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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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very cultural-heavy weekend,\u201d says Benjamin. \u201c[Barr and I] are here because we\u2019re celebrating our culture and other people\u2019s culture, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.\u201d Between performing together, and finding time to spend with elders, friends and audience members, \u201cit\u2019s a very personal agenda for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201cold crow.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d Benjamin says.<\/p>\n
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\u2019d left off from two years ago at the last biennial Moosehide Gathering.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_testimonial author=”\u2013 Kevin Barr” _builder_version=”3.21″ body_font=”||||||||” body_text_color=”#179e75″]<\/p>\n
\n“Moosehide and what happens here started with a vision, as I see it, of the elders knowing<\/span> 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.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Connecting to the Vuntut Gwichin through fiddle<\/h3>\n
Boyd Benjamin comes from a family of fiddlers. In his Vuntut Gwitchin community, it is a \u201chuge part\u201d of the culture. \u201cI guess it is everywhere else, but to us it\u2019s a dying form of art, I think, because the elders used to play fiddle music, and now there\u2019s less of us fiddle players,\u201d Benjamin says.<\/p>\n
Whether among the Tr\u2019ond\u00ebk Hw\u00ebch\u2019in 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.<\/p>\n
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Kevin Barr: a politically-informed musician<\/h3>\n
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\u2013Southern Lakes, south of Whitehorse.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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The NCES canoe project: the emblem of an ongoing healing journey<\/h3>\n
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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]<\/strong><\/p>\n
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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. <\/span><\/p>\n
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. <\/span><\/p>\n
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For an issue that\u2019s normally raised by politicians, Barr has seen incremental shifts in the thinking around reconciliation. \u201cIt\u2019s changed over the years very slowly,\u201d Barr says. \u201cIt\u2019s not something that\u2019s, \u2018Oh yeah, let\u2019s get right on this.\u2019 It\u2019s never seemed to have been this way.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 to give voice to Yukoners and to \u201cfill the void\u201d of government services. \u201cWe\u2019re supposed to listen as a government, and empower the people and create opportunities, that\u2019s my idea of that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
From his experience, it\u2019s hard to enact long-lasting change: first off, it\u2019s 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\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting involved with politics is to stop pulling the rug out of something that\u2019s good,\u201d Barr says. \u201cIt\u2019s good, just help lift it up further. Don\u2019t try to say, \u2018Hey you gotta do it this way now,\u2019 because there\u2019s bureaucracy involved in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barr cites the 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. \u201cRead them, invite everybody to read them, and let\u2019s do the action for it,\u201d Barr says.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.21″ link_option_url=”https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-583677638-671847306\/boyd-benjamin-connecting-to-his-vuntut-gwichin-heritage-through-the-fiddle “][\/et_pb_code][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”3.21″][et_pb_testimonial author=”\u2014Kevin Barr” portrait_url=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/artsyfn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/04\/Screenshot-2019-04-11-13.19.42.png” _builder_version=”3.21″ body_font=”||||||||” body_text_color=”#179e75″]<\/p>\n
\n“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\u2026It\u2019s good for the soul here, to be amongst everyone and share songs and dance, and the food and just the people in general.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
[\/et_pb_testimonial][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.22.3″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.21″][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.21″][\/et_pb_divider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.22.3″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.21″][et_pb_button button_url=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/artsyfn\/curating-living-cultures\/” button_text=”Previous: Curating living cultures” button_alignment=”left” _builder_version=”3.21″][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.21″][et_pb_button button_url=”https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/mrp\/artsyfn\/melding-politics-with-first-nations-arts-in-yukon\/” button_text=”Next: Melding politics with First Nations arts in Yukon” button_alignment=”right” _builder_version=”3.21″][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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. \u201cThis is a very cultural-heavy weekend,\u201d says Benjamin. \u201c[Barr and I] are here because we\u2019re celebrating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-79","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n
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