By Jim Barber
Typically a murals is extra than simply one thing to aesthetically admire or be entertained by. For Ottawa-based singer/songwriter Amanda Rheaume music has develop into a potent and persuasive instrument that may breach the boundaries of what artwork can do on the planet, as a drive of fine and a drive of change.
It’s been a very fantastic expertise for her followers, the music business and the broader group of people to see how Rheaume has developed as an artist and as a human right into a assured cultural chief who makes use of her platform and abilities for the next function. It’s a transformation that has required a lot work, a lot contemplation, a lot soul-searching and growing gravity and duty for the songs she writes, the phrases she speaks, the actions she takes and the priorities she believes in.
Along with her new album, The Fact We Maintain, launched on Ishkode Data, the label she co-founded, Rheaume turns into a storyteller in each facet of the time period, not solely crafting and recording songs that remember the vibrancy and difficult heritage of her Métis tradition, however going past to include conventional tunes, compelling archival pictures, and prolonged explanations in an accompanying guidebook of the tales behind the songs. It’s an album created with function past each business achieve and want for self-satisfaction or accolades. It’s a work of artistry that’s meant to coach, illuminate and remediate forgotten elements of our collective historical past as those that share the land referred to as Canada.
“I consider there are such a lot of Canadians and folks on the planet exterior Canada that don’t even know who the Métis individuals are. I do suppose there’s some demystification wanted, as a result of there’s a whole lot of misinformation and deliberate disinformation and confusion round who Métis individuals are. So, for me, it’s about lifting up actual Métis folks and their tales and experiences of the previous, current and songs for the long run – all of it simply appears like generational work,” mentioned Rheaume of the aim behind the album, which noticed her crisscrossing the northern half of the continent, assembly with Métis group members, gathering data, studying about issues that aren’t now, nor ever have been taught within the historical past books of Canada.
“I suppose one other factor for me is telling tales which might be untold. Like what occurred in Agawa Bay [in the song ‘One of These Days’] and folks say, ‘what do you imply that the federal government burned down homes in Agawa Bay within the Sixties?’ Even once I heard the story for the primary time, I attempted to Google it and I couldn’t discover something about it. Now, you might be able to discover one factor about it. Métis folks had been additionally referred to as ‘the forgotten folks’ for therefore lengthy, which is why I wrote the music ‘Unforgettable.’ Over time there’s been this passing the buck forwards and backwards between the federal and provincial governments that has actually been damaging, as a result of in so many instances, nobody has taken duty or been accountable to the Métis folks and our rights and our histories.
“I feel that everybody ought to know this historical past and listen to these tales. I may speak about this without end, however I suppose I’ll say that I’m additionally actually occupied with celebrating the locations the place we will discover our similarities and our shared values and our kinship, as an alternative of the locations the place we discover our variations in opinions, beliefs and values. I do discover it’s a fairly polarized place as of late – the world, society, social media, you realize. So my hope is that we will discover one another in these shops and in these songs and use them to look again to see the place we had been, the place we are actually and the place we will go sooner or later.”
Over the span of 4 albums, starting with Holding Patterns in 2017, adopted by the revelatory The Pores and skin I’m In (2019) and 2022’s The Areas In Between, Rheaume’s has been an exceptionally stunning and compelling journey to observe and expertise in actual time. On the The Pores and skin I’m In album we see somebody who was scuffling with the problems and seeming contradictions of her private id as a member of the Queer group inside the framework of conventional Indigenous beliefs, but in addition somebody who was struggling along with her id and the way she introduced as a ‘blonde haired, blue eyed’ Métis. Within the subsequent album, she involves embrace her delightfully multifaceted id and her ancestral tradition in all its vitality and reverence. As we speak we’re introduced with somebody who has develop into immersed within the tales of her folks, taking possession of her personal place inside these tales and the function of constructing certain they’re heard.
The creator of this text has to confess bias as a result of he has helped doc elements of this journey over the previous decade in earlier articles, and it has affected not solely the connection between author and artist (we’re buddies now), however his total worldview. Briefly, Amanda Rheaume’s dedication to her function is as worthy of commendation and admiration as it’s impactful, past simply enlightening a 56-year-old white settler descendant.
“After I take heed to my older albums I’m like, yeah, I’m nonetheless searching for it right here. It’s not absolutely realized or boiled down. And I used to be not planning on this path in any respect. However there are many issues that I didn’t plan. I didn’t plan to work with Shoshana Kish [Digging Roots] to assist create the Indigenous Music Summit. I by no means deliberate to start out a file label [Ishkode Records, again with Kish and others]. It was identical to this life and this path has come to me actually,” she defined.
“However I’ve been eager about it loads. Each my grandfathers had been leaders. My dad’s dad, Gene, was an MP [Member of Parliament] and he was a f***ing strong-willed sensible chief, preventing for the rights of Indigenous folks all of his political profession. After which my mother’s dad was an explorer for the Navy. He was on the primary deep sea vessel that circumnavigated North America going by the Northwest Passage. I feel I’m beginning to sort of settle for this, I suppose, path. And I wish to do it in a great way. I do really feel, too, I’m attending to an age the place I’ve come to see it as a duty. When you realize one thing, you may’t unknow it. As a result of I’m not younger any extra, I’m simply going to do what I’m going to do much more now. I’m not as apprehensive about what folks suppose. I definitely don’t suppose I may sit round now and simply surprise what my function is shifting ahead.”
With the discharge of The Fact We Maintain, Rheaume has not solely continued to be a valued and efficient story teller for her folks however is now taking a number one function within the conversations for, with and concerning the Métis folks’s legacy, rising sense of empowerment and future as a nation. She has added the function of advocate to that of artist and understands that, past creating music that represents the tragedies and triumphs of her tradition and nation, she has additionally develop into a researcher, documentarian and speaker of fact, with a resonant voice calling for recognition and restoration.
“I actually needed to have at the very least one music from completely different areas of Métis. There are Métis folks in BC and the Northwest Territories however I simply centered on Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario as a result of these the place locations I had connections. However possibly this may broaden and there’ll be a quantity two and I’ll get to go to different locations and completely different communities in these provinces. That may be cool truly,” she mentioned.
“There’s nearly an excessive amount of work begging to be taken on to the purpose the place I want I may do every part I wish to do. However no matter comes down the street, I do know I’ll proceed to be concerned within the Indigenous music group and advocating in that manner. However I’m additionally getting tremendous obsessive about coverage work. My grandpa has mentioned, ‘if you wish to get one thing achieved, it’s important to do it politically.’ So I discover myself asking, the place’s the purpose the place we have to get in, to crack all of it open. I feel I’ll proceed to do the issues I’m doing and who is aware of what’s going to occur.”
It was necessary for Rheaume to current the Métis because the well-rounded, important, splendidly artistic, numerous and compelling those that they’re, as an alternative of focusing solely on anecdotes about exploitation, oppression and tragedy, which performs into the settle mentality that they’re simply victims. On The Fact We Maintain, there are a solid of fantastic characters, uplifting tales and examples of resiliency, headlined by the pleasant songs ‘Flossie’s,’ about homespun kitchen events, and ‘Annie’s Whip,’ which tells the story of a fiesty, non-nonsense badass who suffered neither fools nor racists.
“For a very long time and possibly even nonetheless, Métis households struggled. Many would go absolutely underground inside Canadian society as a result of they had been white passing. However I don’t wish to converse for anyone however regardless of issues being laborious, and Métis dealing with racism or dealing with displacement Métis folks would nonetheless come collectively and they’d be in group and have music and have meals. I do hope that this album showcases the resilience of a folks, as a result of it’s actually stunning and noteworthy,” she mentioned.
A kind of stunning and noteworthy tales of resiliency is informed over two songs. In ‘#44’ and ‘Dream If You Need To’ the story of residential faculty survivor Robert Merasty encapsulates his experiences of anguish, bureaucratic indifference, however finally energy and survival.
“I needed to be actually respectful with the tales, particularly with Robert. He’s nonetheless alive and that group [Île-à-la-Crosse in Saskatchewan] has been by hell with this battle to be acknowledged as having a residential faculty. Neither the provincial nor federal authorities would acknowledge it as a residential faculty as a result of it was in a Métis group so it didn’t qualify below the [2016] Indian Residential Faculties Settlement Settlement. Many survivors have died and didn’t get the possibility to see the second when the popularity occurred, and the popularity truly occurred [March of 2025] simply earlier than my album got here out, which is basically loopy,” she mentioned.
“With Robert, I really feel and felt an enormous duty. I requested him what he considered me writing a music in any respect, and I hadn’t even met him but. I heard an interview with Robert on a podcast however that was after I had been to the group. I wrote to him and mentioned, ‘pay attention, I’m scripting this file of Métis tales and I’d be honoured for those who’d be open to the concept of me writing a music about you and your story.’ And he mentioned sure, I informed him I’d ship it to him earlier than I recorded it to see if he appreciated it. My pondering was what if he hated it. Or what if it was too emotional, then I wasn’t going to place it on the album until he was okay with it. So he gave me the thumbs up.
“Proper earlier than my Saskatoon present earlier this yr, [Métis fiddler extraordinaire and Rheaume band member] Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk and I drove as much as Île-à-la-Crosse, as a result of I’d by no means truly met him, and clearly neither had Alyssa and we introduced him the file, and we performed and sang for him for his group radio present. It was simply this actually full circle second/. However these are the issues that I really feel are necessary, versus ‘hey, can I extract a music out of your tremendous troublesome expertise?’ That’s not the purpose. It’s necessary to have care and be considerate and I hope that it’s additionally therapeutic, you realize, in a manner. All I actually cared about and proceed to care about with this file is that the group or the folks which might be in these songs are represented correctly and in a manner that’s true.”
The Fact We Maintain was produced by legendary Canadian songwriter, recording artist and producer Colin Linden, who not solely captured the religious essence of the tales infusing Rheaume’s songs, but in addition her irrepressible abilities as a musician and vocalist.
“Colin is such an unimaginable musician himself and unimaginable artist and producer and grasp of guitar tones. After I was making an attempt to determine who’s going to provide this album I needed to do one thing completely different. I needed to attempt working with someone new. And I simply considered him and I reached out straight away. And he was so cool to speak to from the get-go. And he mentioned one thing that I’ll always remember. He mentioned, ‘I listened to your music and it’s nice. And I do know your albums sound nice however I sort of need this file to be like a candid picture,’” mentioned Rheaume.
“And I used to be like, ‘oh, wow. That’s cool. He’s good!’ And at occasions I can over suppose and over attempt, you realize. However so a lot of these vocals on the file are the scratch vocals [laid down as a base for the instrumentation to be replaced later by more polished vocals] and all of us simply sat there within the studio and I simply sang and performed and everyone performed. We did do a couple of overdubs and I needed to rethink a couple of issues, however Colin simply needed to seize every part because it flowed. Through the course of we weren’t being valuable and I feel that’s actually good for somebody like me, as a result of I’ll overthink and fear and surprise, again and again about every part I do. And I simply suppose for this file, it was an ideal method to do it.”
A lot of the songs on The Fact We Maintain had been co-writes, that includes an distinctive array of expertise together with Adrian Sutherland, Julian Taylor, Terra Lightfoot, Tom Wilson, Shoshana Kish and Raven from Digging Roots, Thompson Wilson and Sebastian Gaskin.
“It was nearly like a separate journey to really write all of the songs. I labored with so a lot of my associates. I actually needed to co-write as a result of I needed these songs to be the most effective they may very well be. And I actually love co-writing on the whole – I at all times have. In a manner, it makes issues go sooner as a result of there’s a particular meet up time with the opposite author and also you’ve received to give attention to it within the second. However nonetheless, between that and all of the travelling to the completely different communities, it took me a few yr and a half to do the album,” Rheaume mentioned.
Time properly spent, I feel we’d all agree.
For extra data on The Fact We Maintain, together with extras on every of the songs on the album, go to
Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and creator primarily based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for greater than 30 years. Apart from his journalistic endeavours, he works as a communications and advertising and marketing specialist, and is an avid volunteer in his group. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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