Song offers extended hand for reconciliation
Kid with ‘rainbows on her face and peace in her heart’ inspired writing
When Darryl Dozlaw went out to the park to take part in National Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2016, a little Indigenous girl sat down next to him on his longboard.
Dozlaw found her so endearing that he asked her parents if he could take a picture of her in her rainbow face paint, and the image was so touching for him that it became a lyric in It is Ours, the song he wrote about reconciliation in Canada.
“It seemed to offer a picture of hope, this little person who was completely oblivious to the fact that my forefathers were the bad guys in her forefathers’ story,” Dozlaw said. “It didn’t matter to innocence. It didn’t matter to the face of hope.”
After the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its final report in 2015, Dozlaw said he read from it every morning before work. He eventually had the idea to put together the song, an effort he said is akin to “reconciliation in practice.”
Dozlaw grew up in Kamloops, B.C., and said he didn’t know there had been a residential school located there until he was 50 years old and didn’t live in the city anymore.
Now an elementary school art teacher in Saskatoon, he said it was one of the many things he has had to come to grips with as an adult, and a defining experience that motivated him to put the song together.
“I think that reconciliation is a handshake in the dark. You reach out your hand, and you don’t really know how it will be received.” he said. “You just know in this moment you need to extend your hand and hope for the best.”
Don Speidel, cultural liaison with the Saskatoon Public School Division and one of the people who runs the Indigenous Ensemble music group, said he was touched by how passionate Dozlaw was when he first visited Speidel in his office. Though he joked that he doesn’t have an ear for music, Speidel said he was impressed by the lyrics and by how earnestly Dozlaw wanted to contribute something in the name of reconciliation.
“He felt there was a calling for him, and that perked my ears because we’re always trying to advance the idea of bringing people together to understand,” Speidel said.
Darrell Paskimin, a Plains Cree drummer and flute player with experience in the music industry, met Dozlaw while Paskimin was working with children to teach them about aspects of Indigenous culture.
Paskimin said he was “moved” by Dozlaw’s lyrics and considered the project a good step toward bringing more awareness to reconciliation in Canada. His mother was a residential school survivor, so he understands how important reconciliation is for the country, he said. “The whole message will bring some attention out between everybody: not just musicians, but First Nations people and non-indigenous people.”
The song has enjoyed some success in the past couple of years, with Dozlaw getting the chance to play it with the Indigenous Ensemble multiple times. A few weeks ago, Dozlaw had the opportunity to record the song at the Recording Arts Institute of Saskatoon.
Dozlaw said he recorded the song with nine other musicians: six Indigenous and three non-indigenous. While they were in the RAIS studio putting it together, he met two more RAIS students helping with the process who had unique stories to tell: 19-year-old Metis sound engineer Jazmyn Durocher, who put together the final mix, and Indigenous videographer Jessica Seesequasis, whose grandparents met while attending residential school.
Seesequasis, 21, said she didn’t really know what Dozlaw’s song was about when one of her instructors asked her to make the music video on the project, but after hearing the song and watching Dozlaw get overcome with emotion while in the booth, she understood what he was trying to do.
“I was so blown away,” she said. “The whole production of the song is very beautiful ... it all fits perfectly.”
Durocher said she was pleased her sound mix would be used for the song.
“I immediately fell in love with it,” she said. “It made me really inspired ... it’s probably the hardest I’ve ever worked on a mix.”
The recording session took more than five hours in the studio, but they’ve produced a nine-and-ahalf minute song complete with Dozlaw’s lyrics and a powwow drum section and Indigenous flute melody — Paskimin’s influence on the final recording.
From the diverse group of people involved in making the production possible, all the way back to that little girl “with rainbows on her face and peace in her heart” that inspired the song’s closing lyrics, Dozlaw said he’s just happy his message is being shared by the rest of the people who worked on the project. The plan is for the song to be publicly released in the new year, and the collaborative work will go one step further.
“It’s one thing to presume you have something to say; it’s something quite different to be invited into places to say what you have to say along with people other than yourself,” he said.