#ReconcileThis is a movement to activate and uplift Indigenous Voices by lighting a social media fire of conversations and celebrations of culture through digital stories, songs, dance.
Tamara Podemski shares a song of healing and hope, envisioning a “brand new day” for her family and survivors of residential schools.
“I am the granddaughter of two residential school survivors – Tom Anaquod and Sophie McDonald. They met at LeBret Indian Residential School in the Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan. I wrote a song in honour of them called “Brand New Day,” which I performed at the inaugural event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Winnipeg back in 2010. Over a decade later, I’m still singing the song and yet, these past couple years, it seems to resonate now more than ever. Sharing this song with my family and singing it with my son, in particular, inspired me to explore how lyrics – heard or sung through music – can allow people to access complex emotions and ideas and maybe even experience them in a more supported and compassionate way. How can we carry the painful truths of our stories, while also celebrating our own existences in spite of everything?” #ReconcileThis
Tamara Podemski is an Anishnaabe/Ashkenazi multi-disciplinary artist born and raised in Toronto. For the past 30 years she has made a name for herself on stage and screen, amplifying under-represented and marginalized voices. She is passionate about telling authentic stories about Indigenous women, while fighting to correct the colonial narrative pervasive in the film and television industry. Having grandparents who are both Holocaust survivors and residential school survivors, Tamara speaks openly about issues of intergenerational trauma, reconciliation and inherited legacies of oppressed people.
I am the granddaughter of two residential school survivors – Tom Anaquod and Sophie McDonald. They met at LeBret Indian Residential School in the Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan. I wrote a song in honour of them called “Brand New Day,” which I performed at the inaugural event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Winnipeg back in 2010. Over a decade later, I’m still singing the song and yet, these past couple years, it seems to resonate now more than ever. Sharing this song with my family and singing it with my son, in particular, inspired me to explore how lyrics – heard or sung through music – can allow people to access complex emotions and ideas and maybe even experience them in a more supported and compassionate way. How can we carry the painful truths of our stories, while also celebrating our own existences in spite of everything? #ReconcileThis
Tamara Podemski est une artiste multidisciplinaire anishinaabe et ashkénaze. Depuis plus de 30 ans, la Torontoise est présente sur la scène comme à l’écran pour faire entendre les voix marginalisées et sous-représentées. Elle a à cœur de raconter avec authenticité le parcours des femmes autochtones et de déconstruire les stéréotypes coloniaux encore présents dans l’industrie du cinéma et de la télévision. Petite-fille de survivants de l’Holocauste et des pensionnats autochtones, Tamara Podemski parle ouvertement des traumatismes intergénérationnels, de la réconciliation et de l’héritage des peuples opprimés.
Je suis la petite-fille de deux survivants des pensionnats autochtones, Tom Anaquod et Sophie McDonald. Ils se sont rencontrés au pensionnat de LeBret, dans la vallée Qu’Appelle en Saskatchewan. J’ai écrit une chanson en leur honneur, Brand New Day, que j’ai chanté lors de la cérémonie d’ouverture de la Commission de vérité et réconciliation à Winnipeg en 2010. Dix ans plus tard, cette chanson fait toujours partie de mon répertoire, et elle rencontre aujourd’hui bien plus d’écho que par le passé. Chanter cette chanson en famille, en particulier avec mon fils, m’a fait réaliser à quel point les paroles – qu’on les chante ou qu’on les écoute – peuvent aider les gens à mieux maîtriser les émotions et idées complexes et, qui sait, à les vivre ensemble de façon plus apaisée. Comment porter le fardeau de la révélation de vérités douloureuses de notre histoire et célébrer, malgré tout, nos propres existences? #ReconcileThis
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