Mtis musician takes unfiltered history to Toronto schools

At St. Bernardelementary school in Toronto's north end, studentsplay, joke and get restlesslike any other kids.

But they also sing about Louis Riel, paddlers' woes and the legacy of residential schools in the Mtis language Michif. And they learned it all, according to their principal, without even noticing.

Students in the fifth and sixth grades worked alongside Conlin Delbaere-Sawchuk, who represents one-quarter of Toronto's MtisFiddler Quartet.He's been dropping into classrooms across the GTA since April with a mission to bring his language, history and culture directly to young people.

"I want them to be able to relate to the Indigenous experience," he explained.

And relate they do. On a muggy Thursday afternoon in late June, a gymnasium'sworth of kids sang along toDelbaere-Sawchuk's musical storytelling, even swaying to "Rame,Rame,"a voyageur song used by traders tokeep time while rowing.

Delbaere-Sawchukfillsthe gaps between songswith history lessons, describing an attack, centuries ago, on the Hudson's Bay Company. "These were buffalo hunters," he said to a quickening tempo. "They knew how to ride and shoot on horseback."

Despite the playful atmosphere,Delbaere-Sawchuk's mission included a frank discussion of residential schools, something he says cannot be separated from any meaningful education about Mtishistory.

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Asrat Manase, one of Delbaere-Sawchuk'syoung students,speaks openly about children ripped from their families. That abusewas a largely overlooked aspect of Canadian history back when the adults in the room were her age, but Manase, not yet in high school, now knows exactly what happened.

"First Nations people were forced to go to these schools, and learn about a different religion," she said,"instead of the religion already known to them."

"There's a lot of hardship in Indigenous communities,"Delbaere-Sawchuksaid, explaining his reasons for the project.

"It's a very compound problem. It's not going to be solved with any single solution." But in order to find any solutions at all, he adds, "we need young people to learn about the conditions Indigenous people live in."

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The students at St. Bernard absorb these lessons by writing lyrics, molding melodies and, in the case of one class, choreographing a beat-boxing performance about a doomed beaver.

"The Mtis trap it, right by the stream. He raises up his rifle, the beaver let out a scream," the lyrics go, rapped by a student on stage. "The beaver lost his coat. He'll never get it back. He's been made into felt and turned into a hat."

Kiara Harry, a sixth grader who helped pen a meditative ballad about a river traveller, pulls out her handwritten lyrics, pointing to the lines she crafted herself with a shy smile.

On stage, young musicianseagerly clackedwooden spoons to upbeat battle hymns.

Their Mtis-inspiredmusic can educate others, Harry says. "If they actuallylisten to our songs, they will learn," she said. "Faster than they learn from books."

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Delbaere-Sawchukagrees. Music has the power to teach, he says, and that's why he's dedicatedmuch of his time 15 years, to be exact to the quartet.

He and his siblings willsoon perform for more young people at the North American Indigenous Games in two weeks. He sees it as yet another chance to make connections vital to reconciling past injustices.

"The most important part of this is to tell the truth," he said."Without that we cannot begin to move forward."