GORD DOWNIE ANNOUNCES SECRET PATH
PRODUCED BY KEVIN DREW AND DAVE HAMELIN
WITH GRAPHIC NOVEL BY JEFF LEMIRE
& CBC ANIMATED FILM SPECIAL
TELLS THE STORY OF CHANIE WENJACK, AN INDIGENOUS BOY WHO DIED RUNNING AWAY FROM A RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL FIFTY YEARS AGO
PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
STATEMENT BY GORD DOWNIE
Ogoki Post, Ontario
September 9, 2016
Mike Downie
introduced me to Chanie Wenjack; he gave me the story from Ian Adams’
Maclean’s magazine story dating back to February 6, 1967, “The Lonely
Death of Charlie Wenjack.”
Chanie, misnamed
Charlie by his teachers, was a young boy who died on October 22, 1966,
walking the railroad tracks, trying to escape from the Cecilia Jeffrey
Indian Residential School to walk home. Chanie’s
home was 400 miles away. He didn’t know that. He didn’t know where it
was, nor how to find it, but, like so many kids - more than anyone will
be able to imagine - he tried. I never knew Chanie, but I will always
love him.
Chanie haunts me.
His story is Canada’s story. This is about Canada. We are not the
country we thought we were. History will be re-written. We are all
accountable, but this begins in the late 1800s and goes
to 1996. “White” Canada knew – on somebody’s purpose – nothing about
this. We weren’t taught it in school; it was hardly ever mentioned.
All of those
Governments, and all of those Churches, for all of those years, misused
themselves. They hurt many children. They broke up many families. They
erased entire communities. It will take seven generations
to fix this. Seven. Seven is not arbitrary. This is far from over.
Things up north have never been harder. Canada is not Canada. We are not
the country we think we are.
I am trying in this
small way to help spread what Murray Sinclair said, “This is not an
aboriginal problem. This is a Canadian problem. Because at the same time
that aboriginal people were being demeaned in
the schools and their culture and language were being taken away from
them and they were being told that they were inferior, they were pagans,
that they were heathens and savages and that they were unworthy of
being respected – that very same message was being
given to the non-aboriginal children in the public schools as well…
They need to know that history includes them.” (Murray Sinclair, Ottawa
Citizen, May 24, 2015)
I have always
wondered why, even as a kid, I never thought of Canada as a country –
It’s not a popular thought; you keep it to yourself – I never wrote of
it as so. The next hundred years are going to be painful
as we come to know Chanie Wenjack and thousands like him – as we find
out about ourselves, about all of us – but only when we do can we truly
call ourselves, “Canada.”
——
Gord Downie began Secret Path as ten poems, incited by the story of Chanie Wenjack,
a twelve year-old boy
who died in flight from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School
near Kenora, Ontario, fifty years ago, walking home to the family he was
taken from over 400 miles away. Gord was introduced to Chanie Wenjack
(miscalled “Charlie” by his teachers) by Mike
Downie, his brother, who shared with him Ian Adams’ Maclean’s story from February 6, 1967, “The Lonely Death of Charlie Wenjack.”
The stories Gord’s poems tell were fleshed into the ten songs of Secret Path with producers Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin.
Recording took place over two sessions
at The Bathouse Recording Studios in Bath, Ontario, November and
December 2013. The music features Downie on vocals and guitars, with Drew and Hamelin playing all other instruments. Guest musicians include Charles
Spearin (bass), Ohad Benchetrit (lap steel/guitar), Kevin Hearn (piano), and Dave “Billy Ray” Koster (drums).
In winter 2014, Gord and Mike brought the recently finished Secret Path music to graphic novelist Jeff Lemire for his help illustrating Chanie Wenjack’s story, bringing
him and the many children like him to life.
The ten song album will be released by Arts & Crafts accompanied by Lemire's eighty-eight page graphic novel published by Simon & Schuster Canada. Secret Path will
arrive on October 18, 2016, in a deluxe vinyl and book edition, and as a book with album download.
Downie’s music and Lemire’s illustrations have inspired The Secret Path, an animated film to be broadcast by CBC in an hour-long television special on Sunday,
October 23, 2016, 9pm east.
The Secret Path is produced by eOne and Antica Productions Ltd. in association with CBC. The Secret Path was
created, written, direction, and composed by Gord Downie, with
illustrations by Jeff Lemire.
The film is executive produced by Mike Downie, Patrick Downie, Gord
Downie, and Sarah Polley. Jocelyn Hamilton is executive producer for
eOne Television and Stuart Coxe is executive producer for Antica
Productions. Justin Stephenson is director of animation.
The broadcast date marks the
fiftieth anniversary of the morning Chanie’s body was found frozen
beside the railroad tracks only twelve miles into his journey.
Proceeds from Secret Path will be donated to The Gord Downie Secret Path Fund for Truth and Reconciliation via The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) at The
University of Manitoba. The NCTR is dedicated to preserving the
history of the residential schools in Canada, making this history known,
and moving our country forward on the path of reconciliation.
Secret Path acknowledges
a dark part of Canada’s history – the long-supressed mistreatment of
Indigenous children and families by the residential
school system – with the hope of starting our country on a road to
reconciliation. Every year as we remember Chanie Wenjack, the hope for Secret Path is that it educates all Canadians young and old on this omitted part of our history, urging
our entire nation to play an active role in the preservation of Indigenous lives and culture in Canada.
Jeff Lemire shares insight on Secret Path:
I first met Gord Downie and his
brother Mike back in the winter of 2014. They wanted to discuss a
potential project and, over coffee, they told me the story of Chanie
“Charlie” Wenjack. Gord was then in the final stages
of recording his incredible songs based on Chanie’s life and he shared
the rough mixes with me in the hopes that I would be interested in
creating a graphic novel to accompany his album. Before we left the
coffee shop I knew I was going to do it. I had to.
Chanie’s story is one that will not let you go once you hear it. It’s a
story that can’t be ignored. And yet, somehow, it has been ignored. By
nearly all of us.
Growing up white in Southern
Ontario, I never learned about Chanie Wenjack or about any of the tens
of thousands of other indigenous children like him who were part of
Canada’s residential school system. This is such
a massive part of our country’s history, yet our schools didn’t teach
us about it. Why? Maybe because it’s easier to live with ourselves if we
pretend stories like Chanie’s never happened. But they did happen, and
still happen. Chanie Wenjack lived and died,
and no one knows his story.
I’ve spent the last three years
living with Chanie’s story and living inside Gord’s music. Gord’s
haunting songs introduced me to Chanie Wenjack. Music is universal. It
crosses languages and cultures and speaks to everyone,
and I’ve always felt the medium of comics could do the same. It’s our
hope that one day Secret Path will be taught in schools and that it will
help to shed a light on this all too often ignored part of Canada’s
past. I think, above all else, that’s what Gord
and I wanted to create: something that can’t be ignored. Every Canadian
should know Chanie Wenjack’s name and I hope Secret Path helps to make
that a reality.
Gord Downie
Secret Path
w/ Graphic Novel by Jeff Lemire
Deluxe Edition (Vinyl & Book)
October 18, 2016
Arts & Crafts
Deluxe Album Cover Art HERE
Side A:
1. The Stranger
2. Swing Set
3. Seven Matches
4. I Will Not Be Struck
5. Son
Side B:
1. Secret Path
2. Don’t Let This Touch You
3. Haunt Them, Haunt Them, Haunt Them
4. The Only Place To Be
5. Here, Here and Here
Gord Downie
Secret Path
w/ Graphic Novel by Jeff Lemire
Book w/ Download
October 18, 2016
Simon & Schuster Canada
Artist Links:
Partner Links:
Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire will not be available for media requests. For comment please reach out to:
Ry Moran - Director, National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, University of Manitoba Ry.Moran@umanitoba.ca /
204-318-2926
