By Saskatchewan Writer's Guild

Well-Versed: Lecture Series with Tomson Highway

May 21, 2021 | 11:38 AM

The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild is excited to present Well-Versed: A Lecture Series. This virtual series, presented between February – June 2021, hosts well-established Canadian writers who will speak about what they have learned as a writer. Our final lecture will feature Tomson Highway, in conversation with host Jesse Archibald-Barber.

Please register to receive your link to this free virtual event June 9th from 7 – 8:15 pm here.

Comparing Mythologies, with Tomson Highway

In this talk, I will address the topic of mythology and how it has affected and continues to affect world literature. I will start with a definition of the word: what is “myth;” what precisely does it mean, where does the word come from, which language, which country? What is “ology,” what precisely does it mean, where does the word come from, which language, which country? Then, using examples, I will move on to how it is structured and how it functions.

How did a man, for instance, end up having wings? Where did those wings come from? Who gave them to him? And why? Where, to cite another instance, did the idea of horses with wings come from? And why? What purpose did they serve? How can a snake talk, to cite another instance, who gave him that tongue? And why? Men with the horns of goats, women with the tails of fish, men parting seas, men one-third animal, one-third man, and one-third god (as with the Greek god Pan and the Native Trickster), women giving birth without having had sex, dead men rising from the dead?

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What is the mechanism in the human brain, and the human heart, that gave life to such stories? Why, to take the concept one step further, is the place that mythology occupies situated at the exact halfway point between truth and lie, between non-fiction and fiction and, most significantly, between science and religion? And then I will end by illustrating these “mechanisms” with examples from two of my works, namely the play, The Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, and my novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen.

Tomson Highway is a writer from far north Manitoba where it meets Nunavut and Saskatchewan. In fact, his father is from northern Saskatchewan and his mother from northern Manitoba so he grew up right on that border in the midst of the 10,000 lakes and umpteen eskers that make up that landscape. Eskers? Spectacular land formations unique to Canada’s sub-Arctic that were gouged out by glaciers receding to the Arctic at the time of the Ice Age: think 50 km-long golf courses floating in the clouds, they are that high. No one has ever seen them, and no one ever will, except for those of us fortunate enough to come from there. Why? Because they are inaccessible. You would have to charter a bush plane to reach that area at a cost unaffordable to most people. It is from that landscape, in any case, that his writing springs. And always will.

His best-known works are the plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing as well as the best-selling novel Kiss of the Fur Queen. Living in Quebec — and in France — as he has for years, he writes in French, English, and his native Cree. Having graduated with a Bachelor of Music Honours degree from Western University in London, Ontario, he is also a professional musician (pianist/songwriter) so that he even writes his own musicals these days. The musical, The (Post) Mistress, that just closed in Winnipeg and Victoria, is an example of this; for this, as he does with all his other musicals, he wrote all three of books, lyrics, and music….in three languages. He also plays cabarets — that is songs with, again, his own music and lyrics — all over the world. The other two musicians in his “band” are vocalist Patricia Cano and saxophonist, Marcus Ali. If you invite him, he will come and play in your town for whatever special event you may have in mind — if you want your community to hear “Cree cabaret,” such a move is highly recommended (in fact, please listen to 3 of his songs on “TomsonhighwaySoundcloud.” He also does solo concerts of, again, his own music. Besides his Order of Canada, he has 11 Honorary Doctorates and has won so many prizes it would fill a book to list them.

The region where he grew up with his nomadic family of caribou hunters is so far north — before his birth, they sometimes even lived in what was then still the Northwest Territories with and among the Inuit, a language his Dad spoke — that they lived not in Cree but in Dene country, which are the two languages that he himself had the privilege of growing up in. French and English (and Italian) came later. In fact, he left English behind him a long time ago (his life partner of 38 years is French); that is to say, he never speaks it, hasn’t in years. Last, he has a memoir coming out this fall under the aegis of Doubleday Canada.

Host Jesse Archibald-Barber is from Regina, oskana kâ-asastêki, and is of Cree, Métis, and Scottish heritage. He is a professor of Indigenous Literatures at the First Nations University of Canada. His publications include stories in The Malahat Review, MBC Magazine, and mitewâcimowina: Indigenous Science Fiction and Speculative Storytelling (Theytus), as well as editing the award-winning anthology kisiskâciwan: Indigenous Voices from Where the River Flows Swiftly, and co-editing Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage.

Copies of Kiss of the Fur Queen and The Rez Sisters are available for purchase at McNally Robinson or look for them at your favourite bookstore or library. SWG members enjoy a 10% discount on books from McNally Robinson or The Penny University.