Uninvited Guests and Awkward Hospitality

Unsettling Mormon Claims in Dawn Dumont’s Nobody Cries at Bingo

Abstract

Nobody Cries at Bingo, Dawn Dumont’s humorous and heartfelt portrayal of reserve life in 1980s Saskatchewan, writes against the legacies of Indigenous family separation via residential schools, adoption, and foster programs. This essay considers how these concerns operate in Dumont’s recollection of an awkward night spent with a family of Mormons living on the edge of her family’s reserve. Read in context of Indigenous-Mormon history, Dumont’s incisive and generous narration unsettles colonial ideas about who has the strongest claim to Indigenous lands. While contact with settler Mormons is only marginally important in Dumont’s writing, her perceptive and good-natured handling of such encounters highlights her thematic focus on navigating persistent colonial threats to Indigenous family life.