TULITA/FORT NORMAN - It's not just a CD. It's part of a cultural revival.

The Tulita Dene Drummers released their first album last month. Tulita Dene Drummers: Drum Songs of Yahts'ule - Shutaogotine Mountain Dene features 21 songs produced by Spiritwalker Productions in Yellowknife.

The 10 drummers recorded the music as they convened in Yellowknife for last year's Folk on the Rocks Festival.

The songs were selected from the 52 songs that came to Yahts'ule in his dreams. Yahts'ule was a Shatugotine Chief of the Mountain Dene in the 1930's and 1940's.

"Yahts'ule was a very respected man in both the Yukon and the central part of the NWT," said Tulita Drummer Paul Andrew. "The elders would tell us that (Yahts'ule) would start his songs in certain ways and finished in certain ways."

The order of the songs as they are arranged on the CD reflect the sequences and ceremonies that accompany the traditional drum dance performance. Two prayer songs start the CD. The first song gives thanks for the food we are given and the life cycles that provide sustenance. The second song accompanies movements that drummers use to start a dance.

"The CD is not only to preserve the songs but also to hopefully educate other people and ourselves and our younger people about the meanings of the songs and their significance," Andrew explained.

Track number 15, titled Bebi Zhineh, is a song sung for babies.

"Whenever there is a newborn they sing that song and whenever there is a significant time in a baby's life they sing that song for the baby," Andrew said.

Another song is sung when a person passes away.

"We want to tell people that this is what the songs are about and what they mean for us. The belief of the people that we come from is that if you take care of the songs the songs take care of you."

Andrew recalls the drum dances of his early youth, when the whole community participated in the drum dance while the eldest elders enjoyed watching from their seats.

"It was time to be sharing with each other. They were laughing. They were really having a wonderful time," he said. "In those days the drum dance was considered very spiritual, the whole event, particularly with these songs. Even to this day the elders will tell you that the drum is a very sacred and spiritual instrument that has to be treated with respect."

By honouring Yahts'ule's songs and ceremonies and by educating youth about their meaning and importance, the drummers hope to continue the cultural resurgence already being experienced in Tulita, Andrew said.

Youth in Tulita are learning traditional hand games and the songs and drumming that accompany them.

"I've been there where people five and six years old, and teenagers, have been coming out and demanding that we play," he said. "We're hoping that same kind of reaction will happen with the drum dance."

Language instruction also needs to be nurtured alongside the reintroduction of hand game skills and songs and drum dance ceremonies, Andrew said.

"What the drum dances mean and the interrelationship that people have in drum dances - that is much better explained in our own language than it is in our second language," he said. "That's the kind of preservation that we're looking for. It's a cultural preservation where language plays a very, very vital role."

Recent events like Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology to residential school survivors, the residential schools common experience payment and the truth and reconciliation commission are helping First Nations people to examine their culture and experience, Andrew said.

"The pride in Aboriginal people is beginning to come back," he said. "I get a sense that it's cool to be Aboriginal again. Part of that is people asking what it means to be Aboriginal. I think people are beginning to look at some of the games they play, the way they talk, the way that they express themselves - everything. This CD is our contribution. It's part of that revival. Put your seat belts on, this is just the start."