Music in Chisasibi

(Mois dans le bois. Un petit lac à côté du camp de Sylvain)





Salut tout le monde. The remainder of our time here is quickly diminishing and there is alot to be done. As for things that happened, well here goes. This past week we went to see a little music happening at the Michuap (the big town center structure). It turned out to be a Cree Arts and Culture week but we only cought the tail end of it. There were a couple solo performers and then other people got up to play with the house band. One of these people was the famous (at least here) Roger House. Bob Robb has told me about

him and they played alot of music together back when Bob was on Fort George. The whole event was alot of fun and as I predicted, thepeople here know music. There's alot of country music kicking around. It may be the only place were I'll see a young man with baggy iner-city gangster clothes and a hat cocked to the side clapping and whistling when someone starts to play old-time country and gospel.

(The LG2 Resevoir on the left,

spruce woods on the lower ground on the right)

The one artist that really struck me was a young fiddler. Fiddling is a big part of James Bay culture, ever since encounters with Scottish sailors back in the late eighteen hundreds. At work, the elders often watch video documentation of a dance competition in Wamindji back in the 90's. Needless to say the fiddling is rather redundant but it's got quite a charm. The dancing is also interesting to watch. It's sort-of a fast country/square dancing deal. The big competitions don't happen as much I don't think but the fiddles and dancing come out at weddings and big celebrations. There was a famous fiddler from Fort George by the name of Ray Spencer. His two borthers attend the center were I'm placed for work. Ray Spencer is something of a local hero here. It sort-of conected the dots for me when I saw this young man with a tuque, hoody, and baggy pants get up there and bust a mean old fiddle just like those who came before him. Music is in their blood here.

I have been playing quite a bit of guitar lately but now it seems rediculous why I havn't played with people. I've decided in the last few weeks that I'm here that I must get out there with my guitar. To begin with I've started making little shakers and a rainstick with recycled material with the participants at the MSDC. They seem to be enjoying them and next week I'll bring my guitar and try to make some music.

The music teacher at the school here, Gerald Cote, is an extremely interesting musician and anthropologist. He is putting in an effort to help kids at the school with music, but it's not cut-and-dry. He is helping them play the music they want to play, from Metallica to hip-hop. He is helping a group of kids record some Cree rap that they have come up with. I think Cree is quite a good language for rap. I'll try to get an mp3 file or something to post here if I can.

(Inside the Mitigan on the first night)

My French teacher, Fodé, is very big on West African Music and has lent me a few CD's to borrow. Now that I'm up in the great white north, I'm already dreaming of Mali. Charles, the

dreadlocked metal-head from Québec is beginning to educate me on the scenes of music I never got into. He is in a band himself and always goes to shows and knows alot of local and alternative metal bands in Québec. There really is no limit.

(The typical James Bay canoes waiting for spring at a launch along the Grande River. Just after I took this picture a red-tailed fox whose tracks I had been following came out to look at me, couldn't get a good picture sorry.)

Anyhow, there is much to say but not much time so I will say farewell for now and enjoy the winter months. I hear alot of you seem to be having more winter than us. Hopefully more snow will come soon.

Chisasibi in November

Wadjiya and Salut everyone. I`ve given in and started a blog because it seems easier to communicate with everyone without e-mailing all the time.
Well we just got back from 9 days in the bush south of Radisson. We spent our time with a burly Québecois named Sylvain and his five native employees. He is trying to start a small tourism operation on the camp which is on the Cox family trapline. His plan is basically to have a facility in which people can come and stay in traditional lodging and participate in Cree culture

activities and learning. The camp consists of some small run-down buildings which were former Hydro Québec lodgings.
Not far from these buildings are two Mitigans which are in the process of being finnished. A Mitigan is a traditional Cree winter camp lodging. There are two types which are being built. One is like a small log cabin with canvas and tarps for a roof. The logs on this are cocked with moss on the outside and felt and canvas on the inside. The other is a similar low-lying shape but built of a vertical split log frame covered with moss both on the sides and roof. Each has a stove (half a 40 gallon oil drum and a stovepipe) and will be covered with spruce boughs. We stayed in the first Mitigan for four nights. That's four nights of waking up cold and having to start the fire again which was hard because all the wood was wet.
I spent alot of time just walking in the bush following wolf tracks and watching the magpies. I walked alot at night because the moon was full and with the fresh snow and humidity it was like an erie daylight that was extremely beatiful. There was a pack of wolves nearby. I found were all the tracks converged and then a space were alot of wolves were tramping around and pissing. Almost every night we would hear the wolves howling. Along with the howling was the barking of an old husky names Grisoo. This particular dog has had some bad experiences with wolves and so it hates and fears them greatly.
During the day we worked with the five native employees. Chris is the oldest and most knowledgable. He is the son of Samuel, the Talleyman for the Cox land. Charleton and George are both Cree and about my age. Davy D is an Inuit boy but he speeks Cree and English and understands some French. Tracy is a woman from Churchill Manitoba area but she has been living here for about 15 years. All of them live in nearby camps. We visited Charleton's mother's camp after checking the traps and snares with her.

(this is a picture of Charles Garret and I watching the fire after our hardy meal of rabbit, goose, moose, partridge, and bannick a few weeks ago)

To check the snares we drove around in a slick new suburban. There were two rifles on Annie's knee and two more beside me, a forgotten squirel under the seat and stories in the air. We drove past the LG2 resevoir and Annie told us about La Grande being frozen in September but it is now November and the first wet snowfall is slushing down over the misty water. "We all feel the changing climate," she said, "It's just so different now."
After collecting a snared rabbit and a partridge shot with a .22 out the window of the suburban we headed back to Annie's camp for some tea and bannick. The rafters of her small one-room shack were hanging with stretched skins (fox, wolf, martin, beaver, etc.). The Cree that live in the bush are proud and happy to, and it seems as though those who live in town have an ongoing lust to get outside and hunt. Western culture and gangster rap may have oozed its way in here but it doesn't drown out some traditional mentalities.
Well now I realize there is alot to say but not a whole lot of time. I'll say that this week changed my perspective of the area and people quite a bit and I learned alot. Part of the change was due to many talks with Sylvain about Radisson and Hydro Quebec as well as listening to Gilbert speak about his fight to win as an independant in the upcoming Quebec elections. I wish him the best of luck, and it would be nice to see the native population take an interest and vote so a representative for most of Quebec will not be elected by a mere 40% of the population.
Anyhow, I will say goodby and good luck to you all. My condolances to all who have lost their friend, John Kimpel, this past week. He will always keep my memories of Paisley that much more pleasant and colourful.

(sunset near Chisasibi- sorry no photos yet of our time in the bush camp, they`re coming soon)