Events

Our Songs, Our Roots

Music in St. Albert

September 14–January 16, 2022 at the Musée Héritage Museum (St. Albert Place, 5 St. Anne Street, St. Albert)

Music is perhaps the deepest form of human communication, affecting us spiritually, culturally, and socially. In Our Songs, Our Roots – Music in St. Albert we look back at the role of music in the St. Albert region, exploring the many ways that music has connected us and provided the soundtrack for our community.

This area has always been made up of a mix of cultures with their own musical traditions. Each has added distinct layers to the musical landscape. Through photos, instruments, and recordings, this exhibition will delve into the differences and connections in our musical past and highlight the role of song in our lives.

Lana Whiskeyjack is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar from Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Treaty Six, Alberta. As the title of the exhibition suggests, her work is an act of recognition and gratitude to ancestral medicine, restoring balance and nêhiyaw perspective.

Tour participants will be introduced to Whiskeyjack’s deeply personal rendering of the nêhiyaw teachings of the Thirteen Sacred Moons. Passed on in ceremony and from community knowledge keepers, the teachings remind iskwêwak and diverse genders of their sacred relationship to nurture and safeguard the cultural lifestyle of the community.

Join Emily Baker, Curator at the Art Gallery of St. Albert as we explore our winter exhibition, We Are the Medicine by Lana Whiskeyjack.