A dynamic First Nations duo
The guitar-fiddle duo of Kevin Barr and Boyd Benjamin came together in 2010 at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. They have since performed across the country, but performing at Moosehide Gathering feels like coming home for them each time.
“This is a very cultural-heavy weekend,” says Benjamin. “[Barr and I] are here because we’re celebrating our culture and other people’s culture, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.” Between performing together, and finding time to spend with elders, friends and audience members, “it’s a very personal agenda for us.”
Kevin Barr lives south of Whitehorse. He is of Anishnaabe ancestry from North Bay, Ontario. He was adopted into the Carcross-Tagish First Nation by elder Art Johns and Annie Auston. A member of the Deshitan clan, his Indigenous name is Yeshan, meaning “old crow.”
Boyd Benjamin is a fiddler from Old Crow, Yukon. He is a member of Vuntut Gwichin First Nation, and other fiddler members of his family include his grandfather Peter Benjamin and his uncle. Benjamin spends most of his time in Whitehorse and Vancouver.
Moosehide: integrating elders and life changes
For Barr and Benjamin, Moosehide Gathering represents a sacred vision of the Indigenous elders. It is a safe space for everybody to reconnect with their inner selves and with each other.
“I try to make sure my schedule works so that if I know the dates for Moosehide, I want to plan so that I can make this happen,” Benjamin says.
The duo plays waltzes and familiar songs, and also takes audience requests. If their music facilitates the cultural exchange, all the better. They cherish the opportunity to build upon connections they’d left off from two years ago at the last biennial Moosehide Gathering.
“Moosehide and what happens here started with a vision, as I see it, of the elders knowing that things had to have an opportunity…So as in with all places wherever we go, if you want to have change, you can have all that in your head but if you never take the action and start putting it into practice, no matter where we go back to it stays an idea.”
Connecting to the Vuntut Gwichin through fiddle
Boyd Benjamin comes from a family of fiddlers. In his Vuntut Gwitchin community, it is a “huge part” of the culture. “I guess it is everywhere else, but to us it’s a dying form of art, I think, because the elders used to play fiddle music, and now there’s less of us fiddle players,” Benjamin says.
Whether among the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people or his Vuntut Gwitchin family, he notices the same currents of musical revitalization in various Yukon First Nations communities. This is encouraging for him to see that the Indigenous musical legacy continues, especially since he splits his time between his residence in Whitehorse and work in Vancouver.
Kevin Barr: a politically-informed musician
Kevin Barr has worn many hats over the years. He is known as a guitarist and a Juno Award-nominated singer-songwriter. Prior to that he was the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Mount Lorne–Southern Lakes, south of Whitehorse.
He has combined socio-political activism with his interest in raising the profile of Indigenous culture. He is the former director-counsellor of Whitehorse-based Committee on Abuse in Residential Schools (CAIRS), the forerunner of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
Notably, Barr is the politician who put forward a motion to designate Aboriginal Day as a statutory holiday in the Yukon. That motion passed in the House, and is known today as National Indigenous Peoples Day.
The NCES canoe project: the emblem of an ongoing healing journey
Members of the original Sundog carver team reunited at the 2018 Moosehide Gathering Cultural Celebration. They carried the canoe into Yukon River for its relaunch. [Photo by Jennifer Liu]
Barr explains that the Sundog Carving Program came together when enough street people were persuaded to leave their past lives behind. Established in 2004, it was the precursor to the Northern Cultural Expressions Society (NCES). The youth were supported by elder guidance and a community that cared for their well-being, all gathered in a safe space.
The canoe that lay resting on the Moosehide Festival Grounds was carved by 18 young NCES carvers. It was a major project, undertaken over two-and-a-half months in the fall of 2009.
For an issue that’s normally raised by politicians, Barr has seen incremental shifts in the thinking around reconciliation. “It’s changed over the years very slowly,” Barr says. “It’s not something that’s, ‘Oh yeah, let’s get right on this.’ It’s never seemed to have been this way.”
Barr says he has strived to engage in progressive change, which brought him into the political sphere. Through his involvement in CAIRS, the next step was to run for territorial politics – to give voice to Yukoners and to “fill the void” of government services. “We’re supposed to listen as a government, and empower the people and create opportunities, that’s my idea of that,” he says.
From his experience, it’s hard to enact long-lasting change: first off, it’s hard to secure government attention; by extension, funding is difficult to secure. Then, when the government becomes interested, he says that they tend to want to micromanage the project’s direction.
“Getting involved with politics is to stop pulling the rug out of something that’s good,” Barr says. “It’s good, just help lift it up further. Don’t try to say, ‘Hey you gotta do it this way now,’ because there’s bureaucracy involved in there.”
Barr cites the 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “Read them, invite everybody to read them, and let’s do the action for it,” Barr says.
Whether as musicians or as advocates for First Nations rights, Barr and Benjamin perform and act with the greater good in mind. As in reconciling different sides, community comes together through cultural activities and through sound policy. More than ever, this balance is shaping Yukon into a symbiotic society.
“The culture is living and breathing, and as Indigenous folks in the North, at the onslaught of colonization and revitalization, what has brought us here [to Moosehide Gathering] is the revitalization of people regaining their culture…It’s good for the soul here, to be amongst everyone and share songs and dance, and the food and just the people in general.”