Multiculturalism in Tomson Highways Canada - Assignment Example

Multiculturalism in Tomson Highway’s Canada Tomson Highway’s writing shows many different layers of Canada: the rich, varied landscape of the southern strip, the vast spaciousness of the cold north, the multiculturalism of the cities and the conflicting desire of Native people to escape their lives and experience new cultures and opportunities away from their established homes on reservations. Highway highlights two basic factors of multiculturalism as part of the Canadian Dream: the need for a symbiosis between different cultures living within the same country or city; and the difficulties that multiculturalism can cause for certain smaller minorities like Canada’s Natives. In the opening line of Tomson’s play “The Rez Sisters”, the character Pelajia says, “Philomena, I want to go to Toronto”. Pelajia is a Native girl; a reservation resident who immediately pulls audiences into the story because it’s clear she wants to leave her life on the reservation in favour of the multicultural, urban existence of Toronto. Tomson, a Native himself, understands how the pull of the great urban multicultural centre can take a young Native out of his or her home; primarily he understands that this is because many Natives feel segregated and essentially sidelined to life itself, and to cultural awareness and individual expression. This is one of many ways that Tomson has decided to explore and write about Canada as a multicultural nation: his idea of this idealistic notion is basically positive but in this play he pays tribute to the fact that many people, although integral parts of the nation’s multicultural society, feel left out of Canadian culture and lifestyle on the whole and seek to explore multiculturalism from their own perspective. “On the Rez” is ambiguous in that it clearly represents a multicultural nation but it also represents a segregated part of society that often has little recourse to the ethnic differences of an entire nation of people. The multicultural Canada theme continues into Tomson’s other works, most markedly in “Kiss of the Fur Queen” and “My Canada”. The first is a story that follows Native boys during their enrolment at a reservation school in Manitoba. Aside from using the major themes of child abuse and segregation, this story also touches on the theme of a multicultural Canada. Instead of showing the idealistic side of a multicultural society, “Kiss of the Fur Queen” actually delves into the darker side of Canadian history and portrays how people originally dealt with cultures that were different from their own. Specifically, this story shows how Roman Catholic immigrants to Canada tried to force their beliefs onto the Native children through religious-based schools and the disallowance of Native language use. Tomson’s character is exasperated as he finishes a dog sled race and hears members of the press and onlookers “babbling in this language of the Englishman”. The story highlights the fact that Native people, in recent years, were not only expected to adopt cultural and religious beliefs of their white, Catholic, immigrant counterparts, but that they were expected to lose their own language in favour of English: “he had practised his English-Canadian accent for this occasion until his tongue had hurt”. Natives were the victim of every notion the Catholic immigrants thought practical in daily life, and the latter took it upon themselves not to integrate quietly into a multicultural land but to take what they viewed as barbaric customs and exchange these for their own ways. The Native children took most of these effects: “Such was Jeremiah’s day job – providing urban Indian children, most from broken homes, with REC: recreation, education, and culture”. The multicultural Canada that we see today, although it still has its rough patches, was born from a society that attempted to meld each different culture into that of the Catholic white man. “My Canada” is a narrative that explores all the positive multicultural aspects of Canada as a whole that the author can think of when he is homesick in Australia. He describes the vast expanses of land, the bounty of natural resources available to Canadians and the fact that although Canada still suffers the same negativities as every other country, such as poverty and crime, it doesn’t have nearly as high rates of these as it might. Most importantly, Tomson believes in the national idea of multiculturalism. To some countries, being multicultural means bringing in various cultures and melding them to fit the image of the existing country; in modern Canada, however, it stands for the right of all cultures to keep their traditions and beliefs and practise them within a stable country. In “My Canada”, Tomson says “My adopted city [of Toronto] never fails to thrill me with its racial, linguistic, cultural – not to mention lifestyle – diversity”. In Toronto, Tomson has not only found his ideal multicultural city but he can relax and enjoy the product of so many different ethnicities coexisting. Apart from the larger issues at hand, multicultural nations have the ability to share ideas and traditions with each other, and to enrich the lives of everyone who participates in an ethnically diverse society: “At any time of day, I can feast on food from six different continents”. Very often the idea of multiculturalism is only discussed in terms of people getting along, lowering crime and discrimination and simply accepting that the world is full of diverse people. To the author, these are the basic, fundamental aspects of a multicultural nation and they represent not only the ability of different people to coexist peacefully but offer the hope that the entire world will be able to mimic Canada’s example one day. Tomson does not fail in his addition of the subtle positive aspects of multiculturalism, however, with his simplistic and joyful reference to food. He adds, “…do all these people get along? Well, they all live in a situation of relative harmony, cooperation and peace”. Tomson Highway has seen Canada from many different perspectives, and while he fully realises that he himself is part of a minority Native culture and is therefore representative of Canadian multiculturalism, he can see that this is only a small piece of the societal puzzle. The establishment of a peaceful, diverse multicultural society is one of the primary goals within the Canadian dream, and although there have been historical negativities in terms of different cultures within this Canada the goal is closer now than it has ever been. The original multicultural fabric of Canada was based on English, French and Native cultures and as a descendent of the latter group, Tomson Highway has seen the evolution of Canada through the eyes of his own people over the years. Canada was not founded on multicultural principles, at least not those which were not hypocritical; it has been in recent years that the country has really put the focus on multiculturalism as a positive aspect of society. Highway has been able to pinpoint the attitudes of many of his Native counterparts, but also to experience true multiculturalism in Toronto where he encounters many different ethnic groups every day, coexisting, running business, taking the subway and just living their lives. Like the character from his play “On the Rez”, Highway understands that this is the true sense of Canadian multiculturalism and life itself; segregation is a part of Canadian history and it has its effects still today, but a large, multicultural society is what truly represents Canada now and in the future. Works Cited Lastname, Firstname. “Title of Story”, Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication, pp.#-#. Read More