| Tomson Highway and Marie Clements are prominent pioneering Indigenous playwrights in Canadian literature and theatre in recent decades.Highway is the first Indigenous playwright who breaks through the theatrical “mainstream”,winning much Canadian celebrity and international recognition.His work Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout(2005)uncovers the 100-year colonial influence upon Okanagan people through one-day conversation of the four Okanagan women who are in preparation of the arrival of Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier.Marie Clements is regarded as a pioneering Indigenous playwright and theatre artist of new generation.Her work Burning Vision(2003)depicts the stories of many individuals from different cultural communities who are affected from radium mining prior to and during World War Two.With the historical events as the background,both plays further investigate the violation of the relationship both Indigenous and non-indigenous people have with the land,which results in serious identity crisis under settler policy.The thesis makes analysis of the two Indigenous plays by employing Indigenous ecological knowledge.Through investigating human’s relationship with other-than-human in different ecological perspectives,this thesis explores the importance of two key elements in other-than-human revealed in the two plays land and spirituality,and draws a conclusion that Indigenous ecological knowledge provides an ethical and reciprocal way to maintain the relationship between human and nature.The significance of the thesis lies in the re-evaluation of the relationship between human and other-than-human with the approach of Indigenous ecological knowledge,which can diversify the research perspectives in ecological studies in China.In this way,the thesis facilitates the further collaboration in Indigenous and Western ecological studies. |
