Northern musicians explore reconciliation through song in Gho-Bah project

A powerhouse collection of Northern musicianswill takethe stage in Yellowknife today, debuting a new project aimed at reconciliationon National Aboriginal Day.

The group includes Casey Koyczan, Stephen Kakfwi, and Pat Braden, among others, and is led by Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter Leela Gilday.

Gilday'svision for theproject,namedGho-BahorGomba both of which mean "the first light of dawn,"depending on the dialect spoken inDenebegan with conversations with other musicians and artists about what reconciliation means to them.

"Reconciliation is a big buzzword right now, and sort of what people are focusing on and as Indigenous people, we have to really sit back and think what does that mean to us," she said."And so what we came to as a collective is what we wanted to focus on is the resilience of our people, as Indigenous people making it through culturally legislated genocide."

Gildaysaidthat she looked for a range of perspectives when approaching musicians to take part. The collective includes two residential school survivors, as well as intergenerational survivors, and people representing many different First Nations.

'What we really want to do... is celebrate that resilience'

In addition to reconciliation, Gilday said that the project is aimed at celebrating resiliencethat of Indigenous people keeping their culture and traditions strong despite Canada's history of colonization and residential schools.

"When we're talking about reconciliation and healing our relationships with non-Indigenous people, I think as artists, that's the first thing we really want todo is celebrate that resilience, and have other people recognize that as well," she said.

All the music composed for theconcert is new and original, and multiple artists have contributed songs.

Gilday's piece is titled "Give What Our Hearts Can't Take," and is focused onthings lost, like language.

"I don't speak my language and it's been a really interesting process to write music," she said."The other people that do speak Dene languages have helped me to interpret some of the lyrics and it's been a very emotional thing, actually, to write music in that way. So I did write a song about those things that we lost and that I still feel the loss of."

Paul Andrew is another of the performers. He's a former Dene chief and residential school student who has written two songs for the performance.

One of Andrew's songs, "I Want To Go Home," isdedicated to all the children who never made it home from residential school.

"My grandmother said that two of her daughters were taken to residential schools and they never came home, she never knew what happened to them," he said."The other song that I also have is 'Spirit of the Dene,'I call it.

"Despite what has happened in 600 years, we're still doing okay. So we've got to celebrate that."

Non-Indigenous musicians, southern performers to take part

Despite the project's focus on Indigenous issues and performers, Gilday said it was important for her to include non-Indigenous musicians, including Edmonton's Robert Walsh.A 25-member choir, AuroraChorealis, will alsojoin the stage for part of the performance.

"It's very important when you talk about reconciliation and healing to involve non-Indigenous people," said Gilday "You can't have reconciliation when there's only one party at the table."

Music won't be the only thing featured in the Go-Bah Project three Dene artists have painted a large mural that will be unveiled and 14 youth from around Yellowknife will be live painting during the show, creatingtheir impression of reconciliation andtheir reaction to the music.

Gilday said that her vision of her project also includes spectators.

"I hope they feel a little bit more enlightened, a little bit more educated about various reactions and feelings towards colonization and residential school," she said."I hope they feel very proud of being Northerners... and that they're able to celebrate with us."

TheGoh-BahProject will take the stage at noon in Yellowknife's Somba K'e Civic Plaza, which will host Aboriginal Day celebrations throughout the day.