Celebrated Neqotkuk artist is praised for his music, cultural leadership and commitment to language revitalization
On Tuesday, Sept. 8, Neqotkuk First Nation musician Jeremy Dutcher received an honorary degree from St. Thomas University.
“We are so pleased to honour the accomplishments and work of Jeremy Dutcher,” said St. Thomas University President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. M. Nauman Farooqi in a news release.
“We know that Jeremy is an inspiration to them through his artistic creativity and reviving and promoting Indigenous culture. This is one more reason we are proud to honour his outstanding accomplishments.”
Dutcher is an award-winning “song carrier” whose music is mainly in the dying Wolastoqiyik language. He draws inspiration from traditional sound, research, and his two-spirit identity.
He has won the Indigenous Album of the Year award at the 2019 JUNO Awards for his debut album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (The Songs of the People of the Beautiful River). He is also the only artist to win the Polaris Music Prize twice: first in 2018 for his debut album, and again for his second album, Motewolonuwok.
He has also composed music for Pizuwin, an Atlantic Ballet show, and for the film Sk+te’kmujue’katik (At the Place of Ghosts), which tells the story of Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ identity.
Dutcher performed with Members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in concert at STU. It is the first series instalment in a concert series visiting Indigenous First Nations throughout the region.
Dutcher has not only succeeded in the arts, but he and his family also started the first-ever Wolastoqey language immersion school, Kehkimin, in 2022.
The River Valley Sun reached out to Dutcher and his team but did not hear back before the deadline.
He told CBC that he believes the honour belongs as much to his community as to himself.
“There’s a tension between lifting up good work but also this fundamental humility and equality that is kind of baked into our songs and our ways of seeing the world,” said Dutcher in an interview with the public broadcaster.
Dutcher wishes to inspire the next generations that music is not only a sound, but a way to connect and communicate.
“Not only is a song a nice thing to hear, and to listen to, but if we really understand what is being communicated, we know ourselves, and our place the world, and how we relate to one another,” he told the CBC.
