Folk Prints Spring 2016

FOLK PRINTS SPRING 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS Funders, Sponsors and Partners............................................................................................................ 4 The President’s Message........................................................................................................................ 5 The Executive Director’s Message......................................................................................................... 6 Can Musicians Change the World?........................................................................................................ 9 New Members........................................................................................................................................ 11 FMO Member Festivals........................................................................................................................ 14 Savanna Campfire............................................................................................................................... 16

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2015/16 Executive Committee President Rachel Barreca .............. moxy.woman.creations@gmail.com Vice President Nicole Colbeck ........................ nicole.littleacorn@gmail.com Treasurer Jan Cody................. janicecody@rogers.com Secretary Amie Therrien... amie@balsampiermusic.com Member-at-Large Andy Frank.............. andyfrank55@gmail.com Directors James Keelaghan.................jkinfo@mac.com Jani Lauzon................. lauzon75@gmail.com Brad McEwen............. mill_race@yahoo.com Max Merrifield........... nlfbdirector@gmail.com Katharine Partridge .................. katharine.a.partridge@gmail.com Preetam Sengupta .............................preetam@lamavision.com Alex Sinclair................. pmsinc@interlog.com Jerry Switzer.... jswitzer@feehelygastaldi.com Past Presidents Alex Sinclair Scott Merrifield Paul Mills Aengus Finnan Sam Baijal Doug McArthur

Warren Robinson Carolyn Bigley Bill Marshall Magoo Jim McMillan

Past Estelle Klein Award Recipients Sadie Buck Harvey Glatt Mike Stevens Arthur McGregor Paul Mills Grit Laskin Sharon, Lois & Bram Bernie Finkelstein Stan Rogers Richard Flohil Ken Whiteley Sylvia Tyson The Friends of Fiddler’s Green Ian Tamblyn Jackie Washington Estelle Klein Past Executive Directors Peter MacDonald Erin Benjamin STAFF Executive Director Alka Sharma...... asharma@folkmusicontario.ca Office Manager Jennifer Ellis.............jellis@folkmusicontario.ca Bookkeeper Lynn Rae Export Development Coordinator Carolyn Sutherland

Phone: 1-866-292-6233 or 613-560-5997 Fax: 613-560-2001 www.folkmusicontario.ca Mailing address: 508-B Gladstone Avenue Ottawa, ON K1R 5P1 Printing and layout by Orion Printing Cover photo by Dave Delouchery 2015 Mill Race Festival of Traditional Folk Music, Cambridge, ON Please visit bit.ly/18LoEZK for ad rates, formats and sizes.

Submissions and pictures welcome! We cannot guarantee inclusion of your submission in Folk Prints (but we’ll try!). Please send submissions in text format only. If you have pictures, call us before sending them.

The views expressed in this magazine are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of Folk Music Ontario. Questions or comments regarding Folk Prints should be brought to the attention of Alka Sharma at asharma@ folkmusicontario.ca. Articles and photos may not be reprinted without the express written permission of the author and/or photographer.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

FUNDERS

SPONSORS

PARTNERS

The president’s message In a couple of weeks, I am going to walk a big chunk of the Camino de Santiago. My mind is on journeys. I dream about walking. My head and heart are, not surprisingly, full of Oliver Schroer’s music. My thoughts turn towards what it means to join a long line of pilgrims, past, present, and future.

When I took over as President of the FMO board from Alex Sinclair back in December, I was also keenly aware of the history and future of this organization. I am grateful to Alex, who served in the role for a few crucial years of financially choppy waters. He continues to provide our organization with a lot of wisdom and stability, not to mention that great sense of humour of his.

Since that changeover, the committees of the board have been very busy. And so it is that I write to you with some updates about the present.

Our staff and board of directors are working hard to serve you, our members.

After the creation of our new vision and mission statements and new five-year Strategic Plan, we are now in the business of implementing those strategies in big ways and small, to support the growth and development of the folk music community and industry.

The Finance and the Revenue Generation committees and FMO Executive Director Alka Sharma continue to have the financial stability and health of FMO top of mind. Alka is seeking out new

funding sources and strengthening our relationships with the organizations that already provide us with grants. We are diligent in our management and oversight of financial documents and processes. Most importantly, we are putting a lot of energy into seeking out innovative new revenue streams, as our future depends on this. Alka, I am sure, will tell you all about one or two of those opportunities coming up very soon.

The Communications committee is working on ways for us to be more transparent and update members about our accomplishments. We know it is important that you understand how our Strategic Plan is implemented and how our work impacts you.

Now that the Strategic Plan is in place, the committee responsible for all of that hard work last year turns its eye towards the creation of a set of value statements for FMO. They are also developing a process for regular audits of the Strategic Plan and a pathway towards the creation of the next plan four years from now.

Springtime isn’t just about the growth of plant and animal life. Oh no! It is also time for renewal and change on our board: it is nomination season!

Our Nominations committee is getting ready for our annual elections by collecting nominations for the five open spaces on the FMO board of directors. If you have ever considered running for the board, please give it more serious consideration

by Rachel Barreca

and take action. We need good people like YOU! (For more information, visit our website.)

As you probably already know, the Ontario government is developing a new provincial culture strategy. The Advocacy committee has created the official response from FMO, and we hope you have all read the proposal and responded as individuals and member organizations.

We are busy little beavers and there isn’t enough space to enumerate everything the team of dedicated and smart people who run your Folk Music Ontario are doing, but I will say this: we are doing it all for you. We work hard to be an inclusive, innovative, responsive, and collaborative organization. Our eyes are on the future where we see a thriving, inclusive folk music community with local and international impact. Won’t you join us on that journey?

Peace, Rachel Barreca

the Executive director’s MESSAGE by Alka Sharma

Happy spring! I certainly hope that everyone is enjoying some warm weather wherever you are in this fine land.

This year Folk Music Ontario will be celebrating our 30th Anniversary. We are very excited to have the conference in Ottawa at the Delta Ottawa City Centre (formerly the Crowne Plaza, which I know many of you were at when the OCFF had its conference there for three years in a row). The hotel has been extensively renovated and we are really excited about how this year’s conference is shaping up. We will be throwing a birthday party on Sunday, October 23 after the conference ends, so please be sure to stick around for the festivities! There will be much fun to be had and we hope that you will enjoy all that we have planned for you.

This past year with the hard work of the Board of Directors, Folk Music Ontario has put out its five-year Strategic Plan. Here is what the Vision, Purpose and the Plan look like:

Vision A thriving, inclusive folk music community with local and international impact Purpose Supporting the growth and development of the folk music community and industry Strategies Embed Inclusivity and Diversity: By everyone in everything, everyday 1. Increase & Diversify Revenue: Strengthen existing and develop new and innovative revenue streams 2. Expand Member Value: Deliver services year-round targeted to evolving member needs 3. Maximize Collaboration: Create collaborative opportunities to achieve our vision 4. Be the Advocate: Raise the profile of FMO and champion folk music Folk Music Ontario is committed to these strategies and will be providing the membership with a checkin to make sure that we are on track with what we have put forward. If you have any questions about any of the above, please feel free to give me a call.

For the third year in a row, Folk Music Ontario held a Festival Members retreat. This year, the retreat was held in Peterborough, Ontario where the Peterborough Folk Festival was instrumental in helping out with the logistics of the weekend. The working group, made up of Brad McEwen, Max Merrifield, Ryan Kemp and Ruth Parsons put together another great weekend of

workshops/panels. We are grateful to the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Arts Presentation Fund for the funding to put this together.

FMO was also busy collaborating with APCM (Association des Professionnels de la Chanson et de la Musique) to provide our membership with a singer/songwriter workshop in Ottawa in November 2015 and in Sudbury in March 2016. We had a total of 16 participants in Ottawa and 11 participants in Sudbury. This helps with the year-round programming that Folk Music Ontario has planned for its future. We are grateful to the Ontario Arts Council for providing funding for this initiative.

I am very excited to let you know that I have been appointed to the Folk Alliance International Board of Directors.

This will provide an opportunity to have a Canadian voice at the table and to help solidify the relationship between FMO and FAI. I look forward to working with Folk Alliance International in strengthening the North American folk community.

Don’t forget to register with the advance purchase rate if you are member and if you are an artist, don’t forget to apply for the FMO’s Official/Family Showcase and the Songs From the Heart contest, sponsored by Stingray Music.

The deadline for all of these is May 31, 2016.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at all the music festivals! Have a great summer.

n e k d l d i o b f r o REGISTRATION OPENS f

JUNE 1, 2016 OFFICIAL SHOWCASE APPLICATIONS OPEN JUNE 15, 2016

FEB. 15-19, 2017 | WWW.FOLK.ORG KANSAS CITY MO USA

HAVE YOU MOVED..? ‌or has your contact information changed?

Please take a moment to send us your new details, by e-mail (jellis@folkmusicontario.ca) or by snail mail to: Folk Music Ontario 508-B Gladstone Avenue, Ottawa, ON K1R 5P1 Be sure to include your name, postal address, phone number, e-mail address and website, as well as any business contact information. Thanks for helping us keep our records straight!

NLFBSUDBURY.COM

7 up ďż˝ the mountain

SGWILLSPHOTOGRAPHY

James Favron ĆŤ

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can musicians change the world?

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

While you’re thinking about how to answer this traditional Zen koan from a musical perspective, here’s another question: What is the sound of more than 1,000 musicians working together for a common cause?

One answer: Musicians United To Protect Bristol Bay, an international non-profit network working to help stop the proposed Pebble Mine and to protect permanently Alaska’s Bristol Bay, a cultural and environmental treasure, and the world’s greatest remaining wild salmon fishery.

Here’s how Musicians United got started. In September 2010, I got an email through my website from Dan Strickland, an occasional folk singer who’s fished commercially in Alaska for over 30 years, including many years in Bristol Bay. Dan told me about the coalition of Alaska Natives and other people who fish commercially and for sport, cannery

and lodge owners, environmentalists and many others working to stop the proposed Pebble Mine and to protect the people, communities, jobs, cultures, languages and wild sockeye salmon of Bristol Bay forever.

“It’s a solid campaign,” Dan wrote, “but we need a theme song. Can you come to Alaska for a couple weeks and write one for us? We can’t pay you, but we can at least get you an air ticket, and we’ll feed you all the smoked salmon you can eat.”

Straight to my Jewish heart.

What else could I do? Two weeks later I was in Alaska, hosted by Dan and by Suzanne Little, not just a former Alaska State Senator representing the Kenai Peninsula, but a fine bluegrass picker and singer.

It was a wonderful trip.

I met and talked with dozens of people, working hard to understand the situation, looking for stories to turn into songs. I swapped songs with Alaska Native Bryce Edgmon,

by Si Kahn

the Alaska State Representative for the Bristol Bay area, who had fished commercially in Bristol Bay himself for many years. Former Alaska State Senate President and lifelong Republican Rick Halford, an outspoken Pebble Mine opponent, flew me 150 miles in his Cessna float plane, following the rivers that flow into Bristol Bay to get a first-hand look at the proposed mine site and the 50,000 year old Alaska Native villages along those rivers, so I could see and feel for myself the devastation that the Pebble Mine would create.

As Suzanne, Dan and I traveled, played music and talked, we started to think about the roles that musicians could play in this righteous fight. For a starting point, we took the basic good-heartedness of so many community and grassroots musicians from folk, blues, bluegrass, gospel and the like. Just about every roots musician I know does something to help make the world a better place.

Workers’ rights, an end to violence against women, the environment, peace—you name it, we do it.

But, for the most part, we do our social justice work individually. We might organize a benefit concert, sing at a rally or on a picket line, put together a CD to raise funds for an organization and/or cause we care about. But we tend to do our good work individually, not collectively over a sustained period of time.

So we thought: What would happen if at least 1,000 musicians around the world worked

together on one campaign for as long as it took to win?

Our answer: Musicians United To Protect Bristol Bay. Here’s why.

First, we as musicians have a fair amount of credibility, particularly with the people who love and listen to our music. If we tell our friends and fans that a particular cause is important to us, at least some of them will take the time to consider whether it should also be important to them.

Second, music can move people not just intellectually but emotionally. Facts and figures about the proposed Pebble Mine can reach the head.

A song about a young Alaska Native from Bristol Bay who is fighting for her home and culture can reach the heart, and motivate people to do what they can to make a difference.

Third, we as musicians have access to large numbers of people though our concert, festival and media appearances. A thousand musicians can reach at least a million people personally, powerfully and effectively every year.

We’ve already had significant success: • We’ve signed up over 500 musicians, including such stalwarts as Connie Kaldor, Erika Kulnys, Eve Goldberg, Holly Near, John McCutcheon, Tom Chapin, Ken Whiteley, Kim and Reggie Harris, Maria Dunn, Theresa Doyle, Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk of the Métis Fiddler Quartet, Matthias Malcher of the German bluegrass band The Looping Brothers, Irish singer Nuala Kennedy, WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour host Michael Johnathon and Local 1000 President Tret

Fure. One of our founding members was the late Pete Seeger--check out his twominute video endorsement at www.musiciansunited. info.

• Our members and friends have already written at least two dozen new songs designed to spread the word about Bristol Bay. Please check out our website to hear them, and hopefully to find one you’d like to perform and/or record. Even better, write one yourself!

• Now our members are not only performing the songs they’ve written, they’re putting them on their albums.

Grammy winner Tom Chapin put two original songs on his latest album 70, “Ride Out Any Storm” and “A Prayer for Bristol Bay.” Local 1000 President Tret Fure put her song “The Fishermen of Bristol Bay” on her new CD Rembrandt Afternoons.

California autoharp player Laura Lind is recording her song “Can Can Salmon” for her forthcoming album.

• Our private showcase room at Folk Alliance International in Toronto featured a stunning array of great Canadian artists: Maria Dunn, Gwich’in fiddler Alan Benjamin, the Métis Fiddler Quartet, Doug Cox, the Once, David Francey, Nunavut band The Jerry Cans, Ken Whiteley & Eve Goldberg, Sherman Downey & The Silver Lining, Andrew James O’Brien and Ashley Condon.

• My own 18th CD Bristol Bay with 16 new songs (including co-writes with Grammy winners Tom Chapin and Jon Vezner, and a beautiful in-

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strumental by the CD’s producer, Jens Kruger of The Kruger Brothers) was the #1 CD on the international Folk DJ List for June, 2015. 100% of the income from the CD goes directly to support the work of Musicians United To Protect Bristol Bay. For more information and to join with so many great artists around the world in this critically important campaign, please go to www.musiciansunited.info.

If you’d like to be in touch with me directly, I’m always here at sikahn36@gmail.com.

Or, best of all, let’s talk in person when I come to Folk Music Ontario this coming October. It will be great to see you all. **** Si Kahn is grateful for his family’s Canadian roots, and is honoring them with a special three-year tour of Canadian festivals. His paternal grandfather Gabriel Kahn, who was drafted into and escaped from the Czar’s army in Russia, was a pick-and-shovel laborer for the Canadian Pacific Railway when the CPR built the northern spur through the Ontario Shield in the early 1900s. He worked as a “hod carrier,” helping to build the Royal Alexandra Hotel in Winnipeg, lugging over 100 pounds of bricks and mortar on his shoulder up a dozen flights of stairs. He and Si’s paternal grandmother Celia Liebowitz Kahn were married in Winnipeg in 1903. Their first child, who died in infancy, is buried there. Her gravesite remains unknown.

This is an updated version of the article that originally appeared in Penguin Eggs, Canada’s Folk, Roots and World Music Magazine.

JOINING HANDS AND VOICES IN SOLIDARITY ACROSS THE BORDER: WHY SHOULD CANADIAN MUSICIANS HELP STOP ALASKA’S PROPOSED PEBBLE MINE? The answer is that it’s the Canadian mining corporation Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., headquartered in Vancouver, that’s trying to build the Pebble Mine in Alaska’s magnificent Bristol Bay region.

Northern Dynasty in turn has a close relationship with Taseko Mines Ltd, also based in Vancouver.

Tsilhqot’in First Nation in British Columbia is fighting Taseko’s attempts to develop its proposed New Prosperity Mine in the sacred Fish Lake area 125 kilometres from Williams Lake, purportedly one of the largest undeveloped gold and copper deposits in the world.

NEW MEMBERS Folk Music Ontario welcomes the following new members who joined us since the last issue of Folk Prints: New Ontario Individual Members Ginny Clements, Innisfil Antony Cooper, Ottawa Julie Corrigan, Ottawa Holly Cunningham, North Bay Brooklyn Doran, Toronto Laura Elston, Tamworth James Favron, Dunnville Kirk Felix, Richmond Hill Madison Galloway, Fergus Marie Gustafson, North Bay Debbie Halton-Weiss, Ottawa Piper Hayes, Hamilton Bill Heffernan, Toronto Nicolette Henderson, Port Perry Sandy Irvin, Clayton

Mitch Silvester, Merrickville Ashlea-Elizabeth Smith, Gravenhurst Tanya Speight, Grimsby Amanda Lynn Stubley, London Dione Taylor, Toronto Sean Thornton, Oshawa Janet Whiteway, Toronto Ron Whitman, Welland Julie Wilkinson, Belle Vallee Thompson Wilson Shaw, Hamilton William Wood, Toronto

Mathieu Landry, Sudbury Anna Ludlow, Ottawa Brenna MacCrimmon, Toronto Sandy Mamane, Toronto Max Marshall, Ruthven Chloe Matamoros, Toronto Patty McLaughlin, Innisfil Max Merrifield, Sudbury Mary Murrill, Toronto Gillian Nicola, Waterdown Aimee O’Connor, Toronto David Owen, Uxbridge Martha Renaud, LaSalle Wild Rivers, Toronto Michael Schatte, Toronto Colin Scott, Brantford Claire Senko, Waterford Ryan Shimizu, Toronto

New Ontario Organizational Members ACTRA RACS, Toronto Folkzone, Ottawa Music Canada Live, Ottawa

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Toronto Songwriting School, Toronto Woodland Cultural Centre, Brantford New Out-of-Province Individual Members Colleen Brown, Edmonton, AB Ken Simms, Delta, BC Apryll Aileen, Rothesay, NB Stuart Fuchs, Nelson, NH Irish Mythen, Charlottetown, PE Greg Torrington, Montreal, QC Updated: May 9, 2016

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FMO member festivals July 8 - 10 juillet NORTHERN LIGHTS FESTIVAL BORÉAL - Sudbury 705-674-5512 nlfbmarketing@gmail.com www.nlfbsudbury.com

June / juin June 17 - 19 juin TOTTENHAM BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL - Tottenham 647-209-2593 888-258-4727 tottenhambluegrassinfo@gmail.com www.tottenhambluegrass.ca

July 14 - 17 juillet RIVER AND SKY MUSIC/ CAMPING FESTIVAL - Field 855-561-4484 info@riverandsky.ca www.riverandsky.ca

July / juillet July/juillet - September/septembre SUMMER FESTIVALS AT HARBOURFRONT CENTRE - Toronto 416-973-4000 info@harbourfrontcentre.com www.harbourfrontcentre.com/festivals

July 14 - 17 juillet STEWART PARK FESTIVAL - Perth 613-264-1190 stewartparkad@gmail.com www.stewartparkfestival.com

July 7 - 10 juillet TD SUNFEST - London 519-672-1522 info@sunfest.on.ca www.sunfest.on.ca

July 15 - 17 juillet HOME COUNTY MUSIC & ART FESTIVAL - London 519-432-4310 info@homecounty.ca www.homecounty.ca

July 7 - 17 juillet RBC ROYAL BANK BLUESFEST - Ottawa 613-247-1188 info@ottawabluesfest.ca www.ottawabluesfest.ca

July 22 - 24 juillet HILLSIDE FESTIVAL - Guelph 519-763-6396 info@hillsidefestival.ca www.hillsidefestival.ca

July 8 - 10 juillet CANTERBURY FOLK FESTIVAL - Ingersoll canterburyfolkfestival@ingersoll.ca www.canterburyfolkfestival.on.ca

July 29 - 31 juillet BLUE SKIES MUSIC FESTIVAL - Clarendon Station 613-279-2610 www.blueskiesmusicfestival.ca

July 8 - 10 juillet MARIPOSA FOLK FESTIVAL - Orillia 705-326-3655 ad@mariposafolk.com www.mariposafolk.com

July 29 - 31 juillet THE MILL RACE FESTIVAL OF TRADITIONAL FOLK MUSIC - Cambridge 519-621-7135 mill_race@yahoo.com www.millracefolksociety.com 14

August / août

September / septembre

August 1 - 7 août GODERICH CELTIC ROOTS FESTIVAL & CELTIC COLLEGE - Goderich 519-524-8221 festival@celticfestival.ca www.celticfestival.ca

September 2 – 4 septembre SHELTER VALLEY FOLK FESTIVAL - Grafton 905-349-2788 festival@sheltervalley.com www.sheltervalley.com September 14 - 18 septembre CITYFOLK - Ottawa 613-230-8234 info@cityfolkfestival.com www.cityfolkfestival.com

August 5 - 7 août LIVE FROM THE ROCK FOLK AND BLUES FESTIVAL - Red Rock 807-886-9910 redrockfolkfestival@gmail.com www.livefromtherockfolkfestival.com

October / octobre October 20 - 23 octobre FOLK MUSIC ONTARIO 30TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE - Ottawa 613-560-5997 / 866-292-6233 info@folkmusicontario.ca www.folkmusicontario.ca

August 11 - 14 août FERGUS SCOTTISH FESTIVAL AND HIGHLAND GAMES - Fergus 519-787-0099 / 866-871-9442 info@fergusscottishfestival.com www.fergusscottishfestival.com August 12 - 14 août KINGSVILLE FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL - Kingsville 519-997-7777 info@kingsvillefolkfest.org www.kingsvillefolkfest.org

COMING UP IN 2017: February 10 - 12 février HILLSIDE INSIDE - Guelph 519-763-6396 info@hillsidefestival.ca www.hillsidefestival.ca

August 12 - 14 août TROUT FOREST MUSIC FESTIVAL - Ear Falls info@troutfest.com www.troutfest.com

February 10 - 12 février WINTERFOLK XV - Toronto admin@winterfolk.com www.winterfolk.com

August 19 - 21 août PETERBOROUGH FOLK FESTIVAL - Peterborough pffchair@gmail.com www.peterboroughfolkfest.com

March 3 - 6 mars WINTER FOLK CAMP - Haliburton 705-457-9110 singingdog1@gmail.com www.winterfolkcamp.com

August 19 - 21 août 41ST SUMMERFOLK MUSIC & CRAFTS FESTIVAL - Owen Sound 519-371-2995 gbfs@bmts.com www.summerfolk.org August 29 août - September 5 septembre ASHKENAZ FESTIVAL - Toronto 416-979-9901 sam@ashkenaz.ca www.ashkenaz.ca 15

savanna campfire Ever since humans discovered fire, we have been gathering around a campfire to cook food, keep warm, tell stories, regale adventures and sing songs. It is part of who we are.

Though we have known it for a long time, only recently scientists have been exploring how singing songs around a campfire or otherwise affects the brain. Singing together creates a sense of community, a sense of belonging; we work better because of song, singing releases endorphins, singing binds us together.

Historically, as the song travelled beyond the Savanna campfire, it carried the news – a terrible story of a lion or a polar bear, stories of kings and queens, stories of comedy and tragedy. Songs were used to help the work whether it was hoisting sails, toting bales, lifting rocks from Giza to Stonehenge. It was the song that fuelled work from the cotton field to the road gang. A collection of campfire songs became the folk songs of various tribes that defined them and to some extent continues to define tribes today – Rai, Bulgarian, Celtic, Corsican, and so on.

At various points the culture campfire song has been threatened and for various reasons. Often when one tribe overwhelmed another tribe, cultural aspects of the defeated tribe were suppressed.

This happened in Scotland in the Seventeenth century when the English suppressed the Gaelic language and song and in some cases banned the singing of Gaelic songs all together. In some ways the tradition was held together by the singing of Mouth Music which

intoned Gaelic but it was only sounds. The songs of Ireland and Haida Gwaii were nearly lost when starvation and sickness took so many people that the cultural chain was affected. The past was broken and it took years to rebuild and recall the aural and oral cultural tradition. The campfire nearly died.

The aural tradition is key to the continuation of the Savanna campfire, for it is the passing on of memorized song that keeps the whole thing going. If the tradition is lost, the connection to the past is lost as well. This loss can be quite literal. I recently spoke to Norman Halladay who wrote the book Inukshuit. He was talking to me about a series of cairns, gates and Inukshuit that he found at the south end of Cape Dorset. For years he had heard about them but he could never get anyone to take him there.

It was felt by those in the town of Cape Dorset that this area was to be avoided because it was said to have evil spirits.

One day he mentioned this to an elder in the community who laughed at the story. The elder said the place was in fact quite wonderful and full of good spirits. He said the problem was that the people had forgotten the song about how to get there. According to the elder, there are lots of shoals and rocks at the south end of Cape Dorset and it is quite tricky to get there safely. However, the elder knew a song that would guide one safely. The song was needed in the same way Bruce Chatwin describes in his book Songlines about Australian Aboriginals “singing” their way across the desert. Nor16

by Ian Tamblyn

man asked the elder if he could take him to this spiritual spot, and with the elder’s guidance and song they travelled safely along the shoreline. But now that elder is gone.

A few years ago I met a remarkable Inuk man named Mariano Aupilarjuk from Rankin Inlet. He sang a song that he said was 200-300 hundred years old. When I asked a friend to translate it she said she could only get some of it because Aupilarjuk was singing words from a poetic form of Inuktitut Inuit only used for song. Aupilarjuk passed away in 2012, and with him that link to the aural tradition of his people was gone.

It would have to be said that the church of various descriptions both discouraged and encouraged song – in most cases it was their church songs replacing the indigenous song.

As another form of repression, the indigenous song was seen as barbaric, animistic, or sacrilegious and replaced by a church music supporting the church’s doctrines. Sometimes this suppression is so complete there is nothing left of the aural tradition. For example, Greenlandic Inuit have lost most of their indigenous songs to Lutheran hymns and are quite amazed to hear the “Canadian” Inuit sing their songs.

In other places like the Southern US, the Baptist church’s actions led to Southern Gospel music which has its roots in the call and response field hollers, and so the campfire song morphed into something new but was not snuffed out. A similar transition happened in the Bahamas. In the 1800s, ministers from England came to the

Bahamas and taught “freed” slaves religious tunes. For one reason or another the ministry left around 1870. When Sam Charters came to record Bahamian music in the 1940s, the people were still singing those hymns but in his words the music “had gone back to Africa.”

Another threat to the campfire was the Gutenberg revolution, the invention of the press. By the mid-1800s the combination of the printed word and the Industrial Revolution threatened the aural tradition in song. As people moved to the cities to work in mills, the call to the campfire was lessened, and with news now being transmitted by newspapers, there was less need for the minstrel to bear the news, to carry the message, to sing the songs. By the end of the Victorian era, the songs that had been carried by the aural tradition for hundreds of years was so threatened that people like Cecil Sharpe or Francis Child began collecting the songs before they disappeared forever. The British traditional folk world is still keeping this custom. In Canada this tradition was maintained by Edith

Fowke, Helen Creighton and Marius Barbeau in the early part of the 20th century, ensuring that the fire would not go out.

It could be said that the era of recorded music – the last hundred plus years – has also threatened the aural campfire as it has individualized the listening experience.

However, with the invention of radio, the aural tradition was brought to the airwaves and now the campfire song was being broadcast as far as the wattage could carry it. The folk song was replaced by the popular song, which once off the hit parade, as it were, was recycled as the campfire song.

Everybody knew the songs of the day, by the likes of the Andrew Sisters, Jimmy Rodgers, Wilf Carter and Woody Guthrie. During my formative years, we all listened to the same radio station on the AM band. If there was a new song by a band or group everyone was singing it by the weekend, and the local band playing it at the dance halls. It is no accident that the literal campfire songs of this day come from the period spanning 1930-1980. It was the era of the radio – af-

fordable and common to all.

The Savanna campfire, which has been burning for at least 18,000 years, faced a new threat in the 1980s with the invention of the Walkman. The individualization of the campfire had now become complete; each person now had their own campfire songs. However, and most importantly, they were no longer shared by the community. Today, if you add in cyberspace, the iPod and widespread downloading, though there is now a global village of music, it has scattered the fire to the wind and threatens the continuance of unique tribal voices. By globalizing the various campfires, all is threatened. Is technology then the new oppressor?

And yet the need for the campfire has never been more evident. Though the church is not the force it once was in the western world, the relatively recent boom in community choirs speaks to the original notion that singing together and sharing songs gives people a sense of wellbeing, a sense of community, a sense of belonging that harkens back to the songs shared around a campfire a long time ago.

2016 BOARD ELECTIONS FMO’s Board of Directors is a dedicated and enthusiastic group of thirteen volunteers, elected democratically by the membership via advanced balloting during the fall and at the annual conference in October. Five directors on the Board will be completing their terms this fall, and the new slate of candidates will be published on the FMO website in the next few weeks.

To read more about the Board election process, please visit www.folkmusicontario.ca – click on About Folk Music Ontario / Board of Directors. Advance balloting for FMO members will begin September 17, 2016. Please cast a ballot - your vote is your voice!

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