In the aftermath of the shocking May 2016 announcement that Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer the band said it would mount a tour - which many correctly assumed would be the Hip’s last.
So my function in anything I do is to help bring people closer in.” That stuff doesn’t interest me and I don’t even know if I could write that if I tried because I don’t really feel it. “Nor have I written any pro-Canada lyrics, any kind of jingoistic, nationalistic cant…. “I haven’t written too many political lyrics,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press in 2014. While the Hip was frequently described as quintessentially Canadian, Downie had dismissed the suggestion that he set out to celebrate his homeland in song. This is something I’ve certainly drawn inspiration and strength from.ĭownie, one of Canada’s most revered singer-songwriters, penned a steady stream of 1990s rock radio staples including “New Orleans Is Sinking,” “Blow at High Dough,” “Courage (For Hugh MacLennan),” “Ahead By a Century” and “Bobcaygeon.” While Hip albums released in the 2000s didn’t produce as many hits, the band hung on to its unofficial status as Canada’s favourite rock band. That’s why this last year’s been devoted to Chanie Wenjack and to reconciliation. “He wanted to make it better, he knew as great as we were we need to be better than we are. “He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country,” Trudeau said. Given the type of cancer Downie was battling, Munroe said she always knew the time would come when he would pass away.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in tears as he paid tribute to Downie and how he devoted the last chapter of his life to advocating for the rights of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. In the final months of his life, Downie used his celebrity to speak out in support of issues facing Indigenous communities.ĭuring the final concert by the Tragically Hip, the band he fronted for over 30 years, he told a cross-country audience it was time to get serious about reconciliation with Indigenous communities and addressed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly. to get their own story out and start talking about what happened and for people to know," she said.Ī fund was also established in Downie's and Wenjack's names to aid in reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. "I always wanted other people, survivors. Munroe said survivors telling their stories has to continue.
The release of Secret Path commemorated 50-years since Chanie Wenjack's death. ' Words cannot express our sorrow': Northern Ontario First Nations mourn passing of Gord Downieĭownie used the final months of his life to call attention to reconciliation with Canada's Indigenous peoples. Indigenous leaders pay tribute to Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie he just wanted the face-to-face with the family and all that it was good." "I know he just didn't want to do it over the phone. "He wanted to do it, I guess, to make it a personal kind of thing," she said. That in-person visit was appreciated, Munroe said. He officially launched Secret Path in September, 2016 in Ogoki. "It was also something that my family and I and the rest of the residential school survivors have always wanted, was the exposure to what happened in the schools that we attended," she continued.ĭownie reportedly was deeply affected by Wenjack's story after reading an article done in 1967 for MacLean's by journalist Ian Adams. "We were aware of, we just didn't know how big a project it was," Daisy Munroe said on Thursday of when the singer travelled to visit the Wenjack family and the community of Ogoki (also known as Marten Falls First Nation) last year.ĭownie, 53, died Tuesday night from glioblastoma, an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer. Gord Downie's Secret Path brings hope to Chanie Wenjack's family, 50 years after boy's death What Chanie Wenjack's sister wants from Gord Downie's Secret Path
New Gord Downie work devoted to First Nations boy who died running away from residential school was the subject of Downie's Secret Path, a 2016 multi-media project that included a solo album, a graphic novel and an animated film. Wenjack's death - where his body was found alongside railroad tracks in 1966 after he ran away from a school near Kenora, Ont. One of Chanie Wenjack's sisters says the work Gord Downie did in the final months of his life brought some much-needed attention, not only to her brother's story, but those of other residential school survivors as well.
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