Drummers Ivan Paquette and Wesley Mitchell came together at the start of the pandemic when it became clear the coronavirus wasn’t going anywhere soon.
For 47 nights straight, Mitchell and Paquette were joined by other drummers in front of the hospital to send their support in the best way they knew how - with their heartbeat drumming, as Mitchell describes it. They are the founders of the UHNBC Drummers Group.
Without fail for the last 20 months, Paquette and Mitchell have led the drumming at the University Hospital of Northern BC every Monday night at 6 and have committed to continue to do so until the coronavirus pandemic is over - even at -32 C they experienced last Monday night.
Drumming represents the universal heartbeat of Mother Earth for First Nations people and that primal sound continues to lift up all who hear it, Mitchell explains often to whoever is in attendance during the drumming circles.
By the beat of the drum, Paquette and Mitchell came together from very different backgrounds and to this day they are not what anyone would call fast friends outside of the drumming group. Their connection is from the love that exists within the centre of the drum circle to share powerful healing properties born from the ceremony and tradition from which it came.
“The drum saved my life,” Mitchell said.
Having experienced traumatic loss of loved ones and a disconnection as a child from his First Nations culture on his father’s side, Mitchell struggled with those losses for years.
Unfortunately as a result Mitchell fell into an addiction to alcohol as a teenager and it only got worse from there.
It took nine detox stays and attending 10 treatment centres before he finally kicked his drug and alcohol addiction in 2017. He overdosed three times throughout those years of struggle but even that was not enough to wake him up to the fact he needed to stop, he said.
He spent most of his young adult years in the chaos of a life of addiction, Mitchell said.
His mother supported him through it all and now Mitchell is celebrating four years in recovery.
“The key to being successful in recovery for me is to provide service to others and I take that very seriously,” Mitchell said.
“I know that sharing my story could maybe help one of your readers out there and I wanted to show that miracles happen every day.”
The message he sends through his drum outside the hospital every week is a strong one.
“The people inside the hospital get those moments of comfort, of love, support and the worry is gone for that moment,” Mitchell said. “I am honoured to do that and I love it.”
Paquette came from an extended family who was very supportive of his artistic pursuits.
Overcoming bullying that began at a very young age, Paquette was into drawing and sketching, speech arts where he found his voice at eight years old and later discovered being a singer, songwriter, musician and actor offered its own power of healing as well.
Starting as early as when he was 18 years old, he always mentored Indigenous youth and had a popular program in the VLA, spoke often on First Nations matters as a guest speaker in the schools, and always sought to lift up those around him, focusing on his people and those in need, he said.
He moved to Vancouver as a young man, enjoyed some success after discovering theatre and stage craft at PGSS.
His entertainment career began almost immediately after moving to Vancouver in the mid-90s and he soon appeared in the original MacGyver series, 21 Jump Street, Black Stallion series, Border Town, TV movies, and made other appearances on television.
“Talk about living the dream,” Paquette said.
As his success grew something in his spirit was calling him back to Prince George.
“It was something pulling me that was bigger than myself,” Paquette said.
During those years he would go back and forth to Vancouver developing his music and publishing songs.
He was invited to help gather information from the Indigenous youth to help inform the public of the plight of the Indigenous people in the North. Using the Medicine Wheel teachings, Paquette created the model.
The BC United Metis Youth Circle was born, which is now known as Metis Youth BC.
“It was a template that was used to create youth circles all over the country,” Paquette said.
“It was the healing piece, it was engaging the youth to help them see for themselves their future. That mentality of killing the Indian in the child in residential schools had to be washed away. The template used to form those circles was helping Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and bringing them together and I thought ‘wow, that’s the model for reconciliation.”
He was proud to see the modeling work to heal his people and bring awareness to others.
Paquette said he knows in his life it was always about making the spirit, mind, body connection.
“I look back and I see my place in the world from the time I was given a voice in speech arts and I know the power of speech, the power of communication, the power of connecting, the power of relationships - all my relations - it can create harmony in a community and build bridges.”
Paquette always says there is unity in community and that result is what he sees in the drumming circles at UHNBC that have continued every Monday night since the pandemic started.
Everyone is always welcome to join the drumming group for its healing power and share in its extraordinarily unending message to healthcare workers and patients.
“People are looking to us for support and guidance and we bring all our Indigenous tools with us - we drum, we smudge, we pray, we sing,” Paquette explained. “And what brings us all together is our love for one another and the Creator. We will be here to see the end of the pandemic. We have made that promise and we will honour it.”
