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LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Interest in fiddling is continuing to build in the Deh Cho according to the president of an association dedicated to promoting the instrument.

Assistant teacher Lauren Corneille-Lafferty, right, of Fort Simpson teaches Atanda Kotchea of Trout Lake how to play the song A Little Pat of Butter. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

From Jan. 13 to 15 the Kole Crook Fiddle Association held its sixth annual January Jamboree in Fort Simpson. Fifty-eight aspiring fiddlers from six Deh Cho communities participated in the event.

In the past, some students used to come to the jamboree because they saw it as a way to get a trip into Fort Simpson, but that is not the case anymore, said Gerda Hazenberg, the association's president.

"The kids we have here are all eager to be here," she said.

Coming to the jamboree is now a trip students purposefully choose to go on because they want to fiddle, she said.

During the course of the weekend, the participants learned new tunes and got pointers on their technique from seven fiddle teachers. The jamboree, however, is as much about building relationships between youths in different communities as it is about the music, said Hazenberg.

Participants who have been to a number of jamborees are eager to return to see the friends they've made in the past, she said. The friendships were evident during the public concert on Saturday night when groups of students from different communities chose to play together before the audience, said Hazenberg.

This year the association is focusing on 14 communities including the eight in the Deh Cho as well as Hay River, the Hay River Reserve, Yellowknife, Fort Resolution, Behchoko and Gameti. In the smaller Deh Cho communities that have recently formed fiddling chapters – such as Fort Liard, Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake – Hazenberg said she's seeing a lot of progress.

"It's solid growth," she said.

The jamboree, as well as the teacher tour that accompanies it, is one of the ways the association promotes that growth. The association held a jamboree with 52 students in Hay River from Jan. 6 to 8. In the week between the two jamborees, the fiddle teachers dispersed, giving lessons in Fort Liard, Nahanni Butte, Fort Simpson, Behchoko, Gameti, Fort Resolution and Jean Marie River.

"We always find work for our teachers," Hazenberg said.

The association is also developing local teachers. Hazenberg said one of the highlights of this year's jamboree was promoting Lauren Corneille-Lafferty to the position of assistant teacher.

Corneille-Lafferty, 14, has been playing the fiddle for approximately six years. She said she was inspired to learn the instrument by her grandfather Albert Tonka, who used to fiddle at suppertimes.

Corneille-Lafferty said she was excited to start teaching new students how to fiddle, just as teachers with the association once helped her. During the jamboree Corneille-Lafferty assisted in the Beginner 1 class where she taught students new songs and how to hold their fiddle and bow properly.

"It's really good for me," she said about her promotion to assistant teacher.

Corneille-Lafferty is the third student the association has mentored to become a fiddle teacher. The association will employee her as a teacher at its annual summer fiddle camp in Yellowknife from July 2 to 6.

The association takes its name from a young Northern fiddler. New Year's Eve was the tenth anniversary of the plane crash near Fort Good Hope that led to his death. As a part of the jamborees in both Hay River and Fort Simpson, Hazenberg played a video clip of Crook fiddling and talking.

"He was such an open, honest, loveable young man," said Hazenberg.

During the video, Crook plays a song and then admits he made some mistakes during it but kept playing. One has to keep going because things get better, he said.

"It's a message that kids should hear," said Hazenberg.

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