Full Moon Rising

Tuesday night, with a full moon coming up over the horizon, I headed to my 2nd Luminato concert. The legendary Cree singer Buffy Sainte Marie was holding court to a capacity crowd. She opened her set with one of her hits Up Where We Belong. Switching between digital keyboard and guitar, her song rang the gamut from country, rock, pop and everything in between. There were plenty of love songs including the evocative Until It's Time For You To Go. But it was on her protest songs like Universal Soldier and Left My Heart At Wounded Knee that she let her fire show by letting loose with Indian whoops and chants. In between, she reminded the audience of all the political fights, past and present, for all or of special concern to indigenous peoples, that needed to be done. She gave pointers to necessary readings including The End Of War (John Horgan) and The Female Brain (Louann Brizandine). It was a lesson in popular enlightenment for the masses. But it wasn't dour lecturing, there was plenty of humour, too. When somebody asked her about her bodiless guitar, probably expecting some obscure artisan, she replied with a wink: "Yahama". And followed it up with a "it's like this so there's never any feedback. Now if only I can find a man like that."