Secret Path, available for preorder now, arrives October 18th in a variety of different formats, including a deluxe vinyl and book edition.
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Gord Downie’s latest endeavors come just weeks after the band performed its final concert.
Secret Path relates the story of 12-year-old Charlie (Chanie) Wenjack, who died in 1966 while trying to return home from Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ont.
Downie says he learned the story of Chanie Wenjack, who was misnamed Charlie by his teachers, from a 1967 Maclean’s magazine article entitled “The Lonely Death of Charlie Wenjack”.
“On behalf of the MKO Chiefs and community members, I would like to offer honest and heartfelt appreciation to Gord for his tremendous efforts, and recognize him for his vision of reconciliation and for his commitment to helping the IRS survivors and their family members across Canada achieve a lasting justice through the Secret Path project”. The Tragically Hip mixed fan favourites, newer songs and some politics on Saturday night during the final show of their “Man Machine Poem” tour. We are not the country we thought we were.
Downie recently made poignant statements to Prime Minister Trudeau about Aboriginal issues in Canada during The Tragically Hip’s recent Kingston gig.
“Chanie haunts me. His story is Canada’s story”. We weren’t taught it in school; it was hardly ever mentioned.
Wenjack died in 1966 while trying to walk the 600 kilometres from the residential school back to his home on the Marten Falls First Nation, northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont.
“All of those governments, and all of those churches, for all of those years, misused themselves”, Downie said.
In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found more than 300 children died and thousands were physically and sexually abused at residential schools.
There were more than 130 such schools operating across Canada with the last one closing in 1996. They broke up many families.
Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie travelled to Marten Falls First Nation in northern Ontario on Thursday with leaders of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, including Derek Fox (left).
“Our First Nations and citizens across northern Manitoba have experienced similar historical tragedies as a result of the (residential school) policy”, Wilson North said in a statement.
A ceremony was held in his honour where he was presented with a beaded vest by Marten Falls First Nation Chief Bruce Achneepineskum, an eagle feather by MKO Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson and a blanket and beaded medallion by NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler.
Proceeds from the project will go to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation which is now a repository for the files, photos and records of the Indian residential school era which lasted for over a century.
Secret Path began as 10 poems written by Downie, recorded as songs in November and December 2013.
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Downie said Wenjack’s story touched him deeply and his upcoming solo release, The Secret Path, is based entirely on the lost boy’s story.
