Tomson Highway is a leading Indigenous Canadian writer whose plays, novels, and music explore First Nations life, identity, and resilience shaped by colonial history and residential schools. Through works like The Rez Sisters, he has expanded Canadian literature by centring Indigenous voices, culture, spirituality, and survival.
He was born on 6 December 1951 in northwestern Manitoba. He is one of the most important and influential Indigenous writers in Canada. His writings focus on major issues faced by First Nations people, such as residential schools, reserve life, Indigenous identity, trauma, and survival. In 1998, Maclean’s named him one of the 100 most important people in Canadian history. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and received the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award at the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards in 2022.
Early Life and Education
Tomson Highway grew up in a Cree family of caribou hunters and was the 11th of 12 children. From the age of six, he attended Guy Hill Residential School and stayed there until he was fifteen. Later, he completed high school in Winnipeg, living with white families. He studied music and English literature at the University of Manitoba and Western University, where he worked closely with playwright James Reaney.
After graduating in 1976, Highway worked for seven years as a social worker on reserves and in cities across Ontario. At the age of 30, he began writing plays to record his experiences and express Indigenous life through art.
Plays
Highway’s early plays celebrate the beauty, strength, and optimism of Indigenous cultures. These include The Sage, the Dancer and the Fool, A Ridiculous Spectacle in One Act, New Song…New Dance, Aria, and Annie and the Old One.
His most famous works are The Rez Sisters (1986) and its companion play Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (1989). The Rez Sisters focuses on seven women, while Dry Lips focuses on seven men. Both plays are set on the fictional Wasaychigan Hill Reserve and include the Trickster figure Nanabush, whom Highway describes as being as important to Indigenous culture as Christ is to Christianity.
Both plays won major awards, including the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award, and were nominated for the Governor General’s Awards. Dry Lips was also the first Canadian play to have a long run at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre. In 2010, both plays were republished in Cree.
Other important plays include The Incredible Adventures of Mary Jane Mosquito, Rose, Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout, and The (Post) Mistress, a one-woman musical.
Books and Other Writings
From 1986 to 1992, Highway was the artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts, a leading Indigenous theatre company. His brother René Highway, a dancer and choreographer, worked closely with him. René’s death from AIDS in 1990 deeply affected Highway and led him to write his first novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998).
The novel tells the story of two Cree brothers who survive residential school abuse, racism, and hardship, and eventually find strength through art. The novel won wide praise and major award nominations.
Highway also wrote children’s books, critical essays, short stories, memoirs, and contributions to anthologies. His memoir Permanent Astonishment (2021) explores his early life and won the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
Music and Film
Highway has made important contributions to music and opera. He wrote librettos for the operas Pimooteewin and Chaakapesh: The Trickster’s Quest, both based on Indigenous mythology.
In 2017, he premiered Songs in the Key of Cree, a musical performance entirely in the Cree language. In 2022, he released a country music album titled Cree Country.
Awards and Honours
Tomson Highway has received many honours, including:
- Order of Canada (Member in 1994, Officer in 2021)
- Multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards
- Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Awards
- National Aboriginal Achievement Award
- Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medals
- Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize
- Governor General’s Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award
Conclusion
Tomson Highway’s work has played a major role in shaping Canadian literature. By blending Indigenous storytelling, realism, humour, spirituality, and music, he has helped bring Indigenous voices to the centre of Canada’s cultural and literary identity.
WORKS CITED
Boyd, Colin, and Jules Lewis. “Tomson Highway.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, 15 Jan. 2008, thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/highway-tomson.
Highway, Tomson. Kiss of the Fur Queen. Douglas & McIntyre, 1998.
An Afternoon with Tomson Highway.” YouTube, uploaded by Western University Indigenous Services, 15 Jan. 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhPCRrz5l5Q.
Dr Aswathy Aravindakshan is a teacher, bilingual writer and artist with over two decades of experience in teaching English language and literature. She currently serves as Assistant Professor of English at NSS College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Her blog, ashlit.in brings together academic resources, creative writing in Malayalam and English, and visual art. The platform features lecture notes, study materials, poems, reflections, short prose, and a curated collection of her paintings. Through this space, she seeks to foster learning, creativity, and meaningful engagement with literature and the arts.
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