Willie Dunn born August 14, 1941

Willie Dunn (August 14, 1941 – August 5, 2013) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, film director and politician. Born in Montreal, he was of mixed Mi'kmaq and Scottish/Irish background. Dunn often highlighted indigenous issues in his work.

Born to a Mi’gmaq mother and father of Scottish / Irish descent, William Lawrence “Willie” Dunn was raised in Montreal with six sisters and a brother. He was also known as Roha’tiio, meaning “his voice is beautiful”. At eleven, Dunn discovered the music of Hank Williams and started playing the country’s greatest songs with a guitar given to him by his brother-in-law and sister at Christmas. As a teenager, Dunn spent hours listening to his musical hero and tried his best to pick apart Williams’ compositions. Dunn was a natural and started writing his own tunes within no time. He attended Montreal’s Rosemount High School in the 1950s, but dropped out after Grade 10 and enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces (1960 - 1963)and received the UN Congo medal.

After basic training at CFB Borden in the province of Ontario, Dunn was sent to Africa in support of the United Nations peacekeeping initiative in the Congo region. Upon his return, Dunn left the army and picked up his dusty guitar. He also started writing poetry (as did Dunn’s father, a one time hobo, and poet in his own right, as well as a friend of notable writer and humourist Stephen Leacock).

Another spark for Dunn was a reverberating question from a Congolese teacher that Willie had met in Africa. The teacher expressed curiosity about the current status of Canada’s Indigenous peoples, eventually inspiring the burgeoning songwriter to learn more about his Native heritage. Dunn returned to Restigouche to visit his extended family and establish a stronger connection with his Mi’gmaq roots. Though a city boy at heart, Dunn felt loved and welcome in the community and visited whenever possible.

At the dawn of the 1960s, Dunn became active in the North American folk music scene, which provided him with an opportunity to further practice his craft and network with peers at hot spots like Montreal’s Fifth Dimension coffeehouse and later, the seminal Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York, whose stage was graced by the likes of Pete Seeger and a young Bob Dylan.In the mid-1960s, Dunn helped to open a coffeehouse of his own in Montreal called The Totem Pole on Rue Stanley. Still, the beckoning road, travel, and a desire for new experiences meant that Dunn didn’t stay settled in any one place for too long. Trekking across Turtle Island with an open mind and talent to burn, the roaming singer-songwriter lived the life of an old-time troubadour and grassroots radical. 

He relocated to New York City for a short spell, performing in Greenwich Village. Dunn then headed west, spending time on the Canadian Prairies as well as enjoying a yearlong stay in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he helped to form the Native Alliance for Red Power. He also contributed a selection of original music to George Ryga’s acclaimed 1967 play, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. Throughout his journey, Dunn connected with a diverse selection of Indigenous people from all walks of life, observing, learning, and interacting with their traditions, vibrancy, rights, and struggles. In addition to his being, such gleanings would become a central focus of his creative output.

                                    

In the late 1960s, it appeared that Willie Dunn was everywhere. Back home in Montreal, he performed at Expo 67 where he met Samson Cree First Nation hoop dancer and musician Jerry Saddleback. Dunn also joined forces with Ojibway dancer, actor, media personality, and prominent Native advocate Johnny Yesno, who helped him achieve an extensive song writing commission from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) Indian Magazine, later known as Our Native Land, a national half-hour news and cultural events radio program centred on Indigenous life in Canada.Dunn was already a CBC veteran at this point, having sung two songs on the national broadcaster’s Songs of Man television show in 1965. It was during this busy period that Dunn penned the bulk of his most well-known honouring songs: “The Ballad of Crowfoot,” “Crazy Horse,” “Louis Riel,” and “Charlie.”

Willie also became involved with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) through their Challenge For Change program, an initiative that used film production to spotlight pertinent social issues among various communities across the country. The NFB’s “Indian Film Crew” was spawned from this project and taught Dunn the basics needed to shoot and edit his own celluloid visions. At the NFB, Dunn wrote a song entitled "The Ballad of Crowfoot" and directed a ten-minute National Film Board of Canada film of the same name in 1968. It was the first NFB film directed by an Indigenous person, about Siksika chief Isapo-muxika (Crowfoot); These Are My People (1969), the first NFB film made by an all-Indigenous crew. Both the song and video are about inhumane and unjust colonial treatment of indigenous Canadians, as well as their taking charge of their destiny and becoming politically active. The film received several awards including a Gold Hugo for best short film at the 1969 Chicago International Film Festival. The Ballad of Crowfoot has sometimes been credited as the first known Canadian music video. His other films include The Eagle Project, The Voice of the Land and Self-Government, and The Other Side of the Ledger: An Indian View of the Hudson's Bay Company. His music was also used for the films Incident at Restigouche (1984), about a 1981 police raid on the Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation, and Okanada, about the 1990 standoff in Oka, Quebec between police and native protesters.

He released several full-length albums of recorded music including Willie Dunn (1971), The Pacific (1980) and Metallic (1999). Metallic reprises material from both earlier releases. Dunn's most famous song, "I Pity the Country", was a critique of colonialism and anti-indigenous racism. In 2004 Dunn released the album Son of the Sun with sixteen songs (including three live recordings). Not willing to simply be labelled a protest singer, however, the actively touring performer and recording artist released music in different genres (including country and traditional aboriginal) and even set the words of William Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot to native drumming and chants. Dunn also wrote and performed music for theatre and radio and published several poems and song texts.

A long-time member of the New Democratic Party, Dunn defeated Mohamed Bassuny to win the party's federal nomination for Ottawa—Vanier in the 1993 federal election. He received 3,155 votes (6.50%), finishing fourth against Liberal incumbent Jean-Robert Gauthier. He participated in the Culturally Diverse First Peoples Arts Showcase tour in 1998, and the Nations in a Circle spotlight of 2002. He was inducted into the Aboriginal Walk of Honour in 2005 in Edmonton and received a lifetime achievement award at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards (now the Indigenous Music Awards).

While his once-constant touring schedule had somewhat slowed down by the 2000s, he continued to perform until his passing at his home in Ottawa on August 5, 2013. He had been suffering from a variety of health complications for some time, according to his son, Lawrence Dunn. In 2020 the Prism Prize, Canada's annual award for innovations in music video, introduced a lifetime achievement award named in Dunn's memory, with choreographer and video director Laurieann Gibson named as the first winner of the award.

(Edited from Light In The Attic bio, The Canadian Encyclopedia, CBC News & Pitchfork)