The Battlefield Is Love

On Thursday, I was at The Great Hall for a sold-out charity concert. Organized by the Indigenous Music Summit, the aim was to raise money for a legal defense fund to benefit the Wet’suwet’en strike action against the oil pipeline. Loud cheers greeted the announcement that over $12,900 was raised even before tallying up the raffle and t-shirt sales. Over the stage a banner declared "Stronghold", protest posters hung throughout the space, and Indigenous flags were draped over the balconies.

After a smudging ceremony, several matriarchs blessed the proceedings with a Wet'suwet'en elder talking about what's been going on all last year on their land before recent events exploded nationwide. The Charging Horse Singers led several chant songs while jingle dancers moved in front of the stage.

Sarain Fox was the emcee for the night. She hyped up the musical guests, led the crowd in a round dance, encouraged people to buy raffle tickets, and outlined several follow-on activist actions that everyone should do. A young spoken word artist Zoe Pricelys Roy stunned the crowd with intense poetry. Serena Ryder, along with her best friend Hill Kourkoutis, opened with the a capella Nobody But You, got the crowd dancing with What I Wouldn't Do, and covered Emily King's beautiful Teach You.

Brenda McIntyre chanted The Healing Song before Witch Prophet (and DJ Sun Sun) turned up the electronic beats for surprisingly jazzy numbers Time Traveler, Moussa, and Manifest. Amanda Rheaume (with guests Robin Hatch, Skye Wallace) brought a bit of roots-rock with The Skin I'm In, Red Dress (dedicated to the missing and murdered Indigenous women), and Strongest Heart.

Veronica Johnny led the crowd with a spine-tingling group sing of The Strong Woman Song. Digging Roots brought the message home in rocking fashion with AK 47 (a gun that shoots love) and Spring To Come. Chantal Kreviazuk silenced the crowd with an a capella rendition of Feels Like Home before sitting down on the piano for Vicious. Rheaume joined her on Waiting For The Sun before Digging Roots came back to support Kreviazuk with the closer Feeling Blue.

Throughout the evening, several elders emphasized that we must keep our hearts open and full of kindness even if some may feel agitated to escalate the situation. One pointed out to laughter that change was the solution, not violence: to be "shift disturbers". Fox explained that the translation of the Indigenous phrase "We are the stronghold" was actually "The heart is a stronghold". But given past history regarding First Nations people and the ugly sentiment of many Canadians on display in real life and newspapers' comments, I can't help but think pessimistically of Audrey Lord's quote: "[T]he master's tools will never dismantle the master's house".