Laurentian University honours popular playwright

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Laurentian University awarded an honourary Doctor of Letters degree to playwright Tomson Highway on June 4. Highway had already obtained bachelor degrees in music and English at the University of Western Ontario and formerly was employed in social work.

In recent years, Highway has attracted wide acclaim for his work in theatre and for his plays and books. He lives part of the year in Greater Sudbury. His birthplace is Thompson, Man.

Highway's recent novel The Kiss of the Fur Queen is considered a popular and critical success. He has also published two volumes of a trilogy of children's books written in English and Cree.

Notable past achievements in a distinguished career include being named the Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor at the University of Toronto for two years and being appointed artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts Inc. in Toronto. Highway also was the first Aboriginal writer to be inducted into the Order of Canada. That honour was bestowed in 1994.

It is probably Highway's plays that have brought him the most attention, though. The Rez Sisters, a play that was situated on Manitoulin Island, won A Dora Mavor Moore Award, was Canada's entry at the Edinburg International Festival, and was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award.

His next play, Dry Lips Outta Move to Kapuskasing, won four Dora Mavor Moore Awards and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award for Outstanding Canadian Play.