#Gord downie free#
He strongly believed that we cannot call ourselves strong and free if we still ignore the hurt and pain that an entire nation of people feel. He knew that we have a long way to go before we are truly healed, and he did everything he could to help the indigenous peoples of Canada.
We must walk down a path of reconciliation from now on. He stated “to become a country, and truly call ourselves Canada, it means we must become one. It was a gift from the creator, as well as the Lakota name, Wicapi Omani, translated into, “man who walks among the stars”.ĭownie tried with all the energy he had left to restore the broken relationship between the indigenous peoples and the rest of Canada. As a thank you for his work and efforts Downie was presented in 2016 with an eagle feather from National Chief Perry Bellegarde. All the proceeds that came from the project album went to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba.ĭownie also started a foundation called The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack fund, the money goes towards education and support of the healing and recovering of indigenous peoples. Wenjack died while attempting to return home after escaping a residential school system in 1966. The album was dedicated to young Chanie Wenjack, an Anishinaabe boy from the Marten Falls First Nation. Last October, Downie released his fifth studio album, ‘Secret Path’. "I truly believe that it's Gord's unfinished work.In Gord’s final year of his life, he spent his energy advocating for indigenous rights and reconciliation. "Bringing Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people together and getting them to know each other is our responsibility," Mr. "It just wouldn't let him go."Īs for reconciliation, the process will go on, without one of its most public and recognizable voices. Downie, his brother's interest in the history of residential schools and the Wenjack story was profound and relentless. You're going to figure it out."Īccording to Mr. "It's going to take us 100 years to figure out what the hell went on up there but it isn't cool, and everybody knows that," he told the live audience and the millions watching and listening live on CBC.
It was on that tour's last concert in the band's hometown, Kingston, that the fierceness of the singer's First Nations advocacy was witnessed on a national scale. Two night earlier, on Friday, CTV will broadcast Long Time Running, a documentary on the Tragically Hip's final tour, in the summer of 2016. "It's real and it's personal, and it's making a difference," Mr. The actions, typically funded with $5,000 micro grants, are aimed at helping the lives of Indigenous people. There are three components to the initiative: Support of the Winnipeg-based National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation education (involving the incorporation of Secret Path into school curriculums) and something Mr. Thus, the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund was born. "We wanted to harness all the energy, emotion and reaction from Secret Path, and keep it moving forward." "We wanted something more permanent," Mr. Secret Path came out in October, 2016, and the brothers realized that after the media cycle ran its course, the project might be forgotten. According to Mike, a documentary filmmaker, the trip was "life changing" for the brothers, who had collaborated on Secret Path, a project involving an animated film, a graphic novel and a concept album based on the story of Wenjack. The idea to create the fund came after trip a year ago by the Downies to Ogoki Post in Northern Ontario to visit Chanie's mother, Pearl Wenjack.
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