Fiddle students pose with their instructors, Twin Fiddles duo musicians JJ Guy (back centre) and Gordon Stobbe (right) during The Hills Are Alive Music and Dance Cultural Fest at Eagles Nest Ranch.--PHOTO BY JOLYNN PARENTEAU
“Right over left, with the doorway facing East to the rising sun.”
Teams from Canadian Forces Base Suffield, British Army Training Unit Suffield, and Miywasin Friendship Centre staff labour carefully under the watchful instruction of Miywasin’s executive director Jeannette Hansen to lift pine poles, strong and straight, skyward to form Turtle Island’s (Native North America’s) iconic Cree tipi.
Tipi poles represent all the nations of peoples living upon O’gushnan (Ojibwe), Mother Earth. To enter a tipi is to acknowledge the past, the place where we stand upon the earth, and look to the future generations.
Campers of all ages and backgrounds made the pilgrimage through the southern Cypress Hills to Eagles Nest Ranch June 9-12 to do just that. Set before the venue’s rustic frontier backdrop, tipis painted with horse, elk, buffalo, eagle, fiddle, or Red River cart became classrooms for music lessons at The Hills Are Alive Music and Dance Cultural Fest, celebrating Métis heritage for culture enthusiasts young and old.
Musical talent arrived from all directions to offer instruction on various instruments. With many accolades, championships and records among them, students learned the fiddle from notable names such as Daniel Gervais, Twin Fiddles duo JJ Guy and Gordon Stobbe, Alex Kusturok, Patti Kusturok, Brianna Lizotte and Donna Hiller-Turk. Gervais also led campers in wooden spoons lessons and jiggerdoll songs to their great delight.
Banjo student Jason Fenske returned to The Hills Are Alive for his second festival; having waited patiently since 2019 while the festival was on COVID hiatus. Fenske has been a student of Thursday Nite Bluegrass alum Kelly McLaughlin’s banjo instruction since he responded to McLaughlin’s Kijiji ad back in 2014. Camp participant Don Cook travelled from Saskatoon to take banjo lessons from McLaughlin, and the trio could be heard strumming songs on the sunlit porch and around the hearth all throughout the festival.
Guitar lessons from Miywasin Friendship Centre board president Wally Garrioch rounded out the musical instruction. Accompanied by Cathy Sproule on keyboard, musicians assembled outdoors, around the fire and onstage throughout the weekend to play old classics for dancing like the “Log Driver’s Waltz,” haunting historical melodies like Louis Riel’s “Sur le champ de bataille/On the battlefield,” and new favourites such as Twin Fiddles’ tune “Ditch Flowers,” “a song about celebrating the little things in life,” said performer JJ Guy.
The four-day cultural fest celebrates the everyday traditions of the Métis people that make our heritage so unique. Campers cooked la galette, bannock, over the open fire, learned to bead and sew moccasins, and trace their family trees with historian Darcy McRae. Elders Doreen Bergum and Raye St. Denys gave sewing lessons for capotes and moss bags, respectively; capotes are coats traditionally made from heavy wool blankets, most iconically the Hudson’s Bay striped blanket dating back to 1779; moss bags are infant carriers, so-called because mothers stuffed the bottoms with moss to absorb babies’ messes.
Camp participants made hand drums from raw materials with instruction and teachings from Miywasin’s Ken Turner.
“I’m learning as I go,” said camper Joe Cadotte. “This is my first horse hide drum.”
Elder Marie Schoenthal, 85, shared her story of growing up on her family’s road allowance land, speaking only Michif at home, the language of the Métis people. Mother-tongue Michif speakers like Kookum Marie are integral to Michif language revitalization efforts, such as the Miiywaashin Michif Language and Culture Camp, open to all and returning Oct. 20-23 at Eagles Nest Ranch.
Our Métis songs and stories, crafts and cooking, fiddles and fellowship, all weave together to become our history and heritage. Reflecting on the camp’s days and nights spent in nature and among new friends, banjo player Don Cook insists, “It’s a story worth telling.”
The Hills Are Alive looks forward to welcoming all interested when the festival returns June 8-11, 2023. Registration details are available through Miywasin Friendship Centre.
JoLynn Parenteau is a Métis writer out of Miywasin Friendship Centre. Column feedback can be sent to jolynn.parenteau@gmail.com
