Three Indigenous composers will debut a trio of songs about water, women and water protectors this weekend in Winnipeg.
Using the poetry of Red River Métis writer katherena vermette, Cree composers Andrew Balfour and Melody McKiver, and Métis composer Ian Cusson crafted original choral arrangements.
The works will premiere at the Dead of Winter choral ensemble’s Nestaweya concert this Sunday at the University of Manitoba’s Desaultels Concert Hall.
“What we decided to do is, with a focus on water, look at the poetry of (katherena) vermette,” co-curator and conductor Mel Braun said. “Her river woman book is all about the river, specifically the Red River, and you how much, if you’ve read her stuff, how much the river figures all in her writing.”
The title ‘Nestaweya’ is derived from the Cree word for ‘three points’. In Treaty 1, it represents the meeting of the Cree, Anishinaabe and Dakota peoples at the junction of Winnipeg’s Red and Assiniboine rivers, colloquially known as the Forks.
“We all know the Forks as a meeting place, but it’s so important for us as Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people to understand this was a meeting place,” Balfour, who is also the artistic director, said.
A ‘60s Scoop survivor, Balfour began connecting with his Cree roots through music.
At the beginning of his career, he said there were next to no Indigenous composers in the classical realm.
“What would Cree sound like, when sung by choirs? That was my first thought, what would that sound like?” he said. “Then, you see other people sort of like, ‘well I don’t know if we can sing Cree, because we don’t know the language–well, you don’t know Italian, so why do you sing in Italian?”
Honouring water through song
Rather than a concert, Balfour describes Nestaweya as a ceremony.
During the performance, artists are invited to bring water from their community to be poured into an urn.
Songkeepers Laura Horton, Taylor Galvin and Ellen Cook will share teachings, shedding light on water inequities impacting Indigenous communities.
“(It’s) shining the importance of the two Canadas: the Canada that has high-speed Internet, the southern Canada, and the Canada up north that doesn’t have food sovereignty, doesn’t have clean water, addictions, suicides,” Balfour said. “These are important things we can tell through song.”
The performance arrives at a time when struggles to protect water have been waged across Turtle Island.
In September, the Southern Chiefs’ Organization filed a lawsuit seeking Charter Rights for Lake Winnipeg, known traditionally as Weeniibiikiisagaygun.
Nestaweya songkeeper, Taylor Galvin, is among the water protectors named in the suit.
As a composer, Balfour feels his role is to immortalize stories about the water through song.
“The impact that song and music can make is, I think, a lot longer lasting than bills, or the Indian Act, or legal struggles,” he said. “My goal is long after I’m not on Mother Earth anymore, that this music and these stories will still be going.”
The performance takes place on Sunday, Oct. 20 at 3:00 p.m. at the Desaultels Concert Hall in Winnipeg.
