ENGL 2640 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Tomson Highway, Canadian Indian Residential School System, Phil Fontaine
1 Apr 2018
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Document Summary
Describes his writing as a process of simultaneous translation (the english language. Infuses native mythology & language in his works becomes informed with cree-ness. Cultural worker for the natives peoples resources centre. Acted in one of his own plays as the trickster character. Original cover of kiss of the fur queen involved rene dancing. In a way he dedicated the book kiss of the fur queen to his younger brother (?) Depicts social, political, and economic consequences of residential schools. The novel offers alternative conceptions of healing. Not the legal and economic restitution suggested by the government and some tribes. Rather, the novel suggests that healing can be accomplished through the re- connecting to modes of indigenous thought and being that the residential schools sought to eliminate. Given the political potential of public testimony documenting sexual abuses within the residential school system, highway initially conceived of the story as a non-fiction memoir.
