Friday night’s concert at
Ottawa-based singer-songwriter Amanda Rheaume has a personal stake in the gig; a member of the Metis Nation, her indigenous ancestors are from Lac Seul and she is also of Anishinaabe heritage, only recently having started looking into her background.
What she uncovered, however, made her beam with pride.
“My grandfather, Gene Rheaume, was one of the first Métis members of Parliament after Louis Riel and he spent his life advocating for the indigenous peoples of
Riel, of course, saw the white man encroaching on his Metis community and led two rebellions against that encroachment, serving on Parliament Hill when
“He was friends with my great-great-grandfather, A.G.B. Bannatyne, who was the first postmaster (in Riel’s provisional government following the 1869 Red River Rebellion).”
Amanda won a Canadian Folk Music Award for Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year in 2014 was also nominated for a Juno Award that same year. She has turned out four albums. Friday night, she’ll be performing Tragically Hip favourites Now For Plan A and The Stranger.
Rheaume says the dialogue between indigenous people and the rest of
”I think it is going to take a long time to de-colonize this country and everyone’s minds,” she tells Barrie Today. “I think more light is being shed on the issues than ever before, but there is a long way to go.”
She credits Downie for many of the improvements instituted since, including the Downie Wenjack Fund (also named in honour of the young man whose life was ruined by his stay in residential schools).
“Gord Downie was an incredible artist and humanitarian. I think that meaning and action can happen at different times in everyone’s journey, and I can only imagine that in the face of death the innate desire to make a difference is only amplified.”
Amanda Rheaume is among a bevy of artists paying tribute Friday night to Downie at Mavricks,
