Inuk icon Willie Thrasher bringing the noise for first St. John's appearance
It's only taken him 70 years, but legendary Inuk musician Willie Thrasher has finally made it to Newfoundland and Labrador to perform.
Born in Aklavik, N.W.T., Thrasher is in town for a special show at the Ship Pub on Saturday evening.
"All my life it was my greatest dream to visit all the provinces, and Newfoundland and Labrador was one of my goals to go visit," he said.
"It's such an honour being here, it's just like coming to a new home. It's peaceful, the relaxation of the wind. When we were landing we seen the Atlantic and, man, it just blew me away."
Music an escape
From the age of five until he was 16, Thrasher was one of more than 150,000 Indigenous people in Canada sent to a residential school, taken from his family and forbidden to practise his culture.
"It was the greatest cultural shock of my life," he said.
Far away from home, and separated from his beloved parents, siblings, and the wilderness, he turned to music to stay sane.
"In its way, music kept me away from the boys, away from the nuns. It kept me away from all the activities happening at the residential schools."
By the time he exited the school, he struggled to reconnect with his many siblings, who had spread out over the North.
But he remained committed to becoming a musician, first falling in love with musicians like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, and later making music that came right from his own cultural traditions.
In one of first Inuit rock bands
In the 1960s, Thrasher drummed for the Cordells, one of the first Inuit rock bands. He later took up the guitar and began writing songs about his life, his culture, and the wilderness.
Thrasher is currently experiencing a second wave of popular success, on the heels of his appearance in the compilation album Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985.
In recent years, he's performed all over Canada and in places like Austin, Texas.
But never Newfoundland and Labrador.
Thrasher will perform with his partner Linda Saddleback on Saturday night at the Ship Pub, and on Sunday afternoon at Broken Books on Duckworth Street.
Tickets will be available at the door.
