Musical journey shows joy that can come from reconciliation
Outreach with RSO reveals welcome shift in perspectives, writes Buffy Sainte-Marie.
What a wonderful week it was. Today right now I can see the future growing up out of all the yesterdays — good and bad — that I’ve known here in Saskatchewan.
Two weeks ago I flew into Regina, met with my band and road manager, and then with Gordon Gerrard, who is conductor of the Regina Symphony Orchestra.
Our plan was to bring 11 symphony players with me and my band to schools at three local reserves. That’s a pretty big order, and very different from the days 50 years ago when it could never have happened. But with Truth and Reconciliation, the RSO wanted to create an outreach to grownups and kids at three schools: Paskwa, Payepot, and Cowessess.
Of course I already have years worth of friends and relatives at Payepot. And occasionally I had met people from Pasqua and Cowessess, after a Regina concert or somewhere out there on the showbiz road, but I had never had the time and opportunity to spend significant time at either reserve and the RSO outreach gave me this chance, for which I’m very grateful.
All three schools are bright and charming and offer the usual core subjects thought to be important by most of the world’s educators: Math, science, history, geography, reading, etc. But also we saw lots of Indigenous culture, health and language embedded into the look and feel of each school. Artwork, posters, slogans and banners remind everybody of our First Nations Ten Commandments, listing the Cree words for numbers from 1-100, quotations from our brilliant chiefs and references to the treaties they signed, and there are health reminders, memes and sayings on lots of prominent walls. These kids and anybody who visits the schools are surrounded by good medicine. Partway through our week, I also visited Scott Collegiate where they hosted their students in a Q&A session where students asked me whatever they wanted to know.
At the reserves, the concert part of each day began with Gordon Gerrard conducting the RSO playing an orchestral piece I wrote as the opening to my movie score for the film Where the Spirit Lives, which is a child-friendly story about kids in a residential school. Then I came onstage, and my band and I and the RSO played It’s My Way, a song about finding your own path through the world. We continued with
You Got to Run, We Are Circling, Power in the Blood, Darling Don’t Cry, No No Keshagesh, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Up Where We Belong, Carry It On and Starwalker.
When the concert ended, we took a break and then Gordon and I came back for questions and answers from the audience. Some of the points we covered ( beyond answering “How did you get into show business?” and “What’s Big Bird really like?”) included my own hope that we can get some musical instruments to small remote reserves like these. Also my wish that we can break the cycles — of bullying, alcohol, drugs and abuse — that are so prevalent everywhere these days; and I left behind some of my Break the Cycle T-shirts to be given away after we left.
Gordon and I let the kids know how music can come from anybody anywhere, and that the music that each of us does is quite different from one another. For instance, Gordon is highly educated in classical music, reads music notation extremely well, and knows each orchestral instrument. I on the other hand cannot read music at all, am a self-taught natural musician, and familiar with more ethnic and pop instruments. However, we loved driving around together out to the reserves, discussing our different ways of being involved in music and giving it to everybody else, and we shared this with the audiences.
Payepot School was very special because they also held a very exciting two-hour student talent show after our show, on the same stage. They had bused in students from six other reserves (how cool is that?) who presented dance, songs, drama, hiphop, spoken word and music. I was also impressed that there were lots of acts, some of the kids obviously beginners getting their first chance, and others quite proficient. It was a wonderful mix, and I’m so proud and grateful to be involved.
Truth and Reconciliation is here. Many Canadians are confused as to what Reconciliation is. Some even fear it or think it has to be painful, but it doesn’t. This week has been full of joy! It’s also been unique, the product of a lot of people on the RSO side — board, unions, players, all kinds of helpers — working together to make it happen.
And another group of people in the three reserve communities working together to bring out the best in their students, and teachers and administrators and band councils who not only hosted us, but impressed us with what they have been working toward for years now. More power to you all.
Part of Reconciliation is being aware of the shift in perspectives that a week like this can bring. I’m absolutely sure that each and every person who took part in this beautiful outreach has experienced Reconciliation as not a pain; but, with some work, a true joy that will impact future generations, and that we will never, ever forget.
Many thanks to Pasqua, Payepot and Cowessess reserves, to Scott Collegiate, to my own band and team, and to everybody involved with the Regina Symphony Orchestra.