A Response to Tomson Highways Kiss of the Fur Queen

Tomson Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen is an almost bibliographical story of Highway's experience growing up as an indigenous person. Nothing specifically states that this book is a biography. However, the names in the book are the same as known family members in Highway's life. Highway discusses residential schools and the abuse that he and his brother experienced as well as his first hand struggle with assimilation. The boys at Highway's residential school were not allowed to speak their native language and were punished if they were caught. As well, they were all forced to have the same hair cut in order to promote similarity and destroy the idea of uniqueness and difference. Everyone who attended the residential school had to become Christian, this involved Sunday morning mass, reading the bible and praying before bed time. Not only were they forced into this religion, but the main teaching tool for teaching the young boys English was the bible; it was the centre of anything that was taught at the residential school.

Highway continues on to discuss how the residential schools destroyed his family as they could barely see each other and soon he began to forget his language and a barrier grew between them. Eventually he was forced to move to the city where he experienced a major culture shock. He delves into the different lives he and his brother began to live as they were forced into the city culture and attempted to follow their dreams. Throughout this experience Highway's brother must come to a realization and acceptance that he is gay; Highway must come to terms with this. As they both pursue their own dreams they struggle with their own addictions and bad coping mechanisms.

Finally Highway and his brother are older and life must come to an end. The final battle Highway discusses is that of death; his brother's to be specific. Still in the city, a Christian ceremony is forced upon Highway and his brother and they must argue and fight to have their own indigenous ceremony for the passing of his brother.

Assimilation is not synonymous with reorganization

Or adaptation

It is not the combination of two cultures

It is the cleansing of a pallet

That leaves the taste buds sour

Cold...

Dark...

Damp...

Empty...

Broken to the core

Because you must do as you are told to see God

But E-V-I-L looked so pretty to the eye

The way the “V” came to such an elegant point

But evil tore out the souls of the good

Evil removed the very definition of life for a culture

So long lived it told stories from back when animals were still in creation

Evil digested the tongues of a language

So raw to the bone it ran through the very veins of the earth

But it was only supposed to be a trip

The kind of trip your grandpa took when you were three and didn’t understand the idea of death

Restrained by the thin line of a foreign voice

Gripped by the throat and dragged into the closet

Into the

Cold...

Dark...

Damp...

Empty...

Abys of this strange world we call ours

Better to give the blame to the darkness I guess

In the light people can be seen

And how dare these demons steal our light

Wars start when two parties cannot communicate

Cannot understand the fear and suffering

Faced by the shadows in the caves

Brought down to their knees by the voices in the walls

Clinging to their every word

Hoping to be seen

For once

To be recognized

Accepted

Appreciated

To not be turned to the streets of their own homes

Their emotions held hostage by their own minds

Running circles in their own lives

To open their eyes to the forests that raised their childhoods

To open their eyes to some equality

Some Integrity

Impartiality

So that he can have some

Sanctity

To die in the hands of his spirits

To leave to his own heaven

Not the white land above the clouds forced upon him by the men that walk among him

With more judgement in their eyes than their own –

construed beliefs learned from a holy book

Read and followed as if a recipe on how to live