Manitoba Mtis Fulbright scholarship winner gives voice to Indigenous women through opera

A Manitoba Mtissinger who is doing research onIndigenous opera has beenawarded a prestigious Fulbright Canada scholarship which she said will give her a platform to continue sharing Indigenous stories.

Camryn Dewar is Red River Mtis and one of 14 Canadians awarded a Fulbright student award, a highly sought-after U.S.-Canada exchange scholarship awarded toyoung professionals.

"When I found out I remember running around the house jumping up and down, squealing and everything because I was so, so excited," said Dewar.

The soprano from Stony Mountain, just north of Winnipeg, says thescholarship for $25,000 USover aneight-month academic year will relieve the worry of having to workto pay off for her tuition, allowing her tofocus on her studyat Montclair State University in New Jersey, where she's focusing her research on Indigenous opera.

She's already finished the first year of hermaster's of music in opera performance degree, and is set to graduate in the spring.

Thanks to the scholarship, "I have a platform that I've been given to be able to talk about first of all, [that]Indigenous people still exist we're everywhere," and "also, wemake music, and we make really good musicand not only that, we make opera."

From rural Manitoba to Carnegie Hall

Dewar said on herfather's side of the family,playing instruments is "kind of in the blood."

"Musicianship, jigging and fiddling guitar and piano is such a huge part of [the] Mtis culture and I really have my Mtis background to thank for being musical in the first place," she said.

At the age of four, Dewarfollowed her grandmother's advice and beganpiano, voice and hand drumlessons. But it wasn't untilshe was 13 that she decided to be a professional performer, after being cast in the children's chorus in a Manitoba Opera production ofLa Bohme.

"I was looking out at the [Centennial] Concert Hall, rows and rows of seats with the spotlights it's just everything how you picture it, and I was like ... 'this is what I want to do, for sure,'" she said.

Her first experience withIndigenous opera was during her undergrad at the University of Manitoba, performing an excerpt of Missing an opera aboutmissing and murdered Indigenous women by Mtis playwright Marie Clements andcomposer Brian Current.

"I truly felt like my soul was pouring out of my bodyit was such a visceral experience," she said. "With Indigenous music specifically, it really feels like everything is just coming out of you."

As an emerging artist, Dewar said support from the Mtiscommunity, and particularly the Manitoba Manitoba Federation,has beeninvaluable, opening doors with financial help while completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Manitobaand leading toa career that's already includedperformances atprestigious venues like the Banff Centre in Alberta andCarnegie Hall in New York.

Dewar is focusing her lecture recital series a capstone project for her master's degree on theevolution of how Indigenous women are representedin opera, and the shiftfrom the"romanticization" of Indigenous women in eurocentric operas.

That shift has included work that explores violence against Indigenous women, which is"very powerful, important and huge," she said.

And now, "we're at a point where we're just trying to kind of normalize Indigenous people" in art and popular culture, including opera.

That normalization "is a huge part of equal representation, because we're finally moving away from just stereotypes," she said.

Up To Speed8:24Stony Mountain opera singer wins Fulbright Student Award

Stony Mountain opera singer Camryn Dewar is one of 14 winners of this year's Fulbright Student Award. She joins Up To Speed host Faith Fundal to share how the scholarship will help with her studies and research into the evolving role of Indigenous women in opera.

Mel Braun, head of the Desautels faculty of music's vocal program at the University of Manitoba, met Dewar for coaching sessions while she was a first-year student and introduced her to Missing.

The pair worked together for years, and Dewar grew "into her body as a singer," Braun said, freeing up her vocal capacity and technique, while also finding her figurative voice.

"Her voice is beautiful," and "speaks for itself when she sings, but she's [also] a powerful advocate,"Braun said.

Dewar's work to presentmusic fromIndigenous composersis a cause that "really needs taking on," particularly in the opera world, he said.

"Opera usually ends up with the woman dying for some reason," said Braun.

"There's a whole tradition in the matriarchy of Indigenous culture of very strong leadership from women and the more we can encourage this, the better."

Work to collaborate with Indigenous artists, "mentoring and bringing forward the young Indigenous singers and composersit's so long overdue," he said.

Dewar said she feels a sense of responsibility to give voice to Indigenous stories, and advocate for herself and other Indigenous women on stage.

"Indigenous opera is really good, worth knowing and supporting," she said. "We need to be in the same space that everybody else is."

She's also excited about how that representation can affect the next generation.

"It shows little girls that there's so much possibility for them and so many different things that they can do but they never would have thought [of], because they [have] never seen themselves," she said.

"We deserve to have our voices heard just as much as anybody else's."

Telling the world stories of Indigenous women ... through opera

15 days ago

Duration 2:18

A Mtis opera singer from Manitoba is one of 14 recipients of this year's Fulbright scholarship.