Jeremy Dutcher is a Leader of Indigenous Renaissance

Tobique First Nation brings the prestigious Polaris Music Prize home

Jeremy Dutcher takes home the 2018 Polaris Music Prize award and declares the nation is in the middle of an Indigenous renaissance. The musician, who grew up in Tobique First Nation, is at the forefront of this renaissance having contributed what is arguably the most notable Canadian album of the year. 

Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa is the name of the album that has swept the nation off its feet. The album preserves and revitalizes a fragment of Indigenous culture in the voice and piano playing of a classically trained operatic tenor. 

The name of Dutcher’s album translates to Our Maliseet Songs. The vocals and melodies feature Dutcher’s singing and musical interpretation of wax cylinder recordings from over a century ago.  

Dutcher studied 110-year-old wax cylinder recordings of his ancestors that were kept at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Québec. The recordings were preserved by anthropologist William H. Mechling who lived with the community for seven years between 1907 and 1914. On top of recording songs, jokes, dialogues and various social interactions between the Wolastoq people in wax phonograph cylinders, the following photograph was taken by Mechling at Tobique in 1911. 

While speaking with Exclaim!, Dutcher admits that more than 20 percent of 100 songs had deteriorated to the point of being indecipherable. Most had been forgotten by his community, due to lack of access to the materials since the Indian Act of 1876.

The language of the Wolastoqiyik, whose ancestral territory is all along what is now known as the Saint John River in New Brunswick, is now spoken by fewer than a hundred fluent speakers. 

Dutcher is a graduate of Dalhousie University with a BA in Music and Social Anthropology. Research for Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa had begun long before graduation from the program in 2012. Respected elder Maggie Paul inspired Dutcher to pursue the transcription of these cylinders which eventually developed into the studio album.

Chief of Tobique First Nation, Ross Pearle, commended Jeremy for preserving the language of the Wolastoqiyik, “The chief, council and community of Neqotkuk are very proud of Jeremy receiving the Polaris award. Taking wax recordings in our maliseet language that survived the years of forced assimilation of our people and adding his musical talent to showcase internationally is very admirable. Jeremy deserves this recognition for all his hard work.”

Dutcher’s talent is reaching audiences all over the globe. After the traveling musician played the Halifax Pop Explosion at The Marquee Ballroom in Halifax on October 17, Dutcher took flight to Las Palmas, Spain to play at The World Music Expo (WOMEX). 

WOMEX is the biggest conference of the global music scene attended by thousands of professionals in the field. There is a trade fair, talks, films, a showcase festival at each annual conference. 

Over 2,600 professionals (including 303 performing artists) come together every October from more than 90 countries, making WOMEX not only the number one networking platform for the world music industry, but also the most diverse music meeting worldwide.

A collaboration with pop artist Casey MQ led to the “Pomok Naka Poktoinskwes” remix of Dutcher’s water rights’ anthem. MQ’s spin on the tune has a much faster electronic beat. While it honours the precedent, it strays away from the mellow distinguished piano and powerful vocals of Dutcher. 

The Polaris Music Prize was last won in 2016 by Colombian-Canadian electronic musician Lido Pimienta and in 2017 by Louis Kevin Celestin who is a Haitian-Canadian DJ and record producer. Dutcher’s victory harkens back to the 2015 Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Power In The Blood win. Dutcher’s album is up to par with the albums of these greats and available for purchase at Sunrise Records, iTunes and Spotify. 

A Review: All in the Timing

Theatre Antigonish presented All in the Timing at Bauer from March 6-10, 2018. All in the Timing is a drop-dead laughing anthology written by David Ives. David is a graduate from the Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1971 and from the Yale School of Drama with a Master of Fine Arts in 1984.

The anthology originated from six one-acts that received the Outer Critics Circle Playwriting Award. A total of seven comedies and one tragedy made up the production directed by Andrea Boyd.

A call bell often reset and reoriented the dialogue between a couple of strangers in act one. It became a savior of the dead-end conversation. The call bell reminded me of absurdity in Samuel Beckett’s Ping. The technique is a critique of small-talk conversational conventions.

The appearance by Justin Gregg, 2017-2018 Board of Director at Theater Antigonish, as Don was a delightful surprise in act two. Justin did some freelance writing for The Huffington Post, BBC Earth and The Wall Street Journal. Justin also did some voice acting for The Ugly Duckling and Me! and Thor: Legend of the Magical Hammer.

Justin is a graduate with a PhD from the School of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin in 2008. Having studied dolphin social cognition in-depth, the science writer is author of books Twenty-Two Fantastical Facts about Dolphins and Are Dolphins Really Smart?.

Beloved Antigonish resident,  Majd Al Zhouri was one of six talented actors to animate three characters in the play. These actors ought to be praised for their skill in bringing 18 states of mind to life; each persona with a distinguishable costume, voice and mannerism.

The small cast of 12 indicates a need for aspiring actors to audition for Theatre Antigonish productions. In fact, All in the Timing replaced the highly anticipated Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman. Metamorphoses was postponed due to a shortage of people who auditioned for the production.

One of All in the Timing’s qualities was its minimalist stage props. As much as a costume, a table and a beer sustained the audience’s suspension of disbelief during the entire act five.

Act six involved three monkeys named Milton, Kafka and Swift trying to write Hamlet on typewriters. The act satirizes a study of animal language acquisition (Codename 6.001) at Columbia University led by Herbert S. Terrace. This act and others were riddled with allusions to literary works and authors of them.

One consistent allusion was to the epic hero, Don Juan. Pre-intermission, a universal linguist charmer named Don predictably got the girl at the end of the act. Post-intermission, three direct references to “Don Juan” flooded the dialogue.

David wrote a full-length play titled Don Juan in Chicago. Safe to say the playwright was inspired by the satirical work of Lord Byron.

Theatre Antigonish’s next production at Bauer is the One-Act Play Festival running between March 22-24, 2018. The annual Festival features amateur theatre groups and individual performers.

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Dial Youth Activism Conference @ 1-800-SCL-CHNG

The community at large comes together to explore avenues to activism

The 7th youth-led, Social Justice Conference from March 2 to 4 at StFX was a great triumph. The highly anticipated appearance of Desmond Cole on Friday night, packed the Schwartz auditorium with over 100 people. Desmond is a Toronto-based columnist, activist, and radio host born in Red Deer, Alberta to parents who immigrated from Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Desmond was the recipient of highly respected 2017 PEN Canada/Ken Filkow Prize for Freedom of Expression. As well, he is currently in the process of writing his first book. I heard, unofficially, that it might be completely written as early as November of this year!

Two opening acts of activism introduced Desmond’s keynote on Friday. A group of youth drummers, led by Morgan Gero, played a groovy ceremonial rhythm. Then, a powerful spoken word delivered by Kalista Desmond moved the audience to a standing ovation.

The entertaining emcees of the night were our Students’ Union VP of Residence Affairs, Rebecca Mesay and youth leader, Trinity Ashewasegai from Paq’tnkek, Nova Scotia.

Desmond led a seminar unpacking racism and white supremacy. Desmond’s metaphor that, “Our entire country is a museum of white supremacy” quenched the taste buds of my reasoning. Consider the Scalping Proclamation, Indian Act, and Chinese Immigration Act among other racist artifacts that affirm white supremacy in Canada.

Racism and white supremacy are close-minded ideas founded on the illogical principle that racialized people have less power and value than white people.

During the keynote a youth leader from Paqtn’kek, Caleb Peters, spoke up and said that while acknowledgement of settlement on unceded Indigenous territory is good, “We need more than acknowledgement.” For the young activist with a bright mind, acknowledgement is only the first of many steps in a long walk towards truth and reconciliation.

Desmond’s keynote was the hot topic of discussion among youth leaders into the first Saturday workshop. Workshops offered included, but were not limited to poetry, podcasting and painting Mi’kmaq Komqwejwi’kasikl (Hieroglyphic) on rocks. Each Komqwejwi’kasikl signifies a message of hope. Keep an eye out for these rocks scattered on campus!

Kalista and Anas Atakora co-hosted a workshop on Activism through Spoken Word. Participants learned techniques, wrote, created and shared spoken word, deepening their skills and refining their understanding of this medium.

Desmond hosted a Saturday workshop on media literacy and how to recognize racism and white supremacy in media texts. His workshop engaged the audience to explore recent case studies of racial profiling in Canada and how big media players like CBC, Global News and The Toronto Star normalize white supremacy and racism by protecting the identities of racist white people like Nikki Samuel.

Nikki’s belligerently racist loudmouth was caught on video at the Rapid Access to Medical Specialists in Mississauga, Ontario last year. All the big media players who covered the story protected her identity by withholding her name and superimposing a blur over her face on the original video.

I met with Desmond after his Saturday workshop and presented him with the question, “How do you feel about your keynote and workshop with youth leaders at the Youth Activism Conference?”

Desmond responded, “I feel very welcomed by the youth who are here. All of these young people are leaders just by being interested in coming here and participating. They are demonstrating a lot of leadership. We’re talking about racism and white supremacy, and these young people have their own stories and experiences. So, I hear them listening to the stories that I’m telling and the experiences that I’m talking about, but they understand it already because they have experienced things like this in their own communities. I think it’s very powerful when we can get together, listen, and validate each other’s stories. Sometimes you feel alone when something bad happens and you experience racism, you feel like maybe there isn’t a venue for you to talk about it. This is one of those venues where we can talk and it’s really nice to be doing it together.”

The Youth Activism Conference continued Sunday morning with a creative representation workshop; youth leaders chose a creative way to represent their learnings over the weekend and presented their artwork. The Conference ended with a motivating speech and traditional group dance hosted by Aaron Prosper, a Mi’kmaq from the Eskasoni First Nation.

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Comedian Breaking into the Mainstream

Xavier B. Gould, Acadian entertainer

Xavier B. Gould, artist from Shédiac, New-Brunswick, was interviewed over the phone by Yanik Gallie on Wednesday 17, 2018.

Graduate from Mount Allison University in Drama, Xavier was noted as one of the 30 under 30 artists by Acadie Nouvelle last year.

The humorist hosts Le Bilingual Show: Hosté par Jass-Sainte featuring comics from New-Brunswick and Québec at Centre des Arts et de la Culture de Dieppe on February 17, 2018.

*****

The interview was recorded over telephone around 2pm on Wednesday 17, 2018. English interview translated by Yanik Gallie. For the full interview in the Acadian dialect, visit our Xaverian Weekly website @ http://www.xaverian.ca

YG: What does pride mean to you?

XG: Historically, pride meant nothing to me. It showed I didn’t fit in with the LGBTQ+ community. Pride is a big statement.

Growing up, and even in university, I distanced myself a lot from pride. Whether it be going to events or having gay friends, I didn’t participate that much. I didn’t feel like I fit in one of the boxes that was pride.

I learned within the last two years that I can create my own frigging box and make whatever I want out of pride. I can meet people who feel the same way I do and create my box with them. I take part of what pride represents, be yourself.

For me, pride’s accepting my own box that I recreate as I grow, and I’m happy.

YG: How was Jass-Sainte Bourque received by the LGBTQ+ community?

XG: I was host of an event at pride this summer when a group of kids between 10-12 years old saw me getting lunch on a break. They freaked out, “Jass-Sainte! Jass-Sainte!”

One said, “It’s my first pride. If my parents knew I was here, they’d disown me.” I shared my story with them, “When I was your age, my parents did interventions. In a failed attempt to protect me, they told me to tone it down and be less open about my sexuality. Last week, I sent a picture of myself wearing heels and makeup at rehearsal to my dad. He replied, ‘Holy shit, you look fabulous. The world is not worthy.’ If my dad made it this far up the road, it will work out for you. Give your parents a chance, and continue to be yourselves.”

They looked to me with an inspired expression, knowing that I’ve been through some shit and can still make people laugh.

YG: What moment inspired your comical character Jass-Sainte Bourque?

XG: I read the poem “Fuck you, Évangeline” by Céleste Godin. That was one of the pillar moments when I realized that, in Acadie, you have the right to turn things upside down.

You don’t need to listen to music by 1755 for the rest of your life. You can if you want, that’s valid. As an artist and creator, you have the right and are encouraged to make it your own.

What is culture if it cannot change? At that moment, I thought about Jass-Sainte seriously. This is a way for me to assume myself within my culture.

YG: Strong fictional female characters Marichette, Sagouine and Delphine B. B. Bosse are symbolic of the archetypal strong Acadian woman in literature. How do you distinguish your character from those of your predecessors?

XG: Jass-Sainte is contemporary. She is all about social media with her Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, whatever accounts right. Versus La Sagouine, it’s a written literary work, a play. Jass-Sainte is different because the personage is adapted for today with the technology.

But, it’s not that different because what previous characters did was indicative of the time too. When Sagouine was published, it was a driving force that inspired the creation of many literary works. Hopefully, Jass-Sainte is the start of a similar movement.

Another difference, Jass-Sainte is ambiguous in whether she is a woman or man. I keep it vague on purpose. She is also ambiguous in who she likes. Technology and ambiguity set Jass-Sainte apart.

YG: How did studying Drama at Mount Allison University influence your strategy in producing a dramatic and comedic character?

XG: In many ways, the production, movement and acting classes influenced my strategy. The main way my studies influenced me is that I learned to think critically.

The way education is set up at Mount A is that while you read, you ask critical questions. Don’t take for granted that just because you are given a reading it’s true. Meaning, they can give you a super racist and sexist reading from the 1920s so that you think, holy shit, that’s racist and sexist.

Pose questions. Why was it written like that? What would it be like if it were written today? Critically analyze the reading and make creative conclusions. Keep it critical moving forward. It’s how I go about with my creations.

YG: What advice would you give to someone interested in writing monologue?

XG: If you have a character or an idea, if it’s authentic to you or your experiences and you want to share that, fucking share it. Run with it. Being yourself will lead you to success.

It’s impossible to know all strategies, contracts and connections. The only thing you can know 100% is let your box continuously develop. Make it your own.

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Bauer Theatre dances and laughs

An update on that play that was like, acted out or something.

Cerulean Blue is a musical comedy by Drew Hayden Taylor, emphasis on the comedy. Filled with rich dialogue humor, the fast-pace repartee between characters is an outstanding feature of the play. A packed audience left Bauer Theatre with sore cheeks from laughing all evening on November 10.

Cerulean Blue is the name of a struggling blues band. Russel defines his vision of the band’s music as “avant-garde”. When new member Billy joins the band, Russel must compromise his one-way vision. Cerulean Blue characters have strong values and beliefs and their conversations with one another are especially interesting when personalities collide.

The author, humorist and playwright from Curve Lake First Nations has published non-fiction, fiction and edited collections. As well, his work appears in the revered Canadian literary magazine, Rampike (1979-2015). Taylor’s work is published in currently-running magazines Paragraph, Prairie Fire and Maclean’s. As well, Taylor is the author of 30 books.

The playwright’s 2014 commission by Ryerson Theatre School is a culturally relevant revival during this 150-years since confederation in Canada. This most recent series of performances from November 8-11 & 18-19 were commissioned by Theatre Antigonish, with support from the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture & Heritage.

Through humour, the play informs the audience of aboriginal traditions such as a language-fast; speaking only one’s native language for a predetermined amount of time. Also, there is a proposed smudging; a purification by burning medicinal and sacred herbs such as, sage, sweet grass and/or tobacco.

Featuring StFX students, members of the Antigonish and neighbouring aboriginal communities, the play was a local success. Chief Paul J. Prosper of the Paqtnkek First Nations community endorsed the production of the play in the program with these words of encouragement, “Cultural expression is a vital component in growing, healthy communities. We look forward to taking part in future initiatives with Theatre Antigonish to explore stories that resonate among our friends and neighbours. To our guests at today’s performance of Cerulean Blue, which includes Paqtnkek’s Virginia Silliboy and her daughter Nyesha – Enjoy the show! Wela’lin/Thank you.”

Next production hosted by Theatre Antigonish is Miracle on 34th Street; a holiday classic, retold as a 1940s radio show, with live choral music. The one-night production on December 10 is presented in partnership with The Antigonish Choral Ensemble and St. James Handbell Quartet.

Looking ahead to next semester, I am going to see Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman at least once between March 6 and 10, 2018. The Tony Award winning play is a spellbinding adaptation of Ovid’s myths told through stories in and around a large onstage pool. Although I have yet to read the play, I am familiar with Metamorphoses. The pool is predictably for the myths of Narcissus and Echo (Book III), and Midas (Book XI); among other myths which include water-nymphs, river-gods and perhaps even a voyage down the river Styx to an underworld pool.

Theatre Antigonish hosts a variety of plays based on ancient, classic and modern times. Tickets are $15 regular, $12 senior and $10 student.

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