Social Science Native American Studies
The Dispossessed
Life and Death in Native Canada
- Publisher
- Geoffrey York
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2013
- Category
- Native American Studies
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781552780619
- Publish Date
- Sep 2013
- List Price
- $14.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
The Dispossessed is an examination of the modern day stirrings of rebellion in a people physically and culturally dislocated by North American settlers. Geoffrey York's acclaimed work spent 48 weeks on the Globe and Mail's best-sellers list as the country awoke to its astute observations and opinions.
With a new chapter examining more recent events involving Canada's native population, The Dispossessed is still as relevant as ever.
Renowned and respected Aboriginal Canadian Tomson Highway provides the foreword to this contemporary Canadian classic.
About the authors
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 Centre. He has worked for the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Culture and also for the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres as a program analyst. From 1983 to 1985 he worked as a freelance theatre artist before becoming the artistic director of the De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Company in 1986. He has been writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, and Concordia University. Tomson Highway is widely recognized for his tremendous contribution to the development of Aboriginal theatre in both Canada and around the world. In 1994, he was inducted into the Order of Canada, the first Aboriginal writer to be so honoured.
