Meeting on indigenous land in Canada, among the Inuit and Wolasotqey with Elisapie and Jeremy Dutcher

Before you start the show, here is some information about Canada’s indigenous cultures:

There are three different branches of the indigenous population in Canada:

– 1) First Nations: Mohawk, Mig’maq, Abenaki… (Jeremy Dutcher)

– 2) Metis

– 3) Inuit (Elisapiah).

So that we are not mistaken, we say: Aboriginal.

The language of the Inuit is Inuktitut: Inuk (singular) / Inuit (plural)

Elisapie presents herself as an Inuk from the Inuit people.

Common mistakes to avoid :

Confusion between Innus and Inuit – The Innu come from the north coast (e.g. Florent Vollant) / The Inuit come from the far north (Elisapie).

Nunavik is the region in the far north of Quebec. Nunavut is a Canadian territory.

But we don’t say indigenous culture THE indigenous cultures.

In Canada there are more than 50 indigenous languages, in Quebec there are 11 indigenous nations, including the Inuit: Abenakis, Anishinabeg, Atikamekw Nehirowisiw, Eeyou, Wendat, Innu, Inuit, Wolastoqiyik, Mi’qmaq, Mohawk-Kanien’kehá: ka and Naskapi.

First guest: Elisapie for the album release Inuktitut

The artist from the far north, Elisapie, has been an essential ambassador of indigenous voices for several years, embodying a certain musical elegance and a feminism that is ahead of its time.

With this new CD, the singer, who grew up in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik, the northernmost region of Quebec, looks back on her childhood and youth by exploring her favorite songs with which she emancipated herself as a woman and artist. The challenge was great to reinterpret these timeless songs by legendary groups or artists. But who can claim as much delicacy as in this title The Heart of Attanarsima (Heart of Glass), reprise of Blondie ou ce Taimangalimaaq (Time After Time), by Cindy Lauper ?

These reimagined classics from Queen, Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones are sung in Inuktitut, his native language. From this translation comes a power and an unparalleled poetry. In this youth playlist, Elisapie shares her journey, her joys and sorrows, but also her determination as she expresses her culture with finesse, combining modernity and tradition. From her years in the Arctic, Elisapie nurtured memories of her first loves, witnessed the impact of colonialism on her community, and danced all night long at the village community center. As a teenager, she performed on stage with her uncles, who were themselves members of the famous Inuit rock and roll group Sugluk (also called the Salluit Band).

At 15 she worked at the village radio station and managed to get an interview with Metallica. A bright and ambitious young woman, she moved to Montreal to study and eventually pursue a career in music. Today, the Inuk singer-songwriter is an indispensable figure in Canada. A dedicated activist, Elisapie created and produced the first television program broadcast across Canada to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day. His unconditional connection to his territory and his language is at the heart of his creative journey and therefore his work. This ancient language embodies the harshness of the environment and the wild beauty of Inuit territory. This album is the result of all of that: a constellation of memories that are as sensitive as they are dreamlike.

At the exit from The Heart of AttanarsimaBlondie members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein praise the beauty of this version of heart of Glass.

Title played

– The heart of the Attanarsima (Heart of Glass) Blondie Check out the clip

– Qimmijuat (Wild Horses) Rolling Stones Check out the clip

-Isumagijunnaitaitanguq (The Unforgiven) Metallica Check out the clip

– Qaisimalaurittuq (I wish you were here) Pink Floyd

– Californiamut (Goes to California) Led Zeppelin.

► Album Inuktitut (Yotanka/Bonsound 2023).

Then #SessionLive welcomes Jeremy Dutcher to the album release Motewolonuwok

Five years after winning the Polaris Music Prize with his debut album, Jeremy Dutcher returns with a radiant examination of the contemporary Indigenous experience and his place within it. With songs in the language of his people, Wolasotqey, but also for the first time in English, Motewolonuwok surpasses anything the musician has created to date and includes traditional songs, late-night ballads and impressive orchestrations. “ When we analyze our stories, including our sad stories, what light appears despite everything? ? “, he asks. ” I wanted to sing about suffering and then lead us to beauty.” says Dutcher. Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, released in 2018, took Dutcher to the highest heights of Canadian culture, from the Polaris and Juno Galas to the judging panel on Canada’s Drag Race. But few could have predicted this success: the album was conceived as a museum research project exploring the wax cylinder recordings of the Wolastoqiyik song-bearers – Dutcher’s ancestors. A trained tenor, the musician eventually sang a duet with these voices, responding to his own community with sublime, reinvented songs.

This time Dutcher wanted to make a more intimate album. A survey. A record inspired by an observation by Yupik thinker Richard LaFortune – that “ The point at which two forms of discrimination meet can be dangerous “. This interface can also produce resilience, and that resilience can become a strength.” Motewolonuwok is an old Wolasotqey word usually translated as “witches”. This is also what two-spirit people are called in the region – people who are indigenous and queer, such as the Dutch, and who have a certain traditional heritage. “ They are “people with great spiritual strength” “, he explains. ” It’s more of an honor than something to be ashamed of. » Dutcher revealed his homosexuality at the age of 12, but the very idea of ​​“coming out” was forced upon him by colonialist structures. “ Two-Spirit or Indigenous queer identity is so beautiful because it is not based on a concept of deviance. » And yet “a lot of that ancient knowledge has been lost,” he points out, and as a child growing up in New Brunswick – and even as an adult now living in Montreal – he’s still evolving. through a “middle room”. ».

The land that held her, his tribute to “those who left us too soon,” vibrates in a way reminiscent of Nina Simone and Anohni. Elsewhere, instead of a modest, almost private sound, Dutcher uses the largest possible canvas: a full orchestra with arrangements by Owen Pallett and on tracks like We say, a choir of 12 voices that includes Dutcher’s queer colleagues and friends. The singer hired a bus to take them to Kingston for the recording – comrades from the Halifax School of Music as well as members of the Toronto jazz scene and the irresistible Queer Songbook Orchestra.

Hear Motewolonuwok, is to listen to an album with multiple voices. There’s Dutcher’s, more exposed than ever. There is his spontaneous choir. We hear reinterpretations of traditional melodies from the banks of the Wolastoq River as well as verses by Cherokee poet Qwoli Driskill. Dutcher sings in Wolasotqey – in the truest sense of the word, his native language – but also in English, his father’s language (and the language he spoke most often in his youth). A shared language is a gift with complex intent; At MotewolonuwokDutcher not only sings for his community, but also “ directly for the newbie [colonisateur] “, in his own language, to tell stories of grief, resilience and rebirth. According to Dutcher, making music is like learning a language – ” There is no particular conclusion “. Rather, it is an “unleashing” – a constant exploration of what we want to say and how we can express it. Motewolonuwok is the musician’s next chapter – a collective wish and restorative medicine, a confession and a refrain.

Title performed in the large studio

– Ultestakon Live RFI

– Take my handfrom the album Check out the clip

– Skichinowihkuk Live RFI Check out the clip.

Cast: Jeremy DutcherPiano part.

Translation : Claire Simon.

Sound: Mathias Taylor, Benoît Letirant.

► Album Motewolonuwok (Secret City Records 2023).