piano, violin, viola and cello

For Anishinaabeg people, water is not just a substance. It is a spirit being deserving honour and respect, and different bodies and channels of water have distinctly different personalities and ways of expression. The St. Lawrence Seaway and River has been an essential part of Indigenous peoples’ lives. The music describes the alternatively powerful and placid Gichigammi-Ziibii (Big Sea River), with canoers shooting arrows across the water toward embankments as they fished or hunted, and the voices of niibi-manidoog or the spirits of those who have traveled these waters long ago.

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