Dionne Brand and Alanis Obomsawin: polyphony in the poetics of resistance

Abstract

Activist artists Dionne Brand and Alanis Obomsawin have much in common in their poetics of resistance. Brand's writings and documentaries explore issues of displacement, race, gender, and colonialism, revealing a constant determination in giving voice to what was silenced or marginalized by the dominant culture. Similarly, Obomsawin's documentaries show a long commitment to the history of aboriginal people, reclaiming their sovereignty of voice. Making use of polyphony, these two artists contest hegemonic discourses and a nationalist aesthetic that either ignores or appropriates difference. This study discusses the implications of polyphony in Brand's poetry and two documentaries, Sisters in the Struggle and Long Time Comin', and in Obomsawin's documentaries, Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance and Rocks at Whiskey Trench. All evidences demonstrate fine specimens of applied poetics, faithful to their ethics of resistance.