Jeremy Dutcher to Visit StFX

Jeremy Dutcher is many things. His website describes him as a “performer, composer, activist, musicologist” – an impressive slew of titles for an impressive man. Dutcher is a member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick. While he was working at the Canadian museum of history, he was able to transcribe Wolastoq music from over a hundred wax cylinder recordings that were recorded from 1907 to about 1914 by the Anthropologist William Mechling. Many of the songs Dutcher had never even heard before, because so much Indigenous music on the East Coast was censored under Canada’s Indian Act.  

Dutcher felt inspired by listening to music of his ancestors and set about composing music. He created his EP Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa as if in partnership with his ancestors. There are only about one hundred Wolastoq speakers left, and he is trying to pass on the language through music, so that the culture is not lost. As Dutcher told David Friend at the Star, “I get so much from doing this stuff, and it brings me to a closer understanding of who I am and where I fit. We should all be so lucky to have that kind of work.” He plans to continue working to bring the stories of Indigenous people to the forefront, with the goal of inspiring a renewed interest in learning the language of his ancestors.

Dutcher’s track Eqpahak starts with him having a conversation with a woman, talking about bringing the music back, because when you bring the music back you will bring everything back. It is inspiring, it is compelling, and it is magnificent. The music is nothing but beautiful. His voice and compositions are mixed with the voices of his ancestors from those wax cylinder recordings, their voices crackling and speaking to us over a century later. They are the voices of people that were suppressed, voices many didn’t want us to hear. Thankfully, Jeremy Dutcher has seen to it that these voices get a chance to speak and tell their story alongside his own. 

Dutcher will be preforming right here at StFX in the Schwartz Auditorium on December 1, hosted by the Antigonish Performing Arts Board. Student prices for all concerts put on by the board are five dollars – not a bad price to see a man who just played a sold-out show with the Nova Scotia symphony on October 17, and has been traveling across the country on tour. Come out for a night of beautiful music, and start the final season off right.