'We are of the land and water'
Gho-Bah/Gombaa takes steps toward reconciliation with stories and songs
Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Friday, June 23, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The first light of dawn lit new steps toward reconciliation Saturday, and again on Wednesday.
Paul Andrew leads a song he said is dedicated to Dene people at Saturday's Gho-Bah/Gombaa reconciliation concert at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre. Andrea Bettger, left, and Lawrence Nayally back him up on vocals and instruments. - Robin Grant/NNSL photo |
Gho-Bah and Gombaa both translate to "first light on the horizon, the moment that dawn begins" in the Sahtu and Weledeh languages, respectively. They are also the name of a music and storytelling project dreamt into reality by musician Leela Gilday for this year's Aboriginal Day celebrations.
Gilday took the stage at Northern Arts and Cultural Centre Saturday and again at Somba K'e Civic Plaza on the holiday Wednesday with fellow musicians Paul Andrew, Lawrence Nayally, Catherine Lafferty, Stephen Kakfwi and Casey Koyczan to illustrate indigenous resilience in the face of colonization.
Gilday wrote a song called Give What Our Hearts Can't Take for the project. It is about what indigenous people lost after colonization and residential schools, something she said she regrets on a personal level.
In addition to songs, Gho-Bah/Gombaa was narrated by radio host and filmmaker Deneze Nakehk'o.
He talked about what it means to be Dene and the significance of the land to indigenous Northerners.
"Depending on who you ask, Dene can be interpreted in many ways," he said.
"My uncle says that he broke down Dene into syllables, 'De' and 'Ne.' He said it makes reference to river and water. So the origin of our very word for person, or people, is in relation to water or land: Dene. Whatever your interpretation, the water and land are us and we are of the land and water: Dene."
Former Tulita chief Paul Andrew performed two songs he wrote for the concert. He dedicated one song, I Want To Go Home, to the residential school students who never returned.
"My grandmother used to say, 'Two of my daughters were taken to residential schools and I never saw them again,'" he said.
"It's a song about the people who wish their sons and daughters were home with them."
During the show's second half, Andrew and Kakfwi told stories about their experience in residential schools as young children.
"Something happens to you in there ... you're turned against your own people," said Kakfwi, who spent seven-and-a-half years in residential school.
"Your way of life and your people are finished. You have to become like a white man and be educated and move away from your town and community and your people. This is the new world."
