By Jim Barber
Generally a murals is extra than simply one thing to aesthetically admire or be entertained by. For Ottawa-based singer/songwriter Amanda Rheaume music has develop into a potent and persuasive software that may breach the boundaries of what artwork can do on the earth, as a drive of fine and a drive of change.
It’s been a very great expertise for her followers, the music business and the broader neighborhood of people to see how Rheaume has advanced as an artist and as a human right into a assured cultural chief who makes use of her platform and abilities for the next objective. It’s a transformation that has required a lot work, a lot contemplation, a lot soul-searching and growing gravity and accountability for the songs she writes, the phrases she speaks, the actions she takes and the priorities she believes in.
Together with her new album, The Fact We Maintain, launched on Ishkode Data, the label she co-founded, Rheaume turns into a storyteller in each facet of the time period, not solely crafting and recording songs that remember the vibrancy and difficult heritage of her Métis tradition, however going past to include conventional tunes, compelling archival images, and prolonged explanations in an accompanying guidebook of the tales behind the songs. It’s an album created with objective past each industrial achieve and need for self-satisfaction or accolades. It’s a work of artistry that’s meant to coach, illuminate and remediate forgotten points of our collective historical past as those that share the land referred to as Canada.
“I consider there are such a lot of Canadians and other people on the earth exterior Canada that don’t even know who the Métis individuals are. I do suppose there’s some demystification wanted, as a result of there’s a whole lot of misinformation and deliberate disinformation and confusion round who Métis individuals are. So, for me, it’s about lifting up actual Métis folks and their tales and experiences of the previous, current and songs for the longer term – all of it simply appears like generational work,” stated Rheaume of the aim behind the album, which noticed her crisscrossing the northern half of the continent, assembly with Métis neighborhood members, gathering info, studying about issues that aren’t now, nor ever have been taught within the historical past books of Canada.
“I suppose one other factor for me is telling tales which can be untold. Like what occurred in Agawa Bay [in the song ‘One of These Days’] and other people say, ‘what do you imply that the federal government burned down homes in Agawa Bay within the Nineteen Sixties?’ Even once I heard the story for the primary time, I attempted to Google it and I couldn’t discover something about it. Now, you might be able to discover one factor about it. Métis folks have been additionally referred to as ‘the forgotten folks’ for therefore lengthy, which is why I wrote the track ‘Unforgettable.’ Over time there’s been this passing the buck forwards and backwards between the federal and provincial governments that has actually been damaging, as a result of in so many circumstances, nobody has taken accountability or been accountable to the Métis folks and our rights and our histories.
“I feel that everybody ought to know this historical past and listen to these tales. I might discuss this endlessly, however I suppose I’ll say that I’m additionally actually fascinated with celebrating the locations the place we will discover our similarities and our shared values and our kinship, as a substitute of the locations the place we discover our variations in opinions, beliefs and values. I do discover it’s a fairly polarized place lately – the world, society, social media, you already know. So my hope is that we will discover one another in these shops and in these songs and use them to look again to see the place we have been, the place we are actually and the place we will go sooner or later.”
Over the span of 4 albums, starting with Holding Patterns in 2017, adopted by the revelatory The Pores and skin I’m In (2019) and 2022’s The Areas In Between, Rheaume’s has been an exceptionally stunning and compelling journey to observe and expertise in actual time. On the The Pores and skin I’m In album we see somebody who was combating the issues and seeming contradictions of her private id as a member of the Queer neighborhood inside the framework of conventional Indigenous beliefs, but in addition somebody who was struggling together with her id and the way she offered as a ‘blonde haired, blue eyed’ Métis. Within the subsequent album, she involves embrace her delightfully multifaceted id and her ancestral tradition in all its vitality and reverence. At this time we’re offered with somebody who has develop into immersed within the tales of her folks, taking possession of her personal place inside these tales and the function of constructing positive they’re heard.
The writer of this text has to confess bias as a result of he has helped doc components of this journey over the previous decade in earlier articles, and it has affected not solely the connection between author and artist (we’re friends now), however his total worldview. Briefly, Amanda Rheaume’s dedication to her function is as worthy of commendation and admiration as it’s impactful, past simply enlightening a 56-year-old white settler descendant.
“After I take heed to my older albums I’m like, yeah, I’m nonetheless on the lookout for it right here. It’s not totally realized or boiled down. And I used to be not planning on this path in any respect. However there are many issues that I didn’t plan. I didn’t plan to work with Shoshana Kish [Digging Roots] to assist create the Indigenous Music Summit. I by no means deliberate to start out a file label [Ishkode Records, again with Kish and others]. It was similar to this life and this path has come to me actually,” she defined.
“However I’ve been serious about it quite a bit. Each my grandfathers have been leaders. My dad’s dad, Gene, was an MP [Member of Parliament] and he was a f***ing strong-willed good chief, combating for the rights of Indigenous folks all of his political profession. After which my mother’s dad was an explorer for the Navy. He was on the primary deep sea vessel that circumnavigated North America going by the Northwest Passage. I feel I’m beginning to type of settle for this, I suppose, path. And I wish to do it in a great way. I do really feel, too, I’m attending to an age the place I’ve come to see it as a accountability. When you already know one thing, you possibly can’t unknow it. As a result of I’m not younger any extra, I’m simply going to do what I’m going to do much more now. I’m not as nervous about what folks suppose. I definitely don’t suppose I might sit round now and simply marvel what my function is transferring ahead.”
With the discharge of The Fact We Maintain, Rheaume has not solely continued to be a valued and efficient story teller for her folks however is now taking a number one function within the conversations for, with and in regards to the Métis folks’s legacy, rising sense of empowerment and future as a nation. She has added the function of advocate to that of artist and understands that, past creating music that represents the tragedies and triumphs of her tradition and nation, she has additionally develop into a researcher, documentarian and speaker of fact, with a resonant voice calling for recognition and restoration.
“I actually wished to have at the least one track from completely different areas of Métis. There are Métis folks in BC and the Northwest Territories however I simply centered on Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario as a result of these the place locations I had connections. However possibly this can broaden and there’ll be a quantity two and I’ll get to go to different locations and completely different communities in these provinces. That will be cool truly,” she stated.
“There’s nearly an excessive amount of work begging to be taken on to the purpose the place I want I might do all the pieces I wish to do. However no matter comes down the street, I do know I’ll proceed to be concerned within the Indigenous music neighborhood and advocating in that method. However I’m additionally getting tremendous obsessive about coverage work. My grandpa has stated, ‘if you wish to get one thing executed, you must do it politically.’ So I discover myself asking, the place’s the purpose the place we have to get in, to crack all of it open. I feel I’ll proceed to do the issues I’m doing and who is aware of what is going to occur.”
It was essential for Rheaume to current the Métis because the well-rounded, vital, splendidly inventive, numerous and compelling folks that they’re, as a substitute of focusing solely on anecdotes about exploitation, oppression and tragedy, which performs into the settle mentality that they’re simply victims. On The Fact We Maintain, there are a solid of great characters, uplifting tales and examples of resiliency, headlined by the pleasant songs ‘Flossie’s,’ about homespun kitchen events, and ‘Annie’s Whip,’ which tells the story of a fiesty, non-nonsense badass who suffered neither fools nor racists.
“For a very long time and possibly even nonetheless, Métis households struggled. Many would go totally underground inside Canadian society as a result of they have been white passing. However I don’t wish to communicate for anyone however regardless of issues being laborious, and Métis dealing with racism or dealing with displacement Métis folks would nonetheless come collectively and they’d be in neighborhood and have music and have meals. I do hope that this album showcases the resilience of a folks, as a result of it’s actually stunning and memorable,” she stated.
A type of stunning and memorable tales of resiliency is instructed over two songs. In ‘#44’ and ‘Dream If You Need To’ the story of residential faculty survivor Robert Merasty encapsulates his experiences of anguish, bureaucratic indifference, however finally energy and survival.
“I wished to be actually respectful with the tales, particularly with Robert. He’s nonetheless alive and that neighborhood [Île-à-la-Crosse in Saskatchewan] has been by hell with this battle to be acknowledged as having a residential faculty. Neither the provincial nor federal authorities would acknowledge it as a residential faculty as a result of it was in a Métis neighborhood so it didn’t qualify underneath the [2016] Indian Residential Faculties Settlement Settlement. Many survivors have died and didn’t get the possibility to see the second when the popularity occurred, and the popularity truly occurred [March of 2025] simply earlier than my album got here out, which is actually loopy,” she stated.
“With Robert, I really feel and felt a large accountability. I requested him what he thought of me writing a track in any respect, and I hadn’t even met him but. I heard an interview with Robert on a podcast however that was after I had been to the neighborhood. I wrote to him and stated, ‘hear, I’m penning this file of Métis tales and I might be honoured in the event you’d be open to the thought of me writing a track about you and your story.’ And he stated sure, I instructed him I might ship it to him earlier than I recorded it to see if he favored it. My considering was what if he hated it. Or what if it was too emotional, then I wasn’t going to place it on the album until he was okay with it. So he gave me the thumbs up.
“Proper earlier than my Saskatoon present earlier this 12 months, [Métis fiddler extraordinaire and Rheaume band member] Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk and I drove as much as Île-à-la-Crosse, as a result of I’d by no means truly met him, and clearly neither had Alyssa and we introduced him the file, and we performed and sang for him for his neighborhood radio present. It was simply this actually full circle second/. However these are the issues that I really feel are essential, versus ‘hey, can I extract a track out of your tremendous troublesome expertise?’ That’s not the purpose. It’s essential to have care and be considerate and I hope that it’s additionally therapeutic, you already know, in a method. All I actually cared about and proceed to care about with this file is that the neighborhood or the folks which can be in these songs are represented correctly and in a method that’s true.”
The Fact We Maintain was produced by legendary Canadian songwriter, recording artist and producer Colin Linden, who not solely captured the non secular essence of the tales infusing Rheaume’s songs, but in addition her irrepressible abilities as a musician and vocalist.
“Colin is such an unimaginable musician himself and unimaginable artist and producer and grasp of guitar tones. After I was attempting to resolve who’s going to provide this album I wished to do one thing completely different. I wished to attempt working with someone new. And I simply considered him and I reached out straight away. And he was so cool to speak to from the get-go. And he stated one thing that I’ll always remember. He stated, ‘I listened to your music and it’s nice. And I do know your albums sound nice however I type of need this file to be like a candid photograph,’” stated Rheaume.
“And I used to be like, ‘oh, wow. That’s cool. He’s good!’ And at occasions I can over suppose and over attempt, you already know. However so a lot of these vocals on the file are the scratch vocals [laid down as a base for the instrumentation to be replaced later by more polished vocals] and all of us simply sat there within the studio and I simply sang and performed and all people performed. We did do a couple of overdubs and I needed to rethink a couple of issues, however Colin simply wished to seize all the pieces because it flowed. Through the course of we weren’t being treasured and I feel that’s actually good for somebody like me, as a result of I’ll overthink and fear and marvel, again and again about all the pieces I do. And I simply suppose for this file, it was an ideal option to do it.”
Many of the songs on The Fact We Maintain have been co-writes, that includes an distinctive array of expertise together with Adrian Sutherland, Julian Taylor, Terra Lightfoot, Tom Wilson, Shoshana Kish and Raven from Digging Roots, Thompson Wilson and Sebastian Gaskin.
“It was nearly like a separate journey to truly write all of the songs. I labored with so a lot of my pals. I actually wished to co-write as a result of I wished these songs to be the very best they could possibly be. And I actually love co-writing usually – I all the time have. In a method, it makes issues go sooner as a result of there’s a particular meet up time with the opposite author and also you’ve acquired to concentrate on it within the second. However nonetheless, between that and all of the travelling to the completely different communities, it took me a couple of 12 months and a half to do the album,” Rheaume stated.
Time effectively spent, I feel we’d all agree.
For extra info on The Fact We Maintain, together with extras on every of the songs on the album, go to https://www.amandarheaume.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and writer based mostly in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for greater than 30 years. Moreover his journalistic endeavours, he works as a communications and advertising specialist, and is an avid volunteer in his neighborhood. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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