Northern Adventure Series: Moosehide Gathering 2014
I recently travelled up to Yukon and Alaska for two weeks and decided to check out some cultural and musical events in the various towns that I visited. Here is the first part in a mini-series of my Northern Adventures.
We arrived in Dawson City and while waiting for the ferry to cross the river and head to our campsite we noticed plenty of little boats shuttling people to a clearing just barely in sight. We took the ferry, set up camp and headed back to town to find out what was going on. We were informed that Moosehide Gathering, an event hosted by the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, was happening just over yonder at Moosehide Village. The gathering takes place every two years and it was free to attend. We all decided that this was a no-brainer. We put on our life jackets and headed towards the boats to be shuttled over.
Upon our arrival at this beautiful aboriginal gathering place we were in awe. We got there just in time to catch most of the opening ceremony, which included traditional aboriginal song and dance performed by people of all ages. Before every song we were told the tale or the message behind the song, which I found incredibly interesting. Songs for grandmothers who work so hard and deserve to play and songs about wildlife and hunting. After the songs were done, there were prayers around the sacred fire to mark the beginning of four days of gathering.
With the event officially open, it was time for a free feast of moose, salmon soup, vegetables and salads.  There was moose steak, ground moose with rice and moose stew. They easily fed over 100 people — it was an incredible feast. Even better than the flavours or the generosity was the opportunity to sit down with some local aboriginal miners and talk about life.
With our bellies full and the sun still shining strong (there are 19 hours of daylight this time of year) we were all ready for some music. Kicking it all off was the insanely talented Cris Derksen. She began her set by saying: ” I am going to be rowdy, just to warn you elders here, this is nothing like the fiddle. I do not play very traditional music.” Cris was not kidding. Her masterful playing of the cello meshed with electro music was captivating — think Owen Pallett on a cello. She would loop her own playing (which she explained for the elders as she assumed they had never heard anything like it), integrate the keys with the cello, add effects, and was teamed up with a drummer. It was even better than I describe it. The song that really stuck with me was her track “War Cry.” She wrote the incredibly powerful piece while George W. Bush was in power and she was feeling powerless, but as she said “I did not write it to feel powerless, I wrote it to find strength in my ancestors.” I strongly encourage you to check out this Canadian gem.
After Cris finished we were entertained by the MC who played the pan flute and told jokes as the headliner got ready. Closing out the first night was fiddler extraordinaire, Boyd Benjamin, accompanied by Kevin Barr and Ed Peekeekoot on guitar, and Dawson’s very own Jimmy Roberts on bass. The quartet played lovely toe-tapping square dancing and jig music, and even found time to crack a bunch of jokes as well. They got some people up and dancing, most noteworthy was the older aboriginal man dressed in a leather jacket, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat dancing with some teenage girls who could not help but laugh and have a blast. Benjamin and Barr also forced the 50/50 winner to do a jig before handing over her winnings.