Calling all warriors in Iqaluit, Pangnirtung and Igloolik

Yellowknife singer and songwriter Leela Gilday performs in Pangnirtung on March 17, in Iqaluit on March 19, and on March 20 in Igloolik. (PHOTO COURTESY OF LEELA GILDAY)

Next weekend, people in Iqaluit, Pangnirtung and Igloolik, will have a chance to see hear some great music and a message worth listening to from Yellowknife singer-songwriter Leela Gilday.

Gilday, a member of the Dene Nation who has picked up numerous awards during her career, is scheduled to perform in Pangnirtung on March 17, in Iqaluit on March 19 and in Igloolik on March 20, thanks to the Alianait festival’s new concert series.

Gilday’s no stranger to Nunavut, having performed in the territory several times, for True North concerts and joint performances with Iqaluit musician Lucie Idlout.

But this time Gilday plans to perform new songs from her new album, “Calling all warriors,” whose title track tells the bitter, sad story of an aboriginal woman who disappears in the city.

Gilday said she was inspired to write the song after she went to a Valentine’s Day march in Vancouver, which is held every year to honour the 500-plus aboriginal women who have been murdered or remain missing.

“It just struck a chord with me,” Gilday said this week in an interview. “It brought the message home to me that this can happen to anyone. They’re mothers, daughters, our aunties and our cousins. No one expected to end up murdered or missing.”

Indeed, Gilday’s song, “Calling all warriors,” could apply to many young Inuit women who head for the bright lights of the city and never return.

“She came from a northern town/ with the suitcase her mother/ gave her before she died/ The ravens came and saw her off/ They formed a brigade/To say goodbye/ The sun shone so brightly/ Oh it hurt to leave, but she had to try,” goes the song.

”It seemed like the easy way/Just to go to the city/like her friends/ But runners never plan that far/ And God only knows/ Where that journey ends/ She said: “just one time. to get some food”….

But the song, which can be heard online, isn’t just another sad story.

“It’s a call to empowerment, for standing up, to those women in our lives. We can all act as warriors in our lives,” Gilday said.

“So calling all warriors/To stand with her tonight/ Calling all warriors/Keep her in the light,” the song urges.

“Calling all warriors”— her third release— isn’t not all about missing women, but its songs do focus on strength, Gilday said.

On this Nunavut tour, Gilday will be accompanied by her guitarist, Jason Birdstick.

They’ll also give “empowerment voice” workshops in high schools in Iqaluit, Pangnirtung and Igloolik.

Singing is a great way to learn how to value “your own inner voice,” Gilday said.

“By the act of actually singing people come to understand a larger message,” she said.

Gilday plans to run students trough voice exercises, but she’ll also share her personal story and the “trials and tribulations of being a self-employed musician,” focusing on “the choices about valuing my own voice and how that acted in my own life.”

Gilday, who was just eight years old when began her singing career, has released three solo albums to date.

Since graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Alberta in 1997, she’s received many honours.

In 2002, Gilday received awards for the Best Female Artist, Best Folk Album and Best Songwriter at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards for her first release “Spirit World, Solid Wood.”

In 2003, she was nominated at the Juno for “Best Music of Aboriginal Canada,” and in 2007 won for Aboriginal Recording Of The Year with the release of her second album, “Sedzé.”

Gilday was named Best Female Artist at the 2010 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards for “Calling All Warriors.”

Up Here magazine selected Gilday as its “Northerner of the Year” in 2007.

You can see Gilday perform at Attagoyuk high school in Pangnirtung, March 17 at 8:00 pm, along with Lucie Idlout, at Inuksuk high school in Iqaluit, March 19 at 7:30 p.m., along with Ellen Hamilton, and at the Ataguttaaluk elementary school in Igloolik, March 20 at 8:00 p.m., along with some local performers.

Admission will be changed.

In Iqaluit, Gilday’s kicks off Alianait’s new four-concert series, which includes Fred Penner, a well-known children’s entertainer, on May 7, the throat singing and hip hop combo Tumivut on Sept. 9, and Old Man Luedecke, a singer and songwriter from Nova Scotia, who performs Nov. 26.

Series subscriptions, which offer a discount on the regular ticket prices, are on sale at Arctic Ventures in Iqaluit.