Marilyn Root (left) performs with sister Renita Nawash (right) and drumming students from G.C. Huston Public School at the Songs of Sorrow and Hope Concert and Reconciliation Dinner July 8 in Southampton.

Hub Staff

Guests enjoyed a concert featuring both Indigenous and Jewish music at a Songs of Sorrow and Hope Concert and Reconciliation Dinner July 8 at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Southampton.

Songs were performed by elders, youth and ages in between, whose voices carried the audience from heartache to hope.

The concert kicked off with a drumming quartet led by Marilyn Root. Root was joined by sister Renita Nawash and two students from G.C. Huston Public School where Root teaches her drumming traditions. After their performance, Root explained why she began teaching drumming to the youth at G.C. “They love to sing," she said. "They love to drum, that’s what inspired me.”

Root described the treatment of the drums, how children are taught to respect the drum as if it was a person. She explained how the songs are repeated four times, symbolizing the four directions depicted on the Medicine Wheel. Nawash noted the face of the drums are left blank until a picture is presented in either vision or dream. Only then will an image be painted onto the drum.

Event co-ordinator Laura Robinson remembered a day in 1975 that altered her path in life as she crossed what is now the Zgaa-biig-ni-gan Bridge on her bicycle to attend her first Saugeen First Nation Pow Wow. As she was witness to the music, dance and fashions, she recalled how the stories told by the performers surfaced an unexpected familiar sorrow from her own upbringing. Robinson’s father was a Canadian Jew who grew up on the prairies where, Robinson said, it was legal to ban Jews and Indigenous people from any event, service, facility or venue.

Today, Robinson remains committed to sharing an honest, transparent history within our community. The reconciliation dinners aim to provide a welcoming atmosphere for individuals to contribute stories and learn from others.

The July 8 concert served as an appetizer to the culturally enriched meal. Performers included the drumming group as well as Ogimaabinesiikwe, Jimelda Johnston, from Neyaashiinigmiing and Ella Gladstone-Martin, an Israeli born woman on her way to New York to complete her journey of becoming a Cantor.

Ogimaabinesiikwe sang her story with nothing but a candle to accompany her as she took the audience back to a dark night in her past. The song, that Ogimaabinesiikwe said was “born of a spirit” allows her to visit this time in her history without staying too long.

Gladstone-Martin expressed her joy in being able to help others heal through the power of her voice. She performed some songs a cappella and others with a flutist in the English, Yiddish and Hebrew languages. Her songs echoed the theme of the event with verses of sorrow that led to messages of hope.

Robinson ended the concert with words of gratitude.

“Every reconciliation dinner we’ve had, I say this is the best one we’ve ever had,” said Robinson. “We’ve had four years of the ‘best ones we’ve ever had,’” she exclaimed.

All donations collected from the event will be given to the drumming group.

Ella Gladstone-Martin sang to guests gathered for the fourth annual Reconciliation Dinner July 8 at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Southampton.