By Bryan Eneas

Local musician reacts to Gord Downie’s passing

Oct 19, 2017 | 8:00 AM

A local Indigenous musician says Gord Downie’s body of work transcended music and brought reconcilliation into the mainstream.

Tributes to Downie have poured in from across the country. From Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to Chief Perry Bellegarde of the Assembly of First Nations, to fans of Canadian music.

Local musician and a founding member of the music group Black Eyed Creez Danny Mirasty first heard Downie and The Tragically Hip’s unique sound on a cassette tape many years ago. He had the opportunity to see The Hip preform in Saskatoon roughly 25 years ago.

“He sang about a lot of lives, all of us Canadians. He sang about different cultures, different backgrounds, different colours you could say, but he wrote a song about everybody. That’s what I like about Gord Downie,” Mirasty said.

Mirasty said he was inspired by Downie’s work on the documentary The Secret Path which looks at the story of Chanie Wenjack who froze to death while running away from residential school.

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Wenjack’s story is very similar to a story which came from Saskatchewan in 2015, which Mirasty heard throughout his life.

Bobby Bird went missing from the Timber Bay Residential School in late 1969 after complaining about the way he and his fellow students were being treated. Remains which were found near the old highway to La Ronge were identified as Bird’s 23 years later. It was assumed he perished due to winter-like conditions while making the long trek back to La Ronge, his home. Two other students from Timber Bay died making the same journey before Bird..

“It’s pretty wild, he only started talking about [Wenjack] two years ago and now he’s dead,” Mirasty said. “He really opened the doors for reconciliation… by him being an ally and bringing [residential schools] to the open, it opens up more dialogue.”

Mirasty’s mother and late father both attended residential schools. He said he’s thankful for the work Downie did exposing the horrors of one of the darkest chapters in Canada’s history.

“I’m really happy that Gord Downie came into our lives, not only as part of The Tragically Hip, but he also got educated, actually read about stories about First Nations people in Canada,” Mirasty said. “Him doing research, and doing his documentary about Chanie Wenjack… I’m glad people are starting to be aware of [residential schools] and get to the bottom of it in a good way.”

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas