Tomson highway family
- •
Highway, Tomson
Tomson Highway
Playwright and novelist, born in 1951 in northern Manitoba, and one of the country's foremost voices in First Nations Theatre.
His mother, Pelagie, was a quilt-maker and bead-worker, who gave birth to twelve children (of whom only five survived). Tomson Highway helped his father, Joe, a caribou hunter and world champion dogsled racer, working from dawn to dusk before attending the Guy Hill Indian Residential School from the age of 6 to 15. The sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of the priests who ran the school impacted his life and art, and that of his brother, dancer/choreographer René (with whom Tomson often worked and who died of AIDS in 1990). He subsequently went to high school in Winnipeg, living with several different white families.
In 1975 Highway completed his studies in music at the University of Western Ontario. As part of his B.A. program, he took a minor in English and met James Reaney. For several years he worked for many Indigenous organizations as a social worker, travelling across the country and to learning about the pr
- •
Tomson Highway
Tomson Highway, award-winning playwright and the author of The Rez Sisters, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, Rose, and Kiss of the Fur Queen, was born in a tent near Maria Lake, Manitoba in 1951. A full-blood Cree, he is a registered member of the Barren Lands First Nation, the village for which is called Brochet. He grew up in the spectacularly beautiful natural landscape that is Canada's sub-Arctic, an un-peopled region of hundreds of lakes, endless forests of spruce and pine, and great herds of caribou. His parents, with no access to books, TV or radio, would tell their children stories, and Tomson fell in love with the oral tradition of storytelling. When he was six, he was taken from his family and placed in residential school in The Pas. Although he resented being taken away from his parent and family, he did learn music, and had plans to become a concert pianist. He traveled to London to study, and earned his music degree in 1975 and a Bachelor’s of Arts in 1976 from the University of Western Ontario. But instead of becoming a profe
- •
Tomson Highway was born near Maria Lake, Manitoba in 1951. His father, Joe, was a hunter, fisherman and sled-dog racer, and his family lived a nomadic lifestyle. With no access to books, television or radio, Highway’s parents would tell their children stories; thus began Highway’s life-long interest in the oral tradition of storytelling. When he was six, Highway was taken from his family and placed in residential school in The Pas; he subsequently went to high school in Winnipeg and then travelled to London to study at the University of Western Ontario, earning a music degree in 1975 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976. Instead of becoming a professional concert musician as he had at one point contemplated, however, Highway decided instead to dedicate his life to the service of his people. Fluent in Cree, English and French, he was for six years the artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts, the first and most enduring Native professional company in Canada which he also helped found. From 1975 to 1978 Highway worked as a cultural worker for the Native Peoples’ Resource C
Copyright ©fatunfo.pages.dev 2025