“I think they are going to grow up so differently than we did.” “Kids - earlier than we think - really understand injustice and it kind of infuriates them. The Secret Path is now part of the curricula at many schools across Canada. The Secret Path began as a poem, which became an album, then a graphic novel and finally an animated short that married all of the components. He was a healthy man then and we worked on this for two or three years, leading up to his diagnosis,” said Mike.Īfter Gord was diagnosed with a glioblastoma, Mike said his brother’s work on the project accelerated. “When I first heard it and told him, it grabbed him. Mike heard the story of Wenjack’s death on a radio documentary about five years ago and immediately told his little brother Gord. With only a light windbreaker, Wenjack died of hunger and exposure after walking for 36 hours as the temperature dropped to minus 6 degrees Celsius. Wenjack was 12 years old in 1966, when he attempted to run away from the Cecelia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ont., where he had been forced to live and go to school for three years. Don’t be so quick to reach out and pat yourself on the back',” said Mike. “I think it’s incredible for a body of work to spend all of those years building up these Canadian ideas and then in the last years of your life say, ‘here’s one more thing, we can be a lot better. In solo work and through his band The Tragically Hip, Gord spent his career creating a sort of soft patriotism through song, said Mike, making ordinary places like Bobcaygeon seem mythical, shouting out Jacques Cartier and the CBC and working hockey into the lyrics of numerous songs.īut Mike said his brother flipped all of that on its ear for his final project about the residential school system by saying we are not who we think we are. It’s getting there,” Mike told GuelphToday in an interview immediately prior to him going on stage. “Gord wanted it to be in every classroom in the country. Tasked with continuing the legacy of his brother Gord’s final project, Mike Downie spoke to 5,400 area schoolchildren on Thursday about The Secret Path - a multimedia project that teaches the story of the residential school system in Canada through the death of Chanie Wenjack.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |