Tomson Highway (born 6 December 1951) is an

Indigenous Canadian In Canada, Indigenous groups comprise the First Nations in Canada, First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada, Métis. Although ''Indian'' is a term still commonly used in legal documents, the descriptors ''Indian'' and ''Eskimo'' have fal ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

, and

children's author Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

. He is best known for his plays ''

The Rez Sisters ''The Rez Sisters'' is a two-act play by Canadian writer Tomson Highway (Cree), first performed on November 26, 1986, by Act IV Theatre Company and Native Earth Performing Arts. ''The Rez Sisters'' is partially inspired by Michel Tremblay's play ...

'' and ''

Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'' is a play by Canadian writer Tomson Highway ( Cree), which premiered in 1989 at Theatre Passe-Muraille in Toronto. Character List * Nanabush (playing the spirit of Gazelle Nataways, Patsy Pegahmagahbow, and ...

'', both of which won the

Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play The Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in Toronto theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to prese ...

and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award. Highway also published a novel, '' Kiss of the Fur Queen'' (1998), which is based on the events that led to his brother René Highway's death of

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

. He wrote the libretto for the first

Cree language Cree (also known as Cree– Montagnais–Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is th ...

opera, ''The Journey or Pimooteewin''.

Biography

Tomson Highway was born on 6 December 1951 in northwestern

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

to Balazee Highway and Joe Highway, a

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

hunter and champion

dogsled A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for dog sled racing. Traditionally in Greenland and the ...

racer.

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

is his first language and he was raised according to Cree tradition before being sent to residential school. He is related to actor/playwright

Billy Merasty Billy Merasty (born 1960) is an Aboriginal Canadian actor and writer of Cree descent. Early life Merasty was born in Brochet, Manitoba, Canada. He is the ninth of fourteen siblings born to Viola and Pierre Merasty, and a grandson of Joe Highway, ...

. When he was six, Tomson was taken from his family and sent to Guy Hill Indian Residential School. Until he was fifteen, he was allowed to return home only during the summer months. Many children forced to attend such residential schools later reported abuse and terrible experiences, suffering because of being forced to abandon their languages and cultures. Highway has said that "Nine of the happiest years of my life I spent it at that school," crediting it with teaching him English and to play piano. He has said that "There are many very successful people today that went to those schools and have brilliant careers and are very functional people, very happy people like myself. I have a thriving international career, and it wouldn't have happened without that school." He obtained his B.A. in Honours

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

in 1975 and his B.A. in English in 1976, both from the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...

. While working on his degree, he met playwright

James Reaney James Crerar Reaney, (September 1, 1926 – June 11, 2008) was a Canadian poet, playwright, librettist, and professor, "whose works transform small-town Ontario life into the realm of dream and symbol." Reaney won Canada's highest literary a ...

. For seven years, Highway worked as a social worker on

First Nations reserves In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the ''Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Monarchy of Canada, Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benef ...

across Canada. He also was involved in creating and organizing several Indigenous music and arts festivals.Lee Skallerup
Tomson Highway
Athabasca University, February 12, 2015. Drawing from these experiences, he has written novels and plays that have won him widespread recognition across Canada and around the world. In 1986, Highway published ''

'', which won multiple awards in productions across Canada. It also went to the

Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially classical music) and the performing arts are i ...

in 1988. In 1989, he published ''

'', which was the first Canadian play to receive a full production at

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Royal Alexandra Theatre The Royal Alexandra Theatre, commonly known as the Royal Alex, is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located near King and Simcoe Street. Built in 1907, the 1,244-seat Royal Alex is the oldest continuously operating legitimate theatre in Nort ...

. Both of these plays explore the community on a fictional First Nation reserve of Wasychigan Hill on

Manitoulin Island Manitoulin Island is an island in Lake Huron, located within the borders of the Canadian province of Ontario, in the bioregion known as Laurentia. With an area of , it is the largest lake island in the world, large enough that it has over 100 ...

. ''The Rez Sisters'' depicts seven women of the community planning a trip to the "BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD" in Toronto and features a male

trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwi ...

, called Nanabush. ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'' depicts the men's interest in

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

and features a female trickster. ''

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

'', written in 2000, is the third play in the heptalogy, featuring characters from each of the previous plays. Highway was artistic director of

Native Earth Performing Arts Native Earth Performing Arts is a Canadian theatre company located in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1982, Native Earth is Canada's oldest professional Indigenous theatre company. Native Earth is dedicated to developing, producing and presenting pro ...

in Toronto from 1986 to 1992, as well as De-ba-jeh-mu-jig theatre group in Wikwemikong. Frustrated with difficulties presented by

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

production, Highway wrote a novel called '' Kiss of the Fur Queen''. The novel presents an uncompromising portrait of the

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...

Native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

children in residential schools and its traumatic consequences. ''Kiss of the Fur Queen'' has won a number of awards and spent several weeks on top of Canadian bestseller lists. After a hiatus from playwriting, Highway wrote ''Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout'' in 2005. Set in 1910, the play revolves around the visit of the "Big Kahoona of Canada" (then

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Wilfrid Laurier Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minis ...

) to the Thompson River Valley. In 2010, Highway re-published ''The Rez Sisters'' and ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'' in a Cree-language edition. Highway said that "the Cree versions ..are actually the original versions. As it turns out, the original ones that came out 20 years ago were the translation." His musical '' The (Post) Mistress'' premiered in 2009 as a

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

titled ''Kisageetin''."Composer hopes cabaret will keep audience laughing"
'' Northern Life'', July 31, 2009. It was developed as a full

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

, which has since been staged across Canada in both English and French versions. A soundtrack album for the musical was released in 2014; it garnered a

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

nomination for Aboriginal Album of the Year at the

Juno Awards of 2015 The Juno Awards of 2015 honoured Canadian music industry achievements in the latter part of 2013 and in most of 2014. The awards were presented in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada during the weekend of 14–15 March 2015. The main ceremony was conducted ...

. In 2022 ''Cree Country'', an album of original Cree-language

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

songs written by Highway and sung by his frequent collaborator Patricia Cano, was released. Highway divides his time between residences in

Noelville French River, also known as Rivière-des-Français, is a municipality in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, in the Sudbury District, Ontario, Sudbury District. The municipality had a population of 2,662 in the ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and in France with Raymond Lalonde, his partner of 29 years."In conversation with Tomson Highway"
''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...

'', September 30, 2013.

Awards and recognition

Highway has been awarded nine honorary degrees, from Brandon University, the University of Winnipeg, the University of Western Ontario (London), the University of Windsor, Laurentian University (Sudbury, Ontario), Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, Ontario), l'Universite de Montreal, University of Manitoba, and the University of Toronto. In addition, he holds two "equivalents" of such honours: from The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and The National Theatre School in Montreal. In 1994, he was made a member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

. In 1998, ''

'' named him as one of the '100 most important people in Canadian history'. In 2001, he received a National Indigenous Achievement Award, now the Indspire Awards, in the field of arts and culture. Although Highway is considered one of Canada's most important playwrights, in recent years both theatre critics and Highway have noted a significant gap between his reputation and the relative infrequency of his plays being produced by theatre companies. According to Highway, theatres frequently face or perceive difficulty in finding a suitable cast of First Nations actors, but are reluctant to risk casting non-Indigenous performers due to their sensitivity to being accused of

cultural appropriation Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from ...

. He believes that such companies simply pass over his plays instead."A new staging of 'The Rez Sisters' defies political correctness"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', November 9, 2011. In 2011, director Ken Gass mounted a production of ''The Rez Sisters'' at Toronto's

Factory Theatre Factory Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded as Factory Theatre Lab in 1970 by Ken Gass and Frank Trotz, and it was run for almost 20 years by Dian English. Factory was the first theatre to announce that it would e ...

. As part of an ongoing research project into the effects of

colour-blind casting Color-blind casting, also referred to as non-traditional casting, integrated casting, or blind casting is the practice of casting without considering the actor's ethnicity, skin color, body shape, sex or gender. A representative of the Actors' ...

on theatre, he staged two readings of the play — one with an exclusively First Nations cast and one with a colour-blind cast of actors from a variety of racial backgrounds — before mounting a full colour-blind stage production. His memoir ''Permanent Astonishment'' was the winner of the 2021

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction The Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to the best work of non-fiction by a Canadian writer. Canada's most lucrative non-fiction prize, the winner re ...

Works

Plays

* *''New Song...New Dance'' - 1986 *''Aria'' - 1987 *''

'' - first produced 1986; toured nationally 1988 (nominated for a

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

; won Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play 1986-87) *'' Annie and the Old One'' - 1989 *''The Sage, the Dancer, and The Fool'' - 1989 *''

'' - 1989 (nominated for a

; nominated for 7, won 4 Dora Mavor Moore Awards including Best New Play; won Floyd S. Chalmers Award) *''The Incredible Adventures of Mary Jane Mosquito'' - 1991 *''

'' - 2000 *''Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout'' - 2005 *'' Kisageetin'' - 2009 *'' The (Post) Mistress'' - 2010 *''Iskooniguni Iskweewuk - The Rez Sisters in its original version: Cree'' - 2010 *''Paasteewitoon Kaapooskaysing Tageespichit - Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing in its original version: Cree'' - 2010 *''The Incredible Adventures of Mary Jane Mosquito'' - 2016

Novels

*'' Kiss of the Fur Queen'' - 1998 (shortlisted for the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Canadian Booksellers' Association Fiction Book of the Year Award)

Films

*Tomson Highway appears in the 2019 documentary

Chaakapesh ''Chaakapesh'' is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Roger Frappier and Justin Kingsley and released in 2019. The film documents a 2018 tour by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra to perform ''Chaakapesh: The Trickster’s Quest'', an indigenous- ...

which describes the process by which the

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal The Montreal Symphony Orchestra (french: Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, or OSM) is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The orchestra’s home is the Maison symphonique de Montréal, Montreal Symphony House at Plac ...

presented a trilingual (Innu, Cree, Inuktitut) chamber opera called Chaakapesh, le périple du fripon, in 2018.

Critical works

*''Comparing Mythologies'' - 2003 *''From Oral to Written: A Celebration of Indigenous Literature in Canada, 1980-2010'' - 2017

Children's books

*''Caribou Song'' - 2001 (selected as one of the "Top 10 Children's Books" by Canadian newspaper ''

'') *''Dragonfly Kites'' - 2002 *''Fox on the Ice'' - 2003

Libretti

*''Pimooteewin'' - 2008 *''Chaakapesh: The Trickster's Quest'' - 2018

Essay

*''A Tale of Monstrous Extravagance: Imagining

Multilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

'', with an introduction by Christine Sokaymoh Frederick.

Henry Kreisel Henry Kreisel, OC (June 5, 1922 – April 22, 1991) was a Canadian writer of novels and essays. Kreisel was born in Vienna, Austria to a Polish-born mother and a Romanian-born father. The family, which was Jewish, managed to reach Britain jus ...

Memorial Lecture Series - 2015

Memoir

*''Permanent Astonishment'' - 2021

References

Literature

External links

*
Tomson Highway fonds (R15834)
at

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Highway, Tomson 1951 births Living people Canadian children's writers Canadian male novelists Dora Mavor Moore Award winners First Nations dramatists and playwrights Canadian gay writers Canadian musical theatre librettists Officers of the Order of Canada People from Northern Region, Manitoba University of Western Ontario alumni Cree people Fellows of the Royal Conservatory of Music Harbourfront Festival Prize winners LGBT First Nations people LGBT dramatists and playwrights Canadian LGBT novelists Canadian songwriters 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian novelists Canadian male dramatists and playwrights First Nations novelists Indspire Awards 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers 20th-century First Nations writers 21st-century First Nations writers Canadian artistic directors 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian male non-fiction writers Canadian memoirists Writers from Gatineau Writers from Manitoba