Third annual Arts Alive! in TBL an exploding success
Skerratt’s song ‘United We Stand’ brings powerful message
Aweek of feasting on workshops in music, dance, theatre, visual arts, and film marked the successful, massive efforts of TBL’S Arts Alive! steering committee. It represented a heightened enthusiasm manifested by participants of all ages taking part in any or all of them. From flower arranging to kite making and lantern design to screenplay writing and movie making, Dave Gossage and the Celtic Mindwarp’s soul-soothing sounds of traditional Celtic to Celtic blues celebrating our roots, there was something for all to learn about and appreciate. However, what the TBL community has been left with is the buzz over Bevan Skerratt’s song that was performed during the final act of each of the four performances of Roger de Mare’s “United We Stand.”.
The music and lyrics of Skerratt’s “O Canada, My Canada” were written in 2010 after a return home from Ottawa on a sunny summer day.
“O Canada, my Canada, this country that I love,
Your open road beneath my feet, your great blue sky above,
And here within your wide embrace that spans from sea to sea,
I am the flame behind the name that you have given me!...”
And it goes on with a subtle reminder that “O Canada, my Canada, our home on native land.”
Skerratt’s song is upbeat, positive, and laced with hope for growing respect and unity in the future.
Skerratt says that like all the music he has written, the music and lyrics came all at once. On this one, it came to mind on a drive home from Ottawa. Having Cree ancestry Skerratt wanted to give a positive take on Canadian issues related to linguistic communities as well as his aboriginal roots. He says the song is about possibilities of healing from past wounds.
“As human consciousness evolves there will always be negative and positives,” but he wants to be a part of the solutions. His maternal grandfather spoke many different languages. Hence he became more interested in the cultural aspects of aboriginal life. His background along with his education has made him able to work with others who had “lost their cultures.”
Having worked at Butters’ in Austin, he moved on to the Mckay Centre in Montreal after which he returned to school for an undergraduate degree from Concordia and then a master’s in counselling psychology from Mcgill. Following that Skerratt connected with Waseskun Healing Center, a non-profit
Aboriginal organization affiliated with the Correctional Service of Canada. Currently on leave, battling cancer, Skerratt, is employed as a holistic healer for Aboriginal offenders based at the penitentiary in Cowansville. He valiantly made sure to perform with his fellow Knowlton Players during the Arts Alive! festival and clearly made a lasting impact with the message within his composition.
He says there is much work still to be done in terms of conciliation with the Aboriginal and First Nations communities. “There is a feeling that they have to put it out there strongly. A lot of people still need to be informed. If it’s put in the right context and not through terrorism, we will live peaceably. We can’t ignore it.”
Responding to people’s request for the words to his song, Skerratt hastily posted them on Facebook. But meanwhile there is already a solid movement to go forward with recording it. Internationally renowned for his compositions and choral arrangements, Donald Patriquin has jumped at the opportunity to work with Skerratt. Similarly, singer Laura Teasdale is eager to work with Patriquin and Skerratt to produce a recording for all Canadians to embrace. Says Patriquin, “Bevan is constant in his belief that the only satisfactory and lasting solutions must come out of the First Nations peoples themselves.” Patriquin says with assurance that generally speaking, First Nations peoples have little use for music of their people as performed by non-first Nations people. “I believe that down the road Bevan’s homage to Canada should be performed by the peoples from which it has sprung — Canada’s First Nations peoples.”
Patriquin laments the fact that he didn’t know about the song a year ago when there would have been time for him to work with Skerratt to prepare a recording that could be farther reaching in honour of Canada’s 150th but says that he is excited to go forward now because it carries a powerful message going forward. He knows that Skerratt delivering his own words would be much more effective than if they would be carried by someone who has no roots to the Aboriginal community. For now it is a matter of working out the logistics.