Volume 25 Issue 3 - November 2019

LIZ BEDDALL
Dean Bury/Yvette Nolan’s Shanawdithit in which Newman, as seen
on our cover, played the title role.
“We keep meeting up here and there, and Rebecca and I have
become very good friends as well as colleagues and I’m always
delighted to work with her. I think she’s a really smart and interesting
artist – she’s very young but very grounded and centred and
learning very quickly how to speak up when that’s what’s needed in
a great way. She’s definitely that next generation who are going to do
incredible things, and so it was an easy one to want to have her on
board. And Evan … Evan has a beautiful voice – he’s from the Garden
River First Nations in Ontario. And I think … he could sing anything –
it doesn’t need to be Indigenous music but I think that he does have
an important voice there, and I really want to let him to know he
is welcome in that place and I hope one day he is also helping lead
where we’re all going – where there is truth in music, bringing our
culture forward.”
In its mushiest sense, the word “confluence” is a bit like the word
“synergy,” descriptive of any old kind of coming together – good for
grant applications and things like that, but not particularly helpful as
to how to go about it. But its narrower meaning is both intriguing and
instructive: namely the junction of two equivalent rivers: each strengthened
by the other as they continue, downstream. True confluence
means neither accepting or demanding tributary status of the other.
The Heliconian event itself is a collaborative work in progress. “Evan
and Rebecca are part of developing the plan. We need to make sure
it’s not too wordy, but still offer some context … a bit like introducing
songs like at a potlatch or powwow, you talk about the permission
granted to perform a work, about who you need to be naming. In
ceremony there is speaking and music, so seeing this as a ceremony of
sorts makes sense. We’ll be singing in Gitxsan and Odawa and a little
bit of Kwak’wala. It’s an amazing opportunity to sing those languages
back into the air. And we are drawing from repertoire I’ve been
involved in over the years, that come with really good feelings – ones
where collaborations worked beautifully. Some of it is new for Rebecca
and Evan, but they are really cool at saying yes, this is an opportunity.”
There’s nothing abstract about Newman’s personal understanding
of what true confluence entails: “I have understood this
idea of Indigenous classical music my whole life. At five I was
already steeped in the cultures of both sides of my family. There’s
a picture of me wearing my kilt … and my moccasins and my dad’s
toque, with a pair of wooden spoons crossed on the floor, and I’m
doing a highland dance. For my parents it was such a snapshot of
how I was being raised, living all of my cultures. What it was like to
be able to just be everything without anyone questioning. I began
piano lessons – Suzuki – and right away did my own composing, like
Kinanu, my lullaby, in its first iteration. I found my worlds could
meld organically. Now it’s about getting other people to understand,
and embrace, the possibilities.”
David Perlman can be reached at publisher@thewholenote.com
TWO ODYSSEYS:
Pimooteewin / Gállábártnit
NOV 13–17
ADA SLAIGHT HALL,
DANIELS SPECTRUM
The world’s first operas sung and narrated in the Indigenous languages of both Cree and Sámi.
BLACK
In partnership with
Production Sponsor
Venue Partners
(416) 408-0208 | soundstreams.ca
10 | November 2019 thewholenote.com