I think Highways aim in writing Kiss of The Fur Queen is to

Thesis Statement: My take on the topic is that the Indian Boarding School
in Tomson Highways Kiss of the Fur Queen is a colonial institution which
seeks to exploit the colonized
Colonization is at the core of the novel. In Kiss of The Fur Queen
The Catholic Church and priests are representative of colonial powers in the novel.
The Cree people have allowed the colonists to

Colonisation is at the core of the Cree civilization. The Cree people

I have referred to the Indian Boarding School in the novel as a colonial

institution because it is managed and maintained by the colonial priests.
Kiss of the fur queen is a post-colonial discourse and it is through the use of the
church and the Indian Residential School that Highway allows us to perceive the
abuse of the colonized by the hands of the colonizers.
References:
had been set free from residential school. Pg 100 chapter 12
Jeremiah Okimasis (Champion) now 15 years old and in high school learning to play
piano
Come home Jeremiah, come home, you dont belong there
the rhythm of his native tongue came bleeding through the music.
-he imagined his family calling him home.
Pg 102
free, at last, of steel-mesh fences and curfews that chained you to your bed by
9:00pm, free of nuns and brothers and priests watching every move, every
thought, every bodily secretion, free to talk to girls
Pg 109
The Catholic church saved our people. Without it, we wouldnt be here today. It is
the one true way to talk to God, to thank hum. You follow any other religion and you

go straight to hell, thats for goddamn sure. Abraham Okimasis speaking to

Gabriel.
Pg 54 According to Father Bouchards baptismal registry, you are named Jeremiah
Okimasis.
-

Changing of name means changing of identity wiping out one for another
Education system has no place for their cultural heritage

Pg 40 he will be leaving us soon. Champion. Does he have to go to that school in

the south? Mother asking father
Father replies What Father Bouchard wants, I guess
Pg 51 this is when Champion arrives at the boarding school
Champion Okimasis stood at the head of a line of seven small Indian boys watching
the tall, pasty man in black cutting hair of another small boy.

Pg 59 Father Bouchard was demonstrating to them what Heaven looks like.

Among the people rising from these graves to heaven, Champion-Jeremiah tried to
spot one Indian person but could not.
(Indians have no place in heaven)
Taking a chunk of white chalk in hand, Father Lafleur printed GOD on the black
slate beside the chart, evidently intending that the meaningless word be copied
down. But to see God after you die, he lectured on, pointing to the old man in the
chair, you must do as you are told.
(this here shows how the colonizers are brainwashing the Indian children
indoctrinating them in the name of religion)
Pg 60 Hell looked more engaging. It was filled with tunnels, and Champion
Jeremiah had a great affection for tunnels.
At the end of the seven tributaries were dark-looking flame-lined caves where darkskinned people sat.
Aha! This is where the Indians are, thought Champion-Jeremiah, relieved that they
were accounted for on this great chart.
(the Indians go to hell)
Pg 63

The winds of late October., said Champion-Jeremiah to himself, then stopped.

His Cree must not be heard or he would fail to win the prize: the boy who acquired
the greatest number of tokens from other boys by catching them speaking Cree was
awarded a toy at months end.
(this here clearly shows that the Indian boys were not allowed to speak their
language)

Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway

Tomson Highways novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen was published in 1998. In reading
the novel and examining Highways life it appears that the discourse has
autobiographical elements. For instance, Tomsons father, Joe Highway was a
champion dogsled racer like Abraham Okimasis in Kiss of The Fur Queen.
Furthermore, Tomson and his brother, Rene attended Residential Indian schools
where they were sexually abused similarly to what happened with Jeremiah and
Gabriel Okimasis. Moreover, Rene, a homosexual died of AIDS likewise Gabriel in the
novel. Highways novel surrounds Jeremiahs and Gabriels life in Manitoba, their
education at the Birch Lake Indian Residential School. In researching the topic I have
found articles on the internet which have dealt with the issue of abuse and
exploitation in the Aboriginal Boarding and Residential Schools.

According to an article entitled 1000 Conversations Across Canada on

Reconciliation I have found out that :

Boarding Schools for Native Canadians