Secret Path - Gord Downie
"Secret Path" is a ten song digital download album by Gord Downie with a graphic novel by illustrator Jeff Lemire. Secret Path is about Chanie “Charlie” Wenjack, a twelve-year-old boy, who died in flight from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School fifty years ago.
Chanie’s story is Canada’s story. We are not the country we thought we were. History will be re-written. We are all accountable. Secret Path acknowledges a dark part of Canada’s history—the long suppressed mistreatment of Indigenous children and families by the residential school system—with the hope of starting our country on a road to reconciliation. Every year as we remember Chanie Wenjack, the hope for Secret Path is that it educates all Canadians young and old on this omitted part of our history, urging our entire nation to play an active role in the preservation of Indigenous lives and culture in Canada.
Below is a song from the album, "The Stranger," and an excerpt of the novel.
Chanie’s story is Canada’s story. We are not the country we thought we were. History will be re-written. We are all accountable. Secret Path acknowledges a dark part of Canada’s history—the long suppressed mistreatment of Indigenous children and families by the residential school system—with the hope of starting our country on a road to reconciliation. Every year as we remember Chanie Wenjack, the hope for Secret Path is that it educates all Canadians young and old on this omitted part of our history, urging our entire nation to play an active role in the preservation of Indigenous lives and culture in Canada.
Below is a song from the album, "The Stranger," and an excerpt of the novel.
A Tribe Called Red
"A Tribe Called Red" is a Canadian electronic music group, who blend instrumental hip hop, reggae, moombahton and dubstep-influenced dance music with elements of Indigenous music, particularly vocal chanting and drumming. Visit their website to learn more and stream their music here and listen to "Stadium Pow Wow" below.
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Visit her website to learn more about her and to see where she will be playing and speaking next!