The song of the Lheidli T'enneh just received a stronger voice.
Singer, drummer and cultural figure Kym Gouchie has been away from her home area for many years, but due to family connections and a wish to tie herself more tightly to her Lheidli roots, she has moved back. By coincidence it fit with her performance at the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation pavilion alongside the Canada Winter Games.
"There was a time I said I'd never move back, out of no disrespect for the area, I was just thriving down south," said Gouchie, who was most recently based in the Penticton area. She was a youth worker and culture-centred artist. "I started to dabble in my traditional heritage, as part of what I was doing in my career, and those feelings started to grow. I reached a point in life where I have accumulated life experiences and professional tools and now see how they should be applied to my home community."
She is descended from respected elder 94-year-old Mary Gouchie, and has a large number of relatives in the region. Her brothers Buddy and Mike both play music as well. Mike Gouchie has run a few songs up the Canadian country charts in recent years. He is not currently residing in the Lheidli region, but he keeps in close touch and the possibility of the three Gouchie musicians collaborating in the future has created a conversation buzz in the area.
She returns at a bittersweet time in local history. While celebrations are underway to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Prince George, it is also the marker in time for the Lheidli people being burned out of their homes and relegated to remote reserve lands nearby to make way for what is this modern day municipality.
That 100 years was spent establishing legal retorts to that ousting. There was no war fought, and little in the way of legal contracts signed to establish the ceding of any territory out of Lheidli hands into the hands of the British Crown/Canada.
With this past year's Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the William Case (based in neighbouring Chilcotin territory), there is a new relationship going forward from that 100-year window of time, and Gouchie hopes for the better, but for her family legacy there is no escaping the effects of that fateful year of 1915.
"This anniversary is definitely a reminder of what happened and what could have been," she said. "It is definitely unsettling that we still have a burial ground at Fort George Park that I'll most likely end up in one day, and it does not feel like a sacred resting place. It feels like a fishbowl. I am not a politician but I do have some strong feelings about that - about the treatment of aboriginal people in this area and around the world.
"Being a musician and artist comes with a sense of activism," she added. "The drum songs I'm passing on orally is something I can do to carry on what I've learned from past generations. They are powerful stories, powerful prayers, messages from the past to the future. My goal is to preserve language and culture through song."
Gouchie is excited to be part of the slate of visual and performing artists at the Lheidli pavilion. She and celebrated Lheidli artist Jennifer Pighin are working together today at the Wood Innovation And Design Centre to create a live, spontaneous artwork using the combined musical and visual skills of these two creators.
LHEIDLI CLOTHING
The organizers of the 2015 Canada Winter Games made history by partnering directly with the Lheidli T'enneh as the first official Canada Games host First Nation.
An extra page was written in that history when 2015 Canada Winter Games apparel was released for sale that had Lheidli T'enneh First Nation content printed on it - chiefly the iconic red, black and white eagle with inset salmon that is the local nation's primary visual symbol.
"We are committed to achieving unprecedented aboriginal participation in the planning and hosting of the 2015 Canada Winter Games," said Stu Ballantyne, CEO for the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
Part of the purchase price for these special Games gear items goes to a fund benefiting LTFN youth.
"Together with the Host Society we are writing history by celebrating our diversity," said Chief Dominic Frederick. "Our young people are our future and we hope to inspire and support them as they build their dreams."
LHEIDLI PAVILION SCHEDULE
"The Lheidli T'enneh are proud to present Canada's premier Aboriginal performing artists and believe that the extraordinary spectrum of contemporary and traditional Aboriginal arts and culture to be experienced at the 2015 Lheidli T'enneh Pavilion will both impress and inspire," said Chief Dominic Frederick. "We invite everyone to experience Aboriginal sounds of the 21st century - from traditional to contemporary, drumming and signing, hip hop, country, pop, rock, folk and the blues."
The Lheidli T'enneh Pavilion is located at the corner of 6th and Dominion (1220 6th Avenue).
Some of the stars already spotlighted at the pavilion include Crystal Shawanda, Digging Roots, Indian City, Sandy Scofield and many others.
The remaining schedule includes top aboriginal and some non-aboriginal talent as well.
Tonight
10:30 p.m. Derek Miller
Saturday
9:15 p.m. The Boom Booms
10:30 p.m. Bitterly Divine
Sunday
9:15 p.m. Kym Gouchie
10:30 p.m. Leela Gilday
Monday
9:15 p.m. City Limits
10:30 p.m. George Leach
Tuesday
9:15 p.m. Stacey Reynolds
10:30 p.m. Murray Porter
Wednesday
9:15 p.m. TBA
10:30 p.m. Don Amero
Thursday
9:15 p.m. TBA
10:30 p.m. A Tribe Called Red
Friday
9:15 p.m. MOB Bounce
10:30 p.m. Unceded
Saturday
9:15 p.m. TBA
10:30 p.m. Inez Jasper
