SAY YOUR NAME

With the final Truth and Reconciliation National event coming up in Edmonton March 27th-30th, I thought it was a good time to share these words from Keith on how he came to write SAY YOUR NAME for the residential school survivors. If you haven't heard the song, the video appears just below this post. Prayers and blessings for all who will be travelling to Edmonton for the event, and for all who are undertaking their own journeys of healing.    -C

Winnipeg is the most central spot in North America. It is at the confluence of two rivers, the Assiniboine and the Red River. For centuries it was a gathering spot for medicine people and mystics. This is where I learned about the silence in music.  They say the pause in music is for the sorrow of the earth, and that when we are happy we have memories of sadness. Songs come fast like a hummingbird brings blessings. Spirits speak extremely fast. Ten seconds equals a two day story

I was walking early the day before a show and it was pouring rain.  A crowd was gathered at some buildings near where the performers were staying. I was curious and when I asked, I was informed that it was a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) National Event and that testimony was being given. It was a public forum where victims of Indian Residential Schools could describe in horrific details their abuse. The only detail they could not give was the most significant, the perpetrators’ names. At first I did not want to hear it—too much pain. How could I not be angry? I walked away. And then I stopped. I reminded myself that we are all part of the healing. I could help. I wanted to help. I turned around and went back to listen.

A survivor got up to speak. The first words she said were, “It would happen late at night, down the hall in the bathroom,” Her painful words and the way she said them made me cry.  She said that the same person who abused her later conducted the marriage ceremony for her and her husband. This made me angry.  She had so much courage to have been able to come forward to show the people they are not alone. 

Survivor after survivor gave testimony, each story as hideous as the one before. Stories like how a perpetrator used to scare the children with a snake, “Don’t tell no one or I’ll let the serpent crawl in the darkness of the night. “  It took me awhile to gather myself. I felt sickened by sorrow. How could you not be? I was upset, but I could feel something coming. I think it was a quantum dream that came in the form of two notes. It came from the children.

I made my way over to rehearsal. I was collaborating with the Duhks: Leonard Podolak, Jordan McConnell, Christian, and Sara Dugas. My son, Keith was working with a local First Nations skate team and filmed some skateboard footage which was shown during our performance. We were part of the Aboriginal Day celebrations that were being televised nationally on June 21, 2010.  We dedicated our performance to the healing of all nations. It was a powerful show with great musicians. 

Later that night, Sara and Christian sat in at a local bar with some other musicians and treated us to some spectacular late night underground jazz.  After we all went out and ate. It was a late night gathering of nations at a Chinese restaurant. What a suitable ending to an ironic day.

Early the next morning, as I made my way to offer tobacco, I heard the most violent heaving. I thought to myself that someone really must have partied hard the night before. But when I looked, it was a medicine man taking the sickness from people. He would have them put their hands on a tree and then he would put one hand on their back near the heart and one hand on the head, and pray for them. After he prayed for them he would put his hand on the tree and would throw up violently. He was taking the sickness from the people and before it could make him sick, he would get rid of it using the power of the tree.

Healing means to cast off the sickness. 

Down by the river the song came to me.  “Say your name,” very simple, “prayers of our children.”  Two notes, five chords and truth.

The blessings from a hummingbird have to unravel.  After returning home to Arizona, I called up Jeff Merkel at Aum Studio in Mesa and booked some studio time. I recorded the song the same week I wrote it. As Johnny Cash would always say, “Are we going to record the song before we learn it?”

A year later the blessings came once again. Artist Liz Amini-Holmes created a stunning video for “Say Your Name” using her art and Inuvialuit elder Margaret Pokiak-Fenton’s photographs, both from Margaret’s residential school memoirs Fatty Legs and A Stranger at Home (written by Christy Jordan-Fenton). Liz’s husband, Mark Holmes also leant his technical experience to the video’s creation. “Say Your Name” was first screened at the second Truth and Reconciliation Commission National event in Inuvik for the survivors for whom it was dedicated.

In their honor we can only live a good life.