​Together on stage for the first time, Tomson Highway and T’áncháy Redvers, with host Adrian Harewood, will explore Indigenous culture, pride and gratitude—and how they approach their own authenticity and joy to unite and create community.
 
Never one to be confined by expectations, Tomson wove Cree into his recent Massey Lectures because “It’s a laughing language, it’s a joyful language—and my favourite activity in the world is to laugh. It instils in you a desire to celebrate life.” Tomson also celebrates through music and will perform during this stellar event.
​
T’áncháy spends most of their time resisting, loving, and travelling across territories, and considers themself a nomad, just like their ancestors. Through their life as a writer, activist and actor, they live by the words “be proud of who you are, be thankful for those who love and guide you, and never forget where you came from.”

TOMSON HIGHWAY, playwright, novelist, pianist and song writer, was born in Manitoba to a family of nomadic caribou hunters. He grew up speaking his mother tongue Cree, and Dene, the language of the neighbouring nation. 

After receiving bachelor’s degrees in music and arts (English), he spent seven years in the field of Native social work, then poured himself into writing. Tomson is a former artistic director of Canada’s premiere aboriginal theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He is best known for his plays including The Rez Sisters, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, Rose, Ernestine Shuswap Gets her Trout, and the Juno-nominated (The Post) Mistress. 

His books include the 1998 novel Kiss of the Fur Queen, and a trilogy of children’s books: Caribou Song, Dragon Fly Kites and Fox on the Ice. Tomson’s 2021 memoir Permanent Astonishment won the 2021 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. 

In 2022, Tomson released his first album of Cree-language country songs, Cree Country. 

Tomson is the recipient of 11 honorary doctorates and is an officer of the Order of Canada. He has received numerous awards, including the Dora Mavor Moore Award, the 2022 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award: Lifetime Artistic Achievement award, and the National Aboriginal Achievement Award. Tomson was chosen to deliver the 2022 CBC Massey Lectures, which he titled Laughing with the Trickster: On Sex, Death, and Accordions. Fluent in Cree, French and English, he continues to write, teach, lecture, and perform across Canada and around the world.

T’ÁNCHÁY REDVERS [they/them] is a Dene & Métis two-spirit writer, advocate, speaker, creator, and multidisciplinary performer belonging to Deninu K’ue First Nation in Treaty 8 territory. With a background in International Development and Indigenous Social Work, they have been nationally and internationally recognized for their work and advocacy.
 
At the age of 21, T’áncháy and their brother, Kelvin, founded We Matter, a national Indigenous-led campaign and non-profit dedicated to Indigenous youth hope and mental health. We Matter has become an international model for Indigenous youth life promotion efforts, garnering the Redvers siblings a Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal.
 
T’áncháy is a poet (Fireweed, 2019) and children’s author (Fluffy and the Stars, forthcoming August 2023). They have been featured in numerous creative, anthology and academic publications, and story-edited for shows airing on Netflix, CTV/Crave, and Apple TV+. Their debut television screenwriter credits include “Sullivan’s Crossing,” “Jane,” and “Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum.”​

ADRIAN HAREWOOD is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Carleton University. The former host of CBC Ottawa’s drive home radio show All in A Day, he was the anchor of CBC Ottawa News at Six from 2009 to 2022. 

In 2020, Adrian won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Local Anchor, and was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Interviewer in 2017. He has been the guest host of national CBC programs The Current, As It Happens, Sounds Like Canada, The House, Counterspin, Hot Type, and Power and Politics. He was also the host of programs on BRAVO and PBS including Literati, The Actors, The Directors, Playwrights and Screenwriters. 

Adrian has interviewed Angela Davis, Salman Rushdie, Eduardo Galeano, Bill Clinton, Wayne Shorter, Bob Woodward, Deepa Mehta, Naomi Klein, Ken Dryden, Alanis Obomsawin, Joy Kogawa, David Sedaris, Steven Pinker, Lawrence Hill, Barbara Gowdy, Austin Clarke, Andrea Levy, Branford Marsalis, Margaret Macmillan, Ken Burns, David Suzuki, Esi Edugyan, Malcolm Gladwell, Chris Hedges, Femi Kuti, Tariq Ali, Niall Ferguson, John Irving, Dionne Brand, Conrad Black and Donald Trump.

Adrian is a board member of Journalists for Human Rights and of the Writers’ Union of Canada.​