THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE, WITHOUT STAN ROGERS?
David Newland brings his Arctic-themed concept show on the road
If you’re at all musically inclined, you’re probably already humming the iconic ballad by the late, great folksinger Stan Rogers. His Northwest Passage is a classic a cappella story-song that captures the allure of exploring unknown territory.
It’s hard to imagine any musical tribute to the Northwest Passage not including that particular number. But such is the case for singersongwriter David Newland and his Northwest Passage-themed concert, which comes to Ottawa’s Arts Court Theatre on Friday, June 8.
After several expeditions to the Arctic as part of his job as a host and Zodiac driver with the travel company Adventure Canada, Newland has reason to avoid Rogers’ booming earworm. The problem is the language used in the chorus, specifically the line, “a land so wild and savage.”
“It’s hard to sing that song,” Newland said in an interview. “It’s a brilliant song, so memorable and big and profound, and it articulates a sense of despair that is an interesting thread in the Canadian story. But it’s not inherently wild. I know the words ‘wild and savage’ are not being applied to people in that instance, but I think to even use it about the land is to miss something.
“It all originates in this European notion that this is a place that’s unfriendly and unfavourable,” he added. “It’s not that way for Inuit and we need to learn to see it not as wild and empty. It’s a peopled place.”
Newland’s Northwest Passage show features plenty of other songs and stories inspired by his travels to the Arctic, along with a selection of photographs. He performs with his band, Uncharted Waters, and special guests, Lynda Brown and Heidi Langille of Siqiniup Qilauta Sunsdrum, who lend their Inuit culture to the stage by throat-singing and drum dancing.
Newland is careful to keep in mind that he’s a visitor to the North, and subject to accusations of cultural appropriation.
“I have my lens. I’m a guy from the South. My identity is Canadian, for what that’s worth, with all its complexities but I’m trying to have my work be an eye opener for people so that they’ll go to the source,” he says.
“The way around cultural appropriation, for me, is to work with people from the culture. They will be your guides and they’ll call you when you don’t get it right. I would not go and put throat-singing on my record without having this relationship with Lynda and Heidi, and having worked with them for years. We try and talk about everything. I think you need to be brave enough to get it wrong sometimes,
but you need to be sensitive enough to go and make it right.”
The show ’s concept began to take shape about three years ago during Newland’s third year travelling north. He was familiar with the music of Ottawa-area musician Ian Tamblyn, who’s also written music inspired by Arctic, but couldn’t think of anything he wanted to add. That changed one day when he led an expedition into a bay where they were lucky enough to witness a large group of polar bears.
“Everyone who was out there had a life-changing experience,” Newland recalls. “When you see 18 bears, you’re so blown away that you need art. You need to express it and you need to hear it expressed so that you have words for the feelings that you’re having. That’s part of folksinging tradition, to express the experiences that people are having, the ordinary and the extraordinary.”
The first song was a lighthearted number about the bears. “It mimics the teeth chattering because you’re cold but it’s also about that person who goes into it terrified but comes out enlightened, like they need to see more polar bears,” Newland says. “The kernel of wisdom in taking people to these places is (in) trying to change their view of the world, from a mecentred, fear-based existence to an embracing sense of being part of something that is grander and vaster and more eternal.”
Newland grew up on Georgian Bay, surrounded by “wind and rock and water.” It wasn’t until he was out travelling the world on his own that he realized how lucky he was. “I learned that it was one of the great places in the world, and that I had been extremely fortunate to grow up there because it has a strong sense of place. People often say that geography is destiny so yeah, that was it for me,” he says.
As a singer-songwriter, Newland has made albums and played enough concerts to cultivate a following. But nothing he’s done in the past has had such an enthusiastic reaction as his northern material. He plans to make a live recording later this year, and release it as an album by next spring. “I feel like I’m an emerging artist at age 49,” he quips.