Indigenous flute innovator Jessica McMann retraces her journey to meet her birth family, at IndieFest
Prairie Dusk album and multimedia concert explores profound loss and joy of belonging
Jessica McMann plays a range of flutes.
IndieFest presents Prairie Dusk on November 22 at the Annex at 7:30 pm
INDIGENOUS COMPOSER AND FLUTIST Jessica McMann interweaves themes of identity, displacement, and homecoming in her newest album and multidisciplinary concert Prairie Dusk, which premieres on November 22 as part of re:Naissance Opera’s form-pushing IndieFest.
Born and raised in Calgary and a member of Cowessess First Nation, McMann documents through music an intimate journey of returning to her birth family after growing up as an adoptee under Sixties Scoop policies. Spanning original compositions for a range of flutes, plus voices, piano, and viola, McMann's compositions are vast and atmospheric, reminiscent of the landscape of her homelands. Prairie Dusk illustrates both a sense of profound loss and the joy of belonging through a multimedia performance that blends music with visual and storytelling components.
“The album takes us on a journey of coming home,” McMann says in a phone interview with Stir. “This is a very lucky journey for me personally. I was able to meet my birth family, I was able to know where I come from, I was able to have a relationship with my late grandmother before she passed away. Many Indigenous people don’t have that kind of journey.
“It can be very hurtful sometimes, and it's traumatic too,” she continues. “From the 1950s to 1990s, there were policies in place to forcibly remove Indigenous children from their homes, and my family went to a residential school where they recently uncovered 751 unmarked graves. I have been mourning not just that loss, but also my own loss as an adoptee not being able to grow up with any connection to my community. This is the first time that I've thought about that through music, and that is very apparent in the music that's been written. That experience of coming home, and that moment of meeting my Nana for the first time, you can't share it with anybody. It's hard to describe in words; the only way you can do that is through music.”
Prairie Dusk reflects not only McMann’s personal history, but also broader themes of relationship to land, history, and language for the classically trained flutist.
“I wrote a piece specifically for this album that’s a letter to my birth mother,” McMann says. “It's a journey from the ancient wonder of being and the oldness of everything, all the way through what happened in Saskatchewan, to my own journey of understanding. Not every song on the album comes from the perspective of trauma. A lot of it is focused on the beauty of the land and sharing those stories.”
As a multidisciplinary artist who expresses herself not only through music, but also dance and storytelling, McMann made the decision to bring a visual aspect to the concert with hopes of creating a deeply immersive experience. Much of the footage McMann used for this performance draws from the visual research she has done for her dance practice, including jingle-dress dancing.
“I decided to do the album as a concert,” McMann says. “Basically, the album is the concert. Every song we will perform is on the album, it's in the same order. Unfortunately, only two of the locations on the album tour were able to have the full band, and that's Cochrane and Vancouver. So the rest of the tour is a more stripped-down version of the album.”
“The visuals were created for the music,” she continues. “I think that there's a huge difference between having a video and then live soundtracking it, versus creating visuals specifically for that piece of music. I think there's a deeper impact with that, it added such an extra layer of connection to the music.”
As well as the multisensory details, audiences can expect storytelling between songs, as McMann explains each piece’s origins.
“The performance feels very personable,” she concludes. “I tend to share a lot with audience members about the history and meaning behind the songs. I like to think that my music brings emotion to people, and I hope that the audience will connect with me. Because this album is crafted to be so personal, I guess it is a personal journey of seeing the world through my music.”
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