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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Musicians helped the community celebrate freedom of expression and the 29 other articles protected in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the weekend.

The second annual Amnesty International coffee house filled the auditorium at Northern United Place on Saturday night. Community members of all ages and backgrounds enjoyed food and fair-trade tea and coffee while listening to an evening-long concert organized by multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Churcher.

Bassist and Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy played the Top Knight last weekend alongside SNV bandmates Spenser DeCorby on drums, and guitarists Glen MacKay and Keith Shergold. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

Local Amnesty International volunteers shared information about international human rights struggles in the form of petitions, postcards and pamphlets.

Human rights campaigns reflected in the organization's literature included calls for U.N. Intervention in Darfur and for Buddhist monk U Gambira to be released without torture from prison in Myanmar. Letters addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper advocated for the transfer of Guantanamo Bay prisoner and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr to this country's justice system.

Volunteers also distributed information about violence against women and girls in Canada and circulated flyers published by Parents Families and

Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), an international organization with a Canadian chapter focused on eliminating discrimination against lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender youth.

The right to rebel
To me, freedom of expression is having the space to be fully authentic. Girls growing up in the 1950s were expected to be obedient to male authority. Examples of "traditional" chaste femininity: many of us gave up on our deepest dreams. I am grateful to my mom, who was rebel enough to enlist in the Canadian Air Force in 1941; for showing me that I need not fall into that trap.
- Kate Tompkins, vocalist and consultant

The right to speak out
At every stage of my life there have been attempts to stifle my self-expression: a little girl not allowed to challenge, a journalist threatened by those who did not want their misdeeds exposed, a mother denied the right to address the public school board to whom she entrusted her own children. For me, freedom of expression is the right to sing, dance, paint, write, march, speak-out against injustice, in hopes of creating a better, kinder world.
- Laurie Sarkadi, songwriter and journalist

The right to tell stories
Music is a powerful medium because it combines emotion with storytelling. The stories that music transmit range from the most simplest and pure heart-felt feelings, carried by a single, unaccompanied voice, to complex cosmological visions that require enormous and highly-sophisticated orchestras for full expression. As music can carry both emotion and literal message, it unites individuals and creates alliances amongst nations. Power regimes throughout history have suppressed music to eliminate undesirable influences, or encouraged certain kinds of music to support propaganda campaigns. I support Amnesty International's Freedom of Expression campaigns because musicians must be able to use their voices, receive and impart information and ideas through their chosen artistic medium without interference.
- Jonathan Churcher, musician and office worker