Watch our premiere of Simpson's striking Willie Dunn cover, a collaboration with directors Lisa Jackson and Conor McNally, ahead of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
to premiere this powerful music video. The piece simultaneously honours the legacy of Willie Dunn and the Indian Film Crew's use of archival images, while also masterfully pushing the conversation around Indigenous issues in this country many steps forward.Dunn passed away in 2013, but in projects like this, his influence lives on. In the lyrics of this song, Dunn had a clear critique for all Canadians: "I pity the country, I pity the state, and the mind of a man, who thrives on hate.
This song "I Pity The Country" was released originally in 1971 by Willie Dunn. What struck you when you first heard it? How do you define its legacy?I loved how Willie took the idea of pity — which is so often deployed in colonial contexts to as a "feel sorry" for the realities that Black and Indigenous peoples find themselves in because of the violence of colonialism or the transatlantic slave trade — and turn it around.
I originally performed the song for the Native North American Gathering at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in 2018. I wanted to play a Willie Dunn song because he had passed on and I wanted him to be part of the gathering in some way. That show was the night that the man that murdered Colten Bushie
When Leanne asked me if I would create a film for a song on her upcoming album, I was traveling so I played the audio file she'd emailed on my phone. There was this soaring remake, and it's no exaggeration to say I was electrified. It was an immediate yes.
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