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Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Windspeaker.com
A national celebration of Indigenous languages through music is the focus of the documentary Rhythms of the Land, which will air July 12 across Canada on CTV and CTV2 networks.
Featuring performances by Indigenous artists from across the country, the film is an initiative of the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages (OCIL) and celebrates the strength and revitalization of Indigenous language.
Each of the 16 artists in the film perform in their mother tongue and are filmed against a landscape of “deep personal significance” to them—a river, a forest scene, mountains or a longhouse.
“The goal was to go across Canada and to film Indigenous artists in a location of their choosing,” said Jarrod Tully, CEO of Storm the Castle Media and project director. “So, the mandate to them was to ‘pick a place that means something to you’. A lot of them were places where they were born or they grew up. Just a location that meant something to their language and their culture.”
The purpose of the documentary is to reignite interest and knowledge in the many languages across the country, many being lost because of a constant decline in people speaking them.
“We wanted to show that music and land are deeply entwined with our languages and it’s a natural language carrier,” said Georgina Liberty, one of the directors at OCIL and lead on this project.
“You have to understand that one of the things that has happened, is there’s not a lot of speakers in our languages, in Indigenous languages. In fact, a lot of our languages are becoming extinct, so it was a little difficult to find performers who performed in their traditional mother tongue.”
In 2019, the Indigenous Languages Act was passed in Canada which outlined the need for a language commission to be created. As a national body, the purpose of the OCIL is to amplify the voices of Indigenous people who are leading revitalization efforts in their communities and to support and promote them.
The heart of the documentary project is to elevate pride in Indigenous languages and to educate viewers about the history of different cultures and identity.
“We asked each of the artists to tell us where they wanted to record,” Liberty said. “A lot of them, you know, a lot of people have moved to urban centres and live in different locations. They don’t live where they were born, but for every one of these performers they all wanted to go and perform in their home territory and it held a lot of meaning to them, connected them to their family, their traditions and their culture.”
From Inuit throat singers to Cree drum songs, each of the performers weave their individual styles with the traditional sounds using both traditional and modern instruments.
“There’s some hybrid ones too,” said Tully. “We have some that use electric pedals while looping vocals.”
In total, filming for the documentary took about seven months and took the rotating six-member crew to 12 locations from the west coast to the east and north.
“We only missed three locations; Prince Edward Island, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories,” said Liberty. “We just, unfortunately, couldn’t find someone that could sing, and perform in their language.”
Each of the performers were found after a call out to Canadian music festivals, programs and industry leaders for entertainers who would fit the vision.
“Really we just kept talking and finding people and interviewing them and we also tried to make sure that we could cover as many languages as we could,” said Liberty.
Tully, who has been working in the industry since 2004, explained that OCIL took care of the logistical elements of the film, but left the creativity aspect up to his team.
“This is absolutely the best project I’ve ever worked on. This is sort of the dream project,” he said. “I love travel, I love music, so to be able to do something of this scope and scale has been a dream come true.”
“Admittedly, I was fairly ignorant to a lot of the languages and culture, even the landscapes, in Canada. I am Métis, but I’m not necessarily all that familiar with some of the other cultures across Canada,” Tully said.
The film crew was also invited on many occasions to experience the culture and traditions of the communities they visited.
One of the band members came down with a camp stove during filming and cooked whale blubber and dried caribou for the crew.
When in Nunavut, the crew experienced a culture of warm and welcoming individuals while the climate was “pretty unforgiving,” said Tully.
“I couldn’t believe that these people could live in this climate, and I’m from Winnipeg,” said Tully. He’s experienced cold weather, “but, oh my god, that’s another level.”
Tully said filming was an experience of a lifetime.
“We’re just proud to hopefully give Canadians a glimpse of the Indigenous talent that exists across the country and the diversity of language, but also the talent.”
“Most importantly, when you see the film you see the beautiful music and it’s out on the land across Canada. It was just an amazing tribute of our music and our languages,” said Liberty.
“Music has just been a vital part of everything that you do and it’s a strong connection when you’re on the land and you hear somebody singing. It’s just such a powerful movement.”
The documentary will not display subtitles.
“I know that people are gonna go ‘well, how are we going to know what they’re singing?’ but it’s not about the words, it’s about the music and how the music affects you and the fact that this music is so traditional,” Liberty said.
To learn more about the film and OCIL visit https://commissionforindigenouslanguages.ca/rhythms-of-the-land/
Local Journalism Initiative Reporters are supported by a financial contribution made by the Government of Canada.