Lögberg-Heimskringla - 11.04.2003, Síða 1

Week at a glance
Bragi Sæmundsson produces
organic beef on his farm near
Arborg, MB Page 4
Þorrablót in Wynyard a Welcome
Harbinger of Spring with performers
including The Generation Page 5
Friday, 11 April, 2003 • Number 13 / Númer 13 • Föstudagur, 11 Apríl, 2003
Lögberg
Lögberg stofnað 14. janúar 1888
Heimskringla stofnað 9. september 1886
Sameinuð 20. ágúst 1959
Heimskringla
The Icelandic Weekly
www.logberg.com
PAP Registration no. 08000
Agreement no. 1402161
117th year /117. Árgangur ISSN 0047-4967
Tom Cochrane Inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame
Along and fascinating career
characterized by creative
adventurousness and musical
and personal integrity make
Tom Cochrane a highly deserv-
ing inductee into the Canadian
Music Hall of Fame.
Tom was born in Lynn Lake,
MB. He is the son of a bush
pilot Thomas (Tuck) Cochrane,
and Violet, who was an
Einarson. When Tom was four,
the family relocated to Acton,
ON, finally settling in
Etobicoke. Tom set the stage for
his future when, at age eleven,
he swapped a toy train set for
his first guitar.
“I’ve always thought of
myself as a Canadian, a westem
Canadian I suppose, although I
feel all of Canada is my home,”
Tom says. “Maybe that’s my
mother’s influence. She would
never let me forget where we
came from. I married a
Winnipeg woman, though we
met in Vancouver, and Kathy
has that same dry sense of
humour, the toughness and
open friendliness I ^associate
with people from out there.”
“I had a reporter’s eye and I
love telling stories, and I was on
my way to being a joumalist,”
he says. “My parents definitely
did not encourage my pursuit of
a life in music. But I remember
thinking back then that I could
combine joumalism and song in
the narrative style of the folk
singers I admired.”
“He (Bob Dylan) was an
enormous influence on me,”
Tom says. “I was writing poetry
at thirteen or fourteen, which
was kind of dangerous where I
went to school. It was an activi-
ty you couldn’t admit to, like
playing golf. My first song, Why
Can 't We Be Free? was a protest
piece I owe to Dylan. I wrote it
when I was thirteen, and that
was when I first saw the possi-
bility of a life in music.”
By the early 1970s, he was
performing folk-oriented mate-
rial in coffeehouses in
Yorkville. In 1973, a single on
Daffodil Records, You’re
Driving Me Crazv, marked his
recording debut, followed by an
album, Hang On To Your
Resistance, issued under the
name Cochrane.
“... that’s his family back-
ground: Scottish, Icelandic and
South African. He’s true to
those roots. He takes no quarter,
no prisoners. And he doesn’t
tolerate fools or slackers. He
doesn’t give much of himself
away, except in his music. And
he has always worked incredi-
bly hard, often against impossi-
ble odds, and almost always
contrary to other people’s
advice and opinions,” a lifelong
friend recalls.
A few years of stmggle,
travel, dues paid, and cab driv-
Tom Cochrane recording
ing followed, but a turning
point came when Toronto band
Red Rider took Tom on as lead
singer/songwriter. From 1980-
1984, Red Rider released four
acclaimed studio albums that
married imaginative musician-
ship and lyrical eloquence.
Songs like Lunatic Fringe and
White Hot are still relevant
PHOTO COURTESY OF EMI MUSIC CANADA
today, and they brought Red
Rider significant sales and rock
radio play in Canada and the
U.S. Lunatic Fringe went on to
become one of the most played
songs in history on American
rock radio.
please see
TOM COCHRANE on page 7
Her Ojibwa Name is White Cloud Woman
Ruth Christie Attracts Good Crowds on her Visit to Iceland
Kent Lárus
Björnsson
Reykjavík,
ICELAND
Ihave long admired Ruth
Christie’s storytelling, so I
did not pass up the chance to.
see her in person. Her Friday
session had a good turnout and
today, Saturday the 29th of
March; there were more than
twenty-five in attendance.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KENT BJÖRSSON
Ruth Christie in her summer dress
Ruth introduced herself,
saying that she was happy to be
in Iceland. She was excited to
tell everyone that she had been
swimming in the moming, out-
side no less. “It must be sum-
mer, because that is the only
time I swim outside,” she said.
“Since it is summer I wore a
summer dress,” she went on, as
she took off a couple layers of
clothing until she was in a tra-
ditional summer dress.
She began her talk by
describing her work at Lower
Fort Garry. Then she took us on
an interesting and insightful
explanation of various native
traditions and beliefs. She
explained the creation of man,
as they believe. She spoke
about weather forecasting. For
example, if the squirrels bury
their nuts on the ground there
will not be much snow, where-
as if they put their winter sup-
ply of nuts high in the tree,
there will be lots snow. She
even mentioned that after the
Icelanders arrived, it was easy
to tell when it was going to be a
long cold winter, because the
woodpile outside to the house
was really big.
Building and setting up a
tepee was next on her list. She
handed out diagrams and
explained everything about the
tepee from the thirteen poles,
thirteen for the thirteen moons
of the year, and what each is
called and where it is located.
She explained how the women
set up the tepee. She described
air conditioning and heating
and the sleeping arrangements
in the tepee. She pointed out
that many marriages occurred
in the winter because it was
much warmer to sleep with
someone than alone.
Following the arrival of the
Europeans, trading, new goods
and technology were beneficial
to the native peoples, but alco-
hol and disease were the down-
side to the invasion. In modem
times, fast food, video games,
television and transportation
influence the old culture. She
spoke briefly about hydro
development and how it has
forced people off their land.
Ruth showed deep emotion
when she spoke of fishers hav-
ing a difficult time fishing
above the graves of family
members who lie below the
water now as a result of hydro
development.
Her family history links her
to individuals who were helpful
to the Icelanders in their settle-
ment in the new land. She
spoke of her father and his
importance to the community
of Loon Straits. In speaking of
Loon Straits, she explained
how one boating accident
changed a community
please see HER OJIBWA on
page 7
Creating Community • Sköpum Samfélag