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Snewíyalh tl’a Staḵw (Teachings of the Water)

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In certain First Nations communities, women serve as water protectors. In the choral music composition Snewíyalh tl’a Staḵw; local knowledge keepers share water teachings related to the natural world, birth, ceremony, song, and identity. Métis composer T. Patrick Carrabré discusses the score in such a way that its text and rhythms can be adapted depending on where the work might take place in other parts of Canada, to reflect local traditions and practices.

Image courtesy of interviewee. April 2, 2024

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This video video discusses a collaborative project initiated by ethnomusicologist Jeanette Ga Launch, who sought to connect contemporary music with the traditional Cree water teachings of First Nations in Canada. The Electra Women's Choir in Vancouver, led by conductor RNA Edmondson, was involved in this initiative. The speaker, who identifies as Métis and has ties to the University of British Columbia, became part of the project to facilitate connections with local Indigenous communities and their unique water teachings.

The project aims to create a musical piece titled "Teachings of the Water," which includes five movements. Each movement reflects different aspects of water and its significance within Indigenous cultures. The speaker emphasizes the importance of respecting and adapting to the local context, underscoring the diverse traditions among the many First Nations in Canada. They also highlight the changing dynamics of music composition, moving toward a more communal and adaptable approach that reflects Indigenous practices.

Throughout the piece, there is a focus on interconnectedness, cultural identity, and the relationship between people and the land. The speaker shares personal experiences of learning and reconnection within their Métis culture, advocating for meaningful connections with Indigenous traditions and emphasizing the importance of collaborative and respectful practices in music and beyond. The narrative encourages an understanding of the complexities of cultural identity and the significance of place, community, and environmental stewardship.

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Here are some key quotes from the video you :

1. **Connection to Land and People:**
- "It's important to recognize where you are, who the people are, who are the caretakers of that land, and how important our relationship with them and with the land is, and with each other."

2. **Role of Music in Community:**
- "In many indigenous communities, music is a much more communal affair, and people will participate as they will."

3. **Understanding Indigenous Traditions:**
- “We like to one things, we like to categorize things, you are indigenous, and indigenous means this homogeneous thing, whatever that is. Whereas we have hundreds of First Nations with their own unique languages, their own protocols.”

4. **The Nature of Water:**
- "Water can be hard as ice, it can be soft, it can change shape, it can go fast. It can be slow, it can be very serene."

5. **Cleansing Rituals:**
- "There are quite a few water rituals or ceremonies where cedar bows are used to cleanse... to try and usher in the good things."

6. **Identity and Community:**
- "The main word in this movement is called, is Me, which means ripple. And the idea is that we're all a ripple in the water, our family, our place, our village."

7. **Decolonization and Fluidity:**
- "For me, a lot of the fluidity is about decolonizing myself... I’m now more conscious of my positionality and helping others to understand that it’s a lot more complicated than we want it to be."

8. **Invitation for Adaptation:**
- "Wherever it is performed, there's an invitation for the choir to make the same connection to the traditional caretakers of that land."

9. **Cultural Teachings:**
- "The teachings of the water is a very common phrase out here because there are a lot of teachings of the water that people learn in community."

10. **Importance of Human Connection:**
- "The more opportunities we have to think about how we impact each other... can be really significant in how we position ourselves in where we live in, and the people that we're around."

These quotes encapsulate themes of connection to land and people, the role of music in community, understanding indigenous traditions, the nature of water, identity, and the importance of adaptation and human connection.

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The original idea came from an ethnomusicologist

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by the name of Jeanette Ga Launch.

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She's an independent scholar,

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and she had brought the idea to the Electra Women's Choir

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and RNA Edmondson,

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who's their choir director, their conductor.

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And, she had come up with this idea based on some

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research that she had seen around,

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Cree water teachings.

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So the First Nations in the middle part of Canada.

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And so she thought, well, we're in Vancouver.

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And she thought, well, let's figure out how

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to make this something relevant to the particular area,

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the land that the, the Electra Women's Choir is on.

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So they started trying to do a little work,

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and, they weren't making much progress, partly

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because the protocols of connecting

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with indigenous communities are,

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are quite variable across the, the land,

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turtle Island here.

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And so eventually they, Morna knew me.

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Um, I'm, I'm at the University of British Columbia,

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and our paths had crossed,

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and so she asked me if I would get involved.

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Now, I am, Metis,

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so I'm a, a ma, a citizen of the Red River Metis Nation.

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I've only been on the West Coast for five years.

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So I'm in Coast Salish territory. I'm a guest here.

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And, part, part of the thing is to, again, try

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and connect to the local traditions,

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because here on the West Coast there,

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water is very different than it is in my home territory in

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Red River in Manitoba.

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And so trying to figure out, you know,

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what role I could play was the challenge.

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So normally in Western classical music,

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I would've found a text or been connected with a poet,

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and then I would write the music in relation

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to the situation here.

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This was a lot more complicated than that.

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So, when I finally agreed to be part of it, I said,

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well, look, my role will be to write the pitches.

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I'm gonna write the musical structure on which the text will

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fit Your job as a group is to connect

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to the caretakers of the land here.

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And in Vancouver, we generally recognize three different

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First Nations, the qui, where the University

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of British Columbia is, the Squamish and the SWA tooth.

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So in Vancouver, our land acknowledgements usually involved

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all three at the University of British Columbia,

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we recognize Klossy first because we're right on their land.

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That First Nation is right, right there at the university.

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So, fortunately the Electra

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of women's choir already had a connection, who,

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a woman named Elder Ko, Mary Jane Joe

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and her daughter, Naja Joe.

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And, who's a water scientist.

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So, you know, the two

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of them are water carriers from their community,

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the Squamish community.

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And so they put the choir in touch with Rebecca Campbell,

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who was a language carrier.

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Um, and, you know, most

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of the First Nations in this territory, there are very few

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fluent speakers of their dialect, of the

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Sa Salish languages.

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And, and so we were lucky to be connected with, Rebecca.

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And part of that idea, for me as a Metis person,

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our, our role has often been to bring together

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people from western society

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and indigenous people to work together on and,

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and to kind of translate between the traditions of these,

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different kinds of people.

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So I was really happy to take on that role.

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And, and then as part of my work,

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I actually took it a little further than that

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because this particular piece, the Wild,

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the Teachings of the Water is one iteration of this piece.

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So it's a very specific iteration that relates to the water

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protocols and teachings of the water of the Squamish people.

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Um, I have given, given the, okay, the,

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the whole context of the piece for me is that

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wherever it is performed, there's an invitation

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for the choir to make the same connection

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to the traditional caretakers of that land,

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learn about their water protocols, change the

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language on my music, which means

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that they can adapt the music a little bit

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to the language itself.

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And so, I just came back last weekend.

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I was in Toronto for a performance.

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The University of Toronto Women's Choir did it.

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And, they chose to keep two of the movements in Hamish.

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And then the other three movements were changed some

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into Intu.

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'cause they had a guest singer from, from, Inuit

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and then, two others from the local First

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Nations in that territory.

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So it's a really, interesting project

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that has the ability to change and adapt

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and help people to connect better

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to the land where they are.

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One of the things about where I am in my life now, so I'm

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a 60 scoop survivor, so I was taken from my family,

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I was adopted out.

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And only in about the last decade

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or so have I been able to reconnect to my,

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my big Metis family and, learn

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and be more in my community.

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Um, so for me, a lot of the fluidity is about

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decolonizing myself.

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You know, I grew up passing white as many Metis do.

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Um, I have a PhD from a big university in

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Western art, music.

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Um, but I'm now more,

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conscious I guess of, of my positionality

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and helping others to understand

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that it's a lot more complicated than we want it to be,

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particularly in Western society.

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We like to, we like to one things, we like

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to categorize things, you are indigenous,

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and indigenous means this

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homogeneous thing, whatever that is.

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Whereas we have hundreds of First Nations

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with their own unique languages, their own protocols.

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I was at a, a gathering not long ago,

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and they were giving out tobacco ties, you know,

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which is very common on the, on the prairies

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because the research group, they were all from the prairies,

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and the folks from out here were going, well,

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this is not my tradition or my culture,

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but I thank you for the gift anyway, you know,

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so it's even within our own communities helping people

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to understand the variability and the adaptability.

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And in for, for my, my money as they say.

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I think the more we understand that

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we are all quite unique and different,

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but we have more commonalities than we might think.

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And, and I think that's the one,

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a piece like this can give an audience

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and acquire an opportunity to really dig into

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who they are and where they are.

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And think about that in a very good way.

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Um, and again, my pronunciation is,

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is not really good either, is teachings of the water.

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And it's, it's a very, common phrase out here

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because there are a lot of teachings of the water that,

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that people learn in community.

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Um, so this broke down into five different movements,

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which have some, different aspects of how water

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and teachings around water can be useful to us.

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So the first movement, goes by the title in this case

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of Kexin Chen, which is essentially,

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it means all of us are in the same basket.

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And making baskets of cedar is, is a really important thing

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as part of the culture here.

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And the water is important in that, in that they have

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to soften the cedar bark in the water

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before they then make it into a basket.

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But the idea is you, you make a basket,

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and we're all in the same basket, this world of ours.

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And the, the actual word within the song is Es,

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which means how everything is connected.

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So it's a reminder that we're all related,

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and particularly out here, the water is alive,

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the rocks are alive.

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You know, the, the, the idea of sentience is quite

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a bit broader in, in this Salish traditions.

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So the first movement's all about setting the context

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of the natural world and how we're connected to it.

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The second movement is, called,

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and that's

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About how, when you were born.

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And so it's, you know, in this case, water is, you know,

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something that, you know, women are, are recognized

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as water carriers were born in the amniotic fluid in the

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water, in the womb.

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And so the whole connection there about, you know, this time

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that you were born and came into the world with the,

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from the water that you were born in.

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The third movement is, the title is,

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which is, about spiritual cleansing.

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And so there are quite a few water rituals

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or ceremonies where cedar bows are used to cleanse.

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So, people go down to the water,

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they get into the water,

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and they use the cedar bows to cleanse themselves

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of all the, the bad things, and to try

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and usher in the good things.

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Um, and there's a second. So qua is one of the main words.

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The other one is Ian, which is actually that process of

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brushing with the cedar bows.

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The fourth movement is, the title is Slolum.

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And there are two words in, in this song.

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Slolum just basically is a generic word for song.

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Um, Lola means the actual act of singing.

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And Slolum chip is our song.

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So it brings it together to be our, we're singing

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and then it becomes our song.

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Now, this was a particularly challenging thing

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because I wrote a lot of the music without the words my,

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i my concept because I wanted it to be adaptable to a lot

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of different languages.

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I, I tried to be somewhat neutral around

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how the words would fit.

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And then we worked with Rebecca to put the words on.

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And in this particular song, I made a, a,

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a typical, Western trained composer mistake, in

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that I thought that you could extend the last syllable

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of slo s**t, because in, in normal writing,

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you just go chi, you know?

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But, she said, you can't do that.

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It's chip, and it's gotta be real short.

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So we had to readjust the text on the music

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and use it slightly differently so

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that we could get the proper pronunciation.

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But that's exactly what I was hoping to happen,

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that we would all learn as we worked with the language

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and adapted it to the music.

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Uh, the last movement is uses the title,

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which means identity.

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And this is basically part of the ceremony.

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When you come to a place

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and meet a new person, you explain where you're from

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and who you're from, so your village

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and your family, so that the elders will know who you are

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and how you fit into the world.

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Um, and so the, the main word in,

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in this movement is called, is Me, which means ripple.

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And the idea is that we're all a ripple in the water,

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our family, our place, our village.

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And so it wraps the whole thing up to give really

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interesting and beautiful images of the natural world,

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how water teaches us things

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and how we fit into our communities

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and the people, that we love and,

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and live with, I guess, you know,

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because I am, grounded, you know,

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more than anything musically in the Western tradition,

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I constructed the five movements in such a way that they,

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they do have a, a, a formal structure.

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There's kind of fast

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and slow, some high, some low, some more unison,

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some more rhythmic to give kind

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of variation in balance throughout.

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But I, you know, I, I, I'm, I'm now

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for some reason being very drawn

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to water in my musical works.

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I've, I've just finished writing another piece based on

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water for a brass quintet.

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Um, and it's that infinite flexibility of water.

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Water can be hard as ice, it can be soft,

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it can change shape, it can go fast.

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It can be slow, it can be very serene.

13:15.045 --> 13:18.145
So I wanted to show these various states

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of water within five movements.

13:20.745 --> 13:22.185
I, I mean, it could have been more movements,

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it could have been less movements.

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And I, I'm trying to be less controlling

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as a composer of the final result of the music.

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This is something I'm learning as part of my decolonization,

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because music in many indigenous communities is a much more

13:39.785 --> 13:44.025
communal affair, and people will participate as they will.

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You know, I've, I've worked with a, a, a, a number

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of different in other indigenous artists,

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and you know, sometimes it's a good day

13:52.725 --> 13:54.345
to sing longer on this,

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and if you're with a symphony orchestra,

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they're just gonna have to deal with that.

13:58.645 --> 14:01.465
Not so easy. But, you know, I've learned that usually

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the result is beautiful, however it works,

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because it was a good day to do that.

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The place that you're on is important, that it's, you know,

14:10.855 --> 14:11.875
and, and this is one

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of the things about Western societies we tend to wanna make,

14:15.805 --> 14:18.315
where we are, look like where we're from,

14:18.775 --> 14:20.835
if we're from somewhere else, you know?

14:20.975 --> 14:25.075
So, e essentially North America was terraformed

14:25.335 --> 14:30.315
to be Europe, you know, invasive species of all kinds,

14:30.635 --> 14:33.195
changing the landscape, changing the animals and,

14:33.255 --> 14:34.395
and how things are done.

14:34.695 --> 14:37.515
So I, I really want people to think about this idea

14:37.825 --> 14:41.115
that it's important to recognize where you are,

14:42.055 --> 14:45.275
who the people are, who are the, the caretakers of

14:45.275 --> 14:48.875
that land, and how important our relationship with them

14:49.615 --> 14:50.875
and with the

14:50.875 --> 14:52.405
Land is, and with each other.

14:52.405 --> 14:55.285
Because again, we're all in one basket, you know?

14:55.305 --> 14:58.805
So the more opportunities we have to think about

14:59.065 --> 15:00.725
how we impact each other.

15:01.465 --> 15:04.165
And I think also the idea

15:04.305 --> 15:06.525
of making a meaningful connection.

15:06.925 --> 15:08.885
I mean, one of the things about Western music is

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that you tend to, you, you hear about a piece of music,

15:13.305 --> 15:16.805
you buy the piece of music, you sing the piece of music,

15:17.425 --> 15:19.125
you don't have a connection to the people

15:19.185 --> 15:22.285
who wrote the music or what the music is about.

15:22.435 --> 15:25.605
This is an opportunity to take, you know,

15:25.605 --> 15:28.845
the contribution I've made of some notes that, that help

15:28.865 --> 15:29.925
to give you a structure

15:30.785 --> 15:34.605
and make some new friends learn that the people are here,

15:34.985 --> 15:38.805
and that they actually still are caring for the land,

15:39.345 --> 15:41.805
and hoping that we can all share

15:41.825 --> 15:46.545
and create a world that's better, more thoughtful,

15:46.895 --> 15:49.425
more caring, than it has been.

15:49.685 --> 15:51.905
So, I, I, again, you know, I think it's the,

15:51.965 --> 15:55.985
the human connection and the idea that we come to a place

15:56.045 --> 15:57.745
and sing and hear singing

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and share, I think, can be really significant in, in

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how we position ourselves in where we live in,

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and the people that we're around.

Connecting Music with Indigenous Water Teachings

00:00:00 - The original idea came from an ethnomusicologist by the name of Jeanette Ga Launch. She's an independent scholar, and she had brought the idea to the Electra Women's Choir and RNA Edmondson, who's their choir director, their conductor. And, she had come up with this idea based on some research that she had seen around, Cree water teachings. So the First Nations in the middle part of Canada. And so she thought, well, we're in Vancouver.
00:00:34 - to make this something relevant to the particular area, the land that the, the Electra Women's Choir is on. So they started trying to do a little work, and, they weren't making much progress, partly because the protocols of connecting with indigenous communities are, are quite variable across the, the land, turtle Island here. And so eventually they, Morna knew me. I'm, I'm at the University of British Columbia,
00:01:03 - and so she asked me if I would get involved. Now, I am, Metis, so I'm a, a ma, a citizen of the Red River Metis Nation. I've only been on the West Coast for five years. So I'm in Coast Salish territory. I'm a guest here. And, part, part of the thing is to, again, try and connect to the local traditions, because here on the West Coast there, water is very different than it is in my home territory in
00:01:37 - And so trying to figure out, you know, what role I could play was the challenge. So normally in Western classical music, I would've found a text or been connected with a poet, and then I would write the music in relation to the situation here. This was a lot more complicated than that. So, when I finally agreed to be part of it, I said, well, look, my role will be to write the pitches. I'm gonna write the musical structure on which the text will
00:02:09 - to the caretakers of the land here. And in Vancouver, we generally recognize three different First Nations, the qui, where the University of British Columbia is, the Squamish and the SWA tooth. So in Vancouver, our land acknowledgements usually involved all three at the University of British Columbia, we recognize Klossy first because we're right on their land. That First Nation is right, right there at the university.
00:02:41 - of women's choir already had a connection, who, a woman named Elder Ko, Mary Jane Joe and her daughter, Naja Joe. And, who's a water scientist. So, you know, the two of them are water carriers from their community, the Squamish community. And so they put the choir in touch with Rebecca Campbell, who was a language carrier. and, you know, most

Bridging Cultures Through Music and Language

00:03:12 - fluent speakers of their dialect, of the Sa Salish languages. And, and so we were lucky to be connected with, Rebecca. And part of that idea, for me as a Metis person, our, our role has often been to bring together people from western society and indigenous people to work together on and, and to kind of translate between the traditions of these,
00:03:42 - So I was really happy to take on that role. And, and then as part of my work, I actually took it a little further than that because this particular piece, the Wild, the Teachings of the Water is one iteration of this piece. So it's a very specific iteration that relates to the water protocols and teachings of the water of the Squamish people. I have given, given the, okay, the,
00:04:17 - wherever it is performed, there's an invitation for the choir to make the same connection to the traditional caretakers of that land, learn about their water protocols, change the language on my music, which means that they can adapt the music a little bit to the language itself. And so, I just came back last weekend. I was in Toronto for a performance. The University of Toronto Women's Choir did it. And, they chose to keep two of the movements in Hamish.
00:04:51 - into Intu. 'cause they had a guest singer from, from, Inuit and then, two others from the local First Nations in that territory. So it's a really, interesting project that has the ability to change and adapt and help people to connect better to the land where they are. One of the things about where I am in my life now, so I'm a 60 scoop survivor, so I was taken from my family,
00:05:21 - And only in about the last decade or so have I been able to reconnect to my, my big Metis family and, learn and be more in my community. so for me, a lot of the fluidity is about decolonizing myself. You know, I grew up passing white as many Metis do. I have a PhD from a big university in Western art, music. but I'm now more,
00:05:54 - and helping others to understand that it's a lot more complicated than we want it to be, particularly in Western society. We like to, we like to one things, we like to categorize things, you are indigenous, and indigenous means this homogeneous thing, whatever that is. Whereas we have hundreds of First Nations with their own unique languages, their own protocols. I was at a, a gathering not long ago,

Exploring Cultural Connections through Water Teachings

00:06:24 - which is very common on the, on the prairies because the research group, they were all from the prairies, and the folks from out here were going, well, this is not my tradition or my culture, but I thank you for the gift anyway, you know, so it's even within our own communities helping people to understand the variability and the adaptability. And in for, for my, my money as they say. I think the more we understand that
00:06:55 - but we have more commonalities than we might think. And, and I think that's the one, a piece like this can give an audience and acquire an opportunity to really dig into who they are and where they are. And think about that in a very good way. and again, my pronunciation is, is not really good either, is teachings of the water. And it's, it's a very, common phrase out here
00:07:27 - that people learn in community. so this broke down into five different movements, which have some, different aspects of how water and teachings around water can be useful to us. So the first movement, goes by the title in this case of Kexin Chen, which is essentially, it means all of us are in the same basket.
00:08:00 - as part of the culture here. And the water is important in that, in that they have to soften the cedar bark in the water before they then make it into a basket. But the idea is you, you make a basket, and we're all in the same basket, this world of ours. And the, the actual word within the song is Es, which means how everything is connected. So it's a reminder that we're all related,
00:08:32 - the rocks are alive. You know, the, the, the idea of sentience is quite a bit broader in, in this Salish traditions. So the first movement's all about setting the context of the natural world and how we're connected to it. The second movement is, called, and that's About how, when you were born.
00:09:03 - something that, you know, women are, are recognized as water carriers were born in the amniotic fluid in the water, in the womb. And so the whole connection there about, you know, this time that you were born and came into the world with the, from the water that you were born in. The third movement is, the title is, which is, about spiritual cleansing.

Water Ceremonies and Musical Connections

00:09:32 - or ceremonies where cedar bows are used to cleanse. So, people go down to the water, they get into the water, and they use the cedar bows to cleanse themselves of all the, the bad things, and to try and usher in the good things. and there's a second. So qua is one of the main words. The other one is Ian, which is actually that process of
00:10:01 - The fourth movement is, the title is Slolum. And there are two words in, in this song. Slolum just basically is a generic word for song. Lola means the actual act of singing. And Slolum chip is our song. So it brings it together to be our, we're singing and then it becomes our song. Now, this was a particularly challenging thing because I wrote a lot of the music without the words my,
00:10:36 - of different languages. I, I tried to be somewhat neutral around how the words would fit. And then we worked with Rebecca to put the words on. And in this particular song, I made a, a, a typical, Western trained composer mistake, in that I thought that you could extend the last syllable of slo s**t, because in, in normal writing, you just go chi, you know?
00:11:06 - It's chip, and it's gotta be real short. So we had to readjust the text on the music and use it slightly differently so that we could get the proper pronunciation. But that's exactly what I was hoping to happen, that we would all learn as we worked with the language and adapted it to the music. the last movement is uses the title, which means identity. And this is basically part of the ceremony.
00:11:37 - and meet a new person, you explain where you're from and who you're from, so your village and your family, so that the elders will know who you are and how you fit into the world. and so the, the main word in, in this movement is called, is Me, which means ripple. And the idea is that we're all a ripple in the water, our family, our place, our village. And so it wraps the whole thing up to give really
00:12:12 - how water teaches us things and how we fit into our communities and the people, that we love and, and live with, I guess, you know, because I am, grounded, you know, more than anything musically in the Western tradition, I constructed the five movements in such a way that they, they do have a, a, a formal structure. There's kind of fast

Embracing Water: Music, Community, and Connection

00:12:43 - some more rhythmic to give kind of variation in balance throughout. But I, you know, I, I, I'm, I'm now for some reason being very drawn to water in my musical works. I've, I've just finished writing another piece based on water for a brass quintet. and it's that infinite flexibility of water. Water can be hard as ice, it can be soft,
00:13:12 - It can be slow, it can be very serene. So I wanted to show these various states of water within five movements. I, I mean, it could have been more movements, it could have been less movements. And I, I'm trying to be less controlling as a composer of the final result of the music. This is something I'm learning as part of my decolonization, because music in many indigenous communities is a much more communal affair, and people will participate as they will.
00:13:47 - of different in other indigenous artists, and you know, sometimes it's a good day to sing longer on this, and if you're with a symphony orchestra, they're just gonna have to deal with that. Not so easy. But, you know, I've learned that usually the result is beautiful, however it works, because it was a good day to do that. The place that you're on is important, that it's, you know, and, and this is one of the things about Western societies we tend to wanna make,
00:14:18 - if we're from somewhere else, you know? So, e essentially North America was terraformed to be Europe, you know, invasive species of all kinds, changing the landscape, changing the animals and, and how things are done. So I, I really want people to think about this idea that it's important to recognize where you are, who the people are, who are the, the caretakers of that land, and how important our relationship with them
00:14:50 - Land is, and with each other. Because again, we're all in one basket, you know? So the more opportunities we have to think about how we impact each other. And I think also the idea of making a meaningful connection. I mean, one of the things about Western music is that you tend to, you, you hear about a piece of music, you buy the piece of music, you sing the piece of music, you don't have a connection to the people who wrote the music or what the music is about.
00:15:25 - the contribution I've made of some notes that, that help to give you a structure and make some new friends learn that the people are here, and that they actually still are caring for the land, and hoping that we can all share and create a world that's better, more thoughtful, more caring, than it has been. So, I, I, again, you know, I think it's the, the human connection and the idea that we come to a place