A Drum Ceremony for Dead Eagles and Ravens
By Cle-alls (Dr. John Medicine Horse Kelly)
The phone rang. It was Roxanne. “Jake, I just killed an eagle”. “So, Roxanne, why’d you do that?” “Why? Why? What do you mean, why? She flew up in front of my truck, that’s why!”
Now, raven-clan people say eagles are more noble than smart, but I hardly ever heard of an eagle flying up in front of a pickup truck. Power lines, not pickups, usually get them.
“So . . . where is she now?” “In the back of my pickup. I was on my way to Queen Charlotte City”. “Where are you parked?” “In front of the restaurant. You know, the Sea Raven..”.
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A Dehe’igan (Drum) from Manitoulin Island
By Alan Corbiere and Ruth B. Phillips
Relatively few drums from the Great Lakes region have been preserved in museum collections, possibly because Indigenous people were reluctant to part with objects that played such important roles in communication between human beings and the manidoog or spirits. One of the more interesting drums that has come down to us from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is today in London’s British Museum, where it is catalogued as Ethno 2144.
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Crossing Over the Invisible Line
By Rohahes Iain Phillips
One man’s personal experience in joining traditional Indigenous and western musical forms.
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Native Drums In The Context of World Instruments
By Elaine Keillor
The musical instruments that First Peoples’ cultures within Canada developed from the natural materials at hand often bear similarities in form to those developed elsewhere in the world. In many cases, though, the Indigenous peoples of Canada created unique instruments to express their personal needs and to communicate with all creation. This essay briefly examines commonalities of symbolism and usage as well as unique versions of First Peoples’ drums, other percussive instruments, wind and string inventions.
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