, where she is to be used as a resource person, even though Martha doesn’t believe she has anything to offer anyone. Held in a college setting, the keynote paper of the conference is a dissertation on “the courting, love, and sexual habits of contemporary First Nations people as perceived by Western Society,” delivered by none other than a “Professor Savage.” Just to keep the caricatures in balance, Savage’s nemesis throughout the action is a young Native man, replete with dark sunglasses and a Mountie coat, who goes by the name “The Warrior Who Never Sleeps.”
The Buz’Gem Blues is not a play about clichés with which we have become so familiar that we recognize them as stereotypes instantly, but rather about how our ritualized and institutionalized systems of maintaining and policing those clichés prevent us from recognizing our common humanity within each other.
Marianne has talked her mother, Martha, into attending an Elders conference with her, where she is to be used as a resource person, even though Martha doesn’t believe she has anything to offer anyone. Held in a college setting, the keynote paper of the conference is a dissertation on “the courting, love, and sexual habits of contemporary First Nations people as perceived by Western Society,” delivered by none other than a “Professor Savage.” Just to keep the caricatures in balance, Savage’s nemesis throughout the action is a young Native man, replete with dark sunglasses and a Mountie coat, who goes by the name “The Warrior Who Never Sleeps.”
The Buz’Gem Blues is not a play about clichés with which we have become so familiar that we recognize them as stereotypes instantly, but rather about how our ritualized and institutionalized systems of maintaining and policing those clichés prevent us from recognizing our common humanity within each other.
128 pages, Paperback
First published February 3, 2002
About the author
Drew Hayden Taylor
60 books312 followersDuring the last thirty years of his life, Drew Hayden Taylor has done many things, most of which he is proud of. An Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, he has worn many hats in his literary career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada's premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been an award-winning playwright (with over 70 productions of his work), a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers and magazines), short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and has worked on over 17 documentaries exploring the Native experience. Most notably, he wrote and directed REDSKINS, TRICKSTERS AND PUPPY STEW, a documentary on Native humour for the National Film Board of Canada.
He has traveled to sixteen countries around the world, spreading the gospel of Native literature to the world. Through many of his books, most notably the four volume set of the FUNNY, YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE ONE series, he has tried to educate and inform the world about issues that reflect, celebrate, and interfere in the lives of Canada's First Nations.
Self described as a contemporary story teller in what ever form, last summer saw the production of the third season of MIXED BLESSINGS, a television comedy series he co-created and is the head writer for. This fall, a made-for-tv movie he wrote, based on his Governor General's nominated play was nominated for three Gemini Awards, including Best Movie. Originally it aired on APTN and opened the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, and the Dreamspeakers Film Festival in Edmonton.
The last few years has seen him proudly serve as the Writer-In-Residence at the University of Michigan and the University of Western Ontario. In 2007, Annick Press published his first Novel, THE NIGHT WANDERER: A Native Gothic Novel, a teen novel about an Ojibway vampire. Two years ago, his non-fiction book exploring the world of Native sexuality, called ME SEXY, was published by Douglas & McIntyre. It is a follow up to his highly successful book on Native humour, ME FUNNY.
The author of 20 books in total, he is eagerly awaiting the publication of his new novel in February by Random House as "One of the new faces of fiction for 2010", titled MOTORCYCLES AND SWEETGRASS. In January, his new play, DEAD WHITE WRITER ON THE FLOOR, opens at Magnus Theatre in Thunder Bay. Currently, he is working on a new play titled CREES IN THE CARRIBEAN, and a collection of essays called POSTCARDS FROM THE FOUR DIRECTIONS. More importantly, he is desperately trying to find the time to do his laundry.
Oddly enough, the thing his mother is most proud of is his ability to make spaghetti from scratch.
He has traveled to sixteen countries around the world, spreading the gospel of Native literature to the world. Through many of his books, most notably the four volume set of the FUNNY, YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE ONE series, he has tried to educate and inform the world about issues that reflect, celebrate, and interfere in the lives of Canada's First Nations.
Self described as a contemporary story teller in what ever form, last summer saw the production of the third season of MIXED BLESSINGS, a television comedy series he co-created and is the head writer for. This fall, a made-for-tv movie he wrote, based on his Governor General's nominated play was nominated for three Gemini Awards, including Best Movie. Originally it aired on APTN and opened the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, and the Dreamspeakers Film Festival in Edmonton.
The last few years has seen him proudly serve as the Writer-In-Residence at the University of Michigan and the University of Western Ontario. In 2007, Annick Press published his first Novel, THE NIGHT WANDERER: A Native Gothic Novel, a teen novel about an Ojibway vampire. Two years ago, his non-fiction book exploring the world of Native sexuality, called ME SEXY, was published by Douglas & McIntyre. It is a follow up to his highly successful book on Native humour, ME FUNNY.
The author of 20 books in total, he is eagerly awaiting the publication of his new novel in February by Random House as "One of the new faces of fiction for 2010", titled MOTORCYCLES AND SWEETGRASS. In January, his new play, DEAD WHITE WRITER ON THE FLOOR, opens at Magnus Theatre in Thunder Bay. Currently, he is working on a new play titled CREES IN THE CARRIBEAN, and a collection of essays called POSTCARDS FROM THE FOUR DIRECTIONS. More importantly, he is desperately trying to find the time to do his laundry.
Oddly enough, the thing his mother is most proud of is his ability to make spaghetti from scratch.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 12, 2015
Funny as ever. My class really enjoyed this one, even the ones who were a little skeptical at first. As DHT moves through his "Blues Quartet," his writing gets more sophisticated and pointed in its humour. The funny is still there but not as broad as in, say, The Bootlegger Blues.
The story is set at an Elders' Conference at a university. Martha Kakina and her daughter Marianne are attending the conference; Martha is going to do a workshop on the Ojibway language, and Marianne is there for moral support (and because she's kind of lonely after her divorce). The women are soon introduced to The Warrior Who Never Sleeps, a handsome and mysterious perfect specimen of Aboriginal manhood who is there to assist Martha and all the other Elders. He definitely looks good in sunglasses and purloined RCMP red serge ("I wear it as a symbol to show our oppressors that I am not frightened of them"), but is harbouring some secrets about his past. Meanwhile, Professor Thomas Savage is the hapless anthropologist hoping to do research on the courtship rituals and sexual practices of Aboriginal Elders while at the conference. Summer and Amos from The Baby Blues have been hired to cook for the conference; Summer is determined to express her 1/64 First Nations heritage through the creation of such fusion dishes as "Salmon Smoothies" and "Chocolate Moose." She considers Amos the love of her life and her Aboriginal mentor, but Amos would secretly rather eat Spam and is just trying to keep up with his much younger girlfriend. As one character says, on hearing of the age difference, "Ouch. That's not a May-December romance, that's a couple of months into the next calendar."
I'd really love to see a performance of this. According to the edition of the play I have, the play's premiere had Lee Maracle starring as Martha. What a treat that would be! At least as good as a salmon smoothie.
The story is set at an Elders' Conference at a university. Martha Kakina and her daughter Marianne are attending the conference; Martha is going to do a workshop on the Ojibway language, and Marianne is there for moral support (and because she's kind of lonely after her divorce). The women are soon introduced to The Warrior Who Never Sleeps, a handsome and mysterious perfect specimen of Aboriginal manhood who is there to assist Martha and all the other Elders. He definitely looks good in sunglasses and purloined RCMP red serge ("I wear it as a symbol to show our oppressors that I am not frightened of them"), but is harbouring some secrets about his past. Meanwhile, Professor Thomas Savage is the hapless anthropologist hoping to do research on the courtship rituals and sexual practices of Aboriginal Elders while at the conference. Summer and Amos from The Baby Blues have been hired to cook for the conference; Summer is determined to express her 1/64 First Nations heritage through the creation of such fusion dishes as "Salmon Smoothies" and "Chocolate Moose." She considers Amos the love of her life and her Aboriginal mentor, but Amos would secretly rather eat Spam and is just trying to keep up with his much younger girlfriend. As one character says, on hearing of the age difference, "Ouch. That's not a May-December romance, that's a couple of months into the next calendar."
I'd really love to see a performance of this. According to the edition of the play I have, the play's premiere had Lee Maracle starring as Martha. What a treat that would be! At least as good as a salmon smoothie.
August 14, 2023
What a charmingly delightful book…gentle, native humour which Drew is so good at. #1426.
July 13, 2014
Another great play from his Blues Quartet.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews