The Residential School Experiences in Drew Hayden Taylor’s Motorcycles & Sweetgrass and Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen

Abstract

In Canada, the residential school system established in the nineteenth century remains a dark chapter in the nation’s history. The schools operated under that system were one of the major instruments used by the government to assimilate Aboriginal people into mainstream Canadian society. Based on the assumption that children were easier to manipulate and control than adults, the residential school system targeted Aboriginal children. As a common theme in Canadian Aboriginal literature, residential school experiences are represented in Drew Hayden Taylor’s Motorcycles & Sweetgrass and Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen. The present paper focuses on the traumatic residential school experiences depicted in the two novels as well as their long-term effects. Healing the wounds of history remains a daunting task for the Canadian government.