Settler theatrics: Lisa Woynarski, Lucy Tyler, ‘Settler Aesthetics: Scenographies of Construction Capitalism and Indigenous Erasure in Motel Makeover’, in Sally Mackey, Adelina Ong (eds), Performing Homescapes, Springer, 2025, pp. 221-245 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler theatrics: Lisa Woynarski, Lucy Tyler, ‘Settler Aesthetics: Scenographies of Construction Capitalism and Indigenous Erasure in Motel Makeover’, in Sally Mackey, Adelina Ong (eds), Performing Homescapes, Springer, 2025, pp. 221-245

10Mar25

Abstract: Co-authored by two theatre practitioner-scholars, this chapter explores the ‘homescape’ of The June Motel and the associated Netflix series Motel Makeover (2021), set in Sauble Beach, Ontario, Canada. We use a practice as research methodology to analyse and unravel settler ideologies, ecologies and gendered domesticities performed and embedded in the scenographies and landscapes of The June Motel. The Netflix series follows two 30-something presumed white women ‘moteliers’, April Brown and Sarah Sklash, as they take the rundown Knight’s Motel and make it over into the ‘Instagrammable’ June Motel. Unmentioned in the series is the historical material reality of the ‘homescape’, a significant Indigenous place located on Saugeen First Nation territory. In this chapter, we unravel what we call the ‘settler aesthetics’ of the June Motel. We travelled to The June Motel, adopting and then subverting the performances of the ideal June consumer, in order to analyse the constructed scenographies that make The June both compelling and disturbing. The settler aesthetic drives the erasure of Indigenous homescapes, as well as the underpinning colonial logic of the Anthropocene, in favour of a highly aestheticised and gendered capitalism.

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