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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Earth Day has a theme song and it is a tune everyone is familiar with. The beat of the drum brings us all in touch with our place and time on the planet.

"A drumbeat is just like your heartbeat," said Bobby Drygeese. "It's a part of you that keeps going and going. The drum helps soothe you. Makes you feel alive. The drum represents the cycle of life."

Janet Scollard drums at a drumming circle in Yellowknife. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

For Drygeese, who drums with the Dettah Drummers, the drum also helps keep his culture and identity strong.

"We are from here. We have our roots here," he said.

"We have to make sure we maintain our roots. Our traditional practices. Our language. The drum helps keep us grounded to who we are and where we're from. People have to find their own rhythm and their own voice in life. Find their own voice and use it."

Roberta Kennedy, a member of the Haida nation of Haida Gw'aii, acknowledges herself as a guest on Dene land. Although far from her own land, she uses the drum to connect with her culture and her people while connecting with her own body, mind, spirit and emotions.

"I'm told by my elders that the drum is a sacred instrument," she said. "When I'm using my drum I'm calling my ancestors to stand with me and support me and so I have to bring them to a safe place. I like to hope and pray that when I'm drumming in the presence of others that it's also going to take the audience to that sacred place, as well. It's a sacred moment."

While the beat of the drum speaks to her from a sacred place in her own identity, Kennedy maintains that all of us come into contact with the sacred when we hear the beat of a drum.

"I heard an elder once say that the drum comes from not just mother Earth but also from our mothers. We spend nine months developing inside our mothers and that is the closest we're going to be with anyone in this world," she said.

"Whenever we hear the drum beating our mind doesn't remember that time but our spirit remembers, our heart remembers and our body remembers. It makes us happy. We might not know why, but it makes us happy."

"When we think about Earth, which is going to continue even if we completely damage this world permanently, we recognize that heartbeat. That heartbeat will always keep going. It cannot end. The Earth doesn't belong to us, we belong to the Earth. We're not going to be here forever but the earth always will."

Lemlem Girmatsion, who moved to Canada from Eritrea, said experiences a connection with her homeland when she hears drummers perform in Yellowknife.

"Drumming is a very familiar shared experience," she said. "It transcends cultural boundaries. The beat of the drum has the power to do that."

Girmatsion recalls the role of the drum in her mother's stories about life in Eritrea, where a drumbeat brings the community together in a celebration of life and unity.

"Despite the modernization of instruments, the drum never changes. It's a constant in our tradition," she said. Lifelong Northerner and classically-trained percussionist Azure DeGrow admires the drum for those universal qualities.

"The drum is one of the only instruments that anybody can touch for the first time and make a beautiful sound with," she said. "You can't give a person a clarinet for the first time and expect them to make music. With drumming, more people can easily become part of the circle. Everyone can relate to a drum."

Monique Robitaille participates in one of many regular drumming groups in town.

"Drumming connects us with the earth and humanity," she said. "To be drumming is to feel alive."