Recipe for Survival
Listening Post 374. The keyword from Andrea Menard’s fifth album is “rubaboo,” a stew typically made of meat, vegetables, flour, pemmican and sometimes maple syrup. The mixture is also an apt emblem for the artist and her people: Menard is a Canadian singer-songwriter, actor, speaker, wellness trainer and a proud member of the Métis, a 600,000-strong community stretching from northern Ontario to British Columbia. Descended from another blend (of French and Indigenous forebears) the Métis have a 400-year history that taps into the deepest veins of their vast environment, from fur trade and buffalo hunt, from resistance and resilience in the face of encroachment and—according to Canada’s official Truth and Reconciliation Commission—from genocide. Menard’s aim on Anskoonamakew lii Shansoon (Giveaway Songs) is to weave a tapestry of spiritual and earthly threads in which the Métis can recognize themselves. And in a bold departure from her previous albums, she sings mostly in Michif—itself largely a merger of French and Plains Cree—today spoken by only a small fraction of the Métis population. In a voice at once dulcet and powerful, she chants new songs that are rich with tradition, written in consultation with Métis elders and language keepers. In Riel’s Prayer, she invokes the spirit of the Métis political leader whose martyrdom was virtually simultaneous with the near-extinction of the buffalo (videos 1 and 2). Water is a recurring theme, with Kookoom La Leun (Grandmother Moon, video 3) honoring the orb that lights the night and pulls the tides; and Ramant lii Riviere (Paddling the Rivers, video 4), chanelling the currents that brought the Métis sustenance and sorrow. At the heart of the collection’s 13 tracks is Memmere’s Rubaboo (Grandmother’s Stew, video 5), a rollicking encounter with authority that spotlights a matriarch dealing with conflict. Every song on this masterful album inhabits multiple realms of culture, identity and memory, but Menard, educator as much as artist, keeps it all in perfect balance. (Velvet & Hawk Productions)
Andrea Menard: Anskoonamakew lii Shansoon / Giveaway Songs
Andrea Menard: Lead vocals, rattle, hand drum
Robert Walsh: Guitars, mandolin, bass, hand drums, backing vocals
Daniel Gervais: Violin, viola, nikelharpa
Daniel Stadnicki: Percussion, drums
Darcy Phillips: Piano, organ
Pascale Goodrich-Black: Backing vocals
Graham Andrews: Backing vocals
Pierre Sabourin: Backing vocals
Note 1: In addition to a track on her latest album, Rubaboo is also the title of a cabaret show written and performed by Andrea Menard. Featuring songs and storytelling, the show is designed, she says, “to help bring people together, to educate [audiences] about reconciliation and to help them fall in love with the Métis people.”
Note 2: The Métis are one of three communities (along with First Nations and Inuit) recognized as Indigenous peoples under Canadian law. The Michif language has three main dialects: Northern Michif is a variant of Cree with French loanwords, while French Michif is a variant of Canadian French with Cree loanwords. Michif (without a qualifier) draws heavily from both Cree and French. A speaker’s dialect typically depends on the milieu in which they were raised. The songs on Anskoonamakew lii Shanson reflect all three linguistic stews.
Riel’s Prayer
Lyrics & music: Andrea Menard
Michif translation: Graham Andrews
My great-great grandchildren & grandparents/You have the heart of the buffalo
Listen grandchildren/You have the heart of the buffalo
You have a pure heart/You are not alone
We are all together/We are family, we are all related
Heal now/You have the heart of the buffalo
Persevere, don’t give up/You have the heart of the buffalo
You have a pure heart/You are not alone
We are all together/We are family
Beware the violent beings/You have the heart of the buffalo
Pray for the ignorant/You have the heart of the buffalo
You have a pure heart/You are not alone
We are all together/We are family
Riel’s Prayer: An Introduction
Kookoom La Leun / Grandmother Moon
Lyrics & music: Andrea Menard
Michif translation: Verna DeMontigny
Album notes: A prayer song for Grandmother Moon. It’s a way to honour and thank Grandmother Moon for her many blessings. It was written to hold medicine for all of Grandmother Moon’s phases, but is especially powerful on New Moon and Full Moon nights. Sing it as a gratitude song.
Grandmother, who hangs in the night
I come in prayer/I sing my thanks
Grandmother, who pulls the water
We sit in the dark together/I sing my thanks
Grandmother, who flies around the Earth
You show me myself/I sing my thanks
Ramant lii Riviere / Paddling the Rivers
Lyrics & music: Andrea Menard
Michif translation: Jules Chatrand
Album notes: A song that follows the journey of the Métis people along the rivers, from falling in love with the dream of a new life, to raising families on those riverbanks, to losing their lands to colonial policies.
Paddling the rivers/Arriving at our place
While following my heart/I listen to the call of freedom
A love song and a battle cry/Whispering like a song
With nothing but a bundle/Of prayers and a violin
With nothing but a bundle/Of prayers and a violin
Paddling the rivers/Near my place on my land
I listen to the sound of laughter/Looking at my little children
The woman I love and a baby’s cry/Whispering like a song
Carrying a bundle/Of prayers and a violin
Carrying a bundle/Of prayers and a violin
Paddling the rivers/Here they stole my land
I listen to my heart/Crying with pain
Heartbreak and a battle cry/Whispering like a song
With nothing but a bundle/Of prayers and a violin
But I have a bundle/Of prayers and a violin
Memmere’s Rubaboo / Grandmother’s Stew
Lyrics: Andrea Menard & Robert Walsh/Music: Andrea Menard
Michif translation: Marjorie Beaucage
Album notes: A storytelling ballad, told mostly in English. It follows a strong, fictional, Métis matriarch from the early 1900’s who deals with the law in her own way. It’s poignant, funny and educational, with a Michif chorus for practice.
My Memmere’s in trouble with the law/Cuz she killed another Canada goose
With skillful hands she wrung it by the neck/Now I’m a wreck! Better check!
Cuz the mounties are coming/Coming with a noose
All because Memmere killed a Canada goose
The last few winters have been hard on us all/And the Métis folk are looking too thin
Although Memmere’s the best cook around/She needs game to feed her kin
Memmere dreams of the times of the buffalo hunt/When she’d cook and feast for days
But the buffalo are a distant memory…/And she fears for traditional ways.
“Those Canadians have come and taken all the land/And we’re not allowed to hunt as we were taught”
She said, “There’s rules for this and Mounties for that/So if you hunt you better not get caught!”
One day, Memmere looked hard at us all/And she marched right out the door
She didn’t come back till the sun went down…/And threw a goose right on the floor
My Memmere’s in trouble with the law/Cuz she killed another Canada goose
With skillful hands she wrung it by the neck/Now I’m a wreck! Better check!
Cuz the mounties are coming/Coming with a noose
All because Memmere killed a Canada goose
She plucked and butchered and simmered that goose/Adding herbs and roots she found
The sweet aroma of her tasty stew/Lured the people from miles around
Came friends and neighbours and cousins and kids/Came the beggars and drunks as well
Cuz when Memmere makes her famous rubbaboo/The whole settlement knows its smell
My Memmere is a Michif matriarch/Known to laugh and sing and play
But when you cross a line with her/Even brave men run away
She knows what to do with the drunks and the beggars/But the one thing she can’t stand
Is a Canadian thief who takes everything he sees/And hoards the gifts of the land
Ma Memmere a aen chi problême/Elle a attrapi aen zwé canayen
Pis la police s’envien l’attrapii/Tapwe? C’est vrai!
La police s’envien, s’envien la cherchii/Jus parse quelle a tué aen maudjee zwé
When the Mounties came, they had their weapons drawn/Memmere was so mad she could burst
“If you think you’re dragging me out of here/“Think again, you’ll have to shoot me first!”
The Mounties hummed and the Mounties hawed/And they didn’t know what to do
“While you boys are making up your mind…/Sit down and taste my rubaboo!”
Those redcoats tried very hard to resist/Their resolve was growing thin
They couldn’t help themselves, such heavenly smells/Before long they were digging right in
With bellies full, their choice was made/And they threw their orders away
That’s the power of the stew, Memmere’s rubaboo…/It saved a few lives that day
My Memmere was in trouble with the law/Cuz she killed another Canada goose
With skillful hands she wrung it by the neck/Now I’m a wreck! What the heck!
Cuz the Mounties are coming/With any old excuse
All because Memmere killed a Canada goose
And we hope that she bags a moose
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