wow! Just spent the last 28 hours touring around Vancouver Island with Rosemary Georgeson, meeting elders from Saanich and Penelakut bands, hearing them share their knowledge and stories. I am floored by
1) how much I don’t know
2)how our little collaboration of music and First Nations contemporary storytelling is less than a drop in the bucket.
3) how much climate change is becoming a part of this collaborative piece (Seasons of the Sea)
I want this to be relevant to our times. I want art and my piece of it, playing the music, to be meaningful for our times and for the message to be as concrete as the silence after a cadence, as universal as a shared moment.
One of the Elders spoke about being humble.Another about respect and it is time we joined our voices and speak about things that really matter. Igrew up thinking music should be pure art and that the language of Western music was enough in itself. Now for me, I want to use music and all my power to bring a voice to issues, to awaken people to potential chaos and the infinite possiblities that are there if we open our eyes to the bigger picture.