Healing through music
William Greenland says flute playing helped him find his purpose
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
On a frigid Wednesday morning last week in downtown Yellowknife, cars buzzed along Franklin Avenue as people hidden in their parkas scurried down the sidewalk in the thick of the morning rush to work.
William Greenland plays his handmade flute at his office. He said he picked up the instrument after a trip to meet elders at Navajo Nation in 2011. - Kirsten Fenn/NNSL photo |
In a small sunlit office overlooking the hustle and bustle, William Greenland sat in what seemed like an oasis from the noise outside.
The sound of flute music floated through the air as the 10 a.m. sunrise started to warm the room.
"We're just steady going in our life ... all these things are going on at once and then you put this music on," Greenland said. "Just listening to it now, it seems so relaxing."
Playing the flute has been a key part of Greenland's life - it is an instrument that has served as what he describes as a kind of healing prayer for him.
Born in Aklavik and raised in Inuvik, 57-year-old Greenland eventually moved to Yellowknife where he spent time living on the streets and battling addiction. When he eventually became sober, he carried on a successful career in radio. But Greenland was still unhappy. He no longer cared what he put on the radio, what questions to ask or what he was talking about with his guests, he said.
"I wasn't feeling good about what I was doing anymore... just giving up on everything," he said. "And that's not the way I wanted to be."
On the advice of his close friends, Greenland decided to travel to Arizona in 2011. He met with elders of the Navajo Nation who shared their advice and brought him to healing ceremonies.
"I met some really good people down there and they said, 'Take this flute with you. Take it home with you and pray with it. Pray that it will help you. Whatever you pray for will come out in that song,'" Greenland said. "So I bought this little flute and I took it home."
At the time, Greenland knew little about the instrument as he began practising back home in Yellowknife.
"It sounded really bad," he laughed, mimicking the wheezy sound of a first-time flute player.
Slowly that changed as he grew better and better.
"The birds were liking it," he said about times he spent playing out on the land. "They weren't flying away anymore."
Then, he decided to start making flutes himself. A few years ago, he picked up a piece of dried willow and started whittling away.
"I found (it) on the side of the highway in Fort Liard ... I just picked it up and kind of looked at it," he said.
After 13 hours of cutting the wood in half and chiseling away, he had completed one side of the instrument.
"I sat there all day with it. You have to be patient. You have to have good thoughts in your mind," Greenland said.
And now, he takes that same approach to life. The co-ordinator with the A New Day counselling program delivered by Tree of Peace Friendship Centre described his healing process as something that hasn't happened overnight, but with time, patience and practice.
"It's an ongoing thing," Greenland said. "Part of life is a healing journey and how you take care of yourself ... if you're always out doing things in a negative way, your healing will be much more difficult."
Now Greenland carries his flute around town, sharing its healing sounds with others - at work, at events where he's asked to play and even outside at Somba K'e Civic Plaza.
"Everywhere I was going, people were connecting with me because of my flute music," Greenland said, adding he was even nominated for the 2015 Indigenous Music Awards. He said he often hears homeless people on the streets asking him to play for them as it brings them a sense of peace.
"I've begun to understand who I am now, what my purpose is and what I need to do," Greenland said.
He said he hopes in the future he can pass down his gift for playing flute to others.
"My goal now is to teach flute playing. And maybe someday some guy might want to make a flute," he said. "I want to be able to do that too."
