Cree ‘O Canada’ rendition during Pope’s visit prompts emotional response

A powerful video of an Indigenous woman singing a rendition of “O Canada” in Cree during the Pope’s visit to Alberta is being widely shared online, eliciting an emotional response from many who’ve come across it.

The song was sung following Pope Francis’ apology to Indigenous people for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools.

It came on the second day of the papal visit to Canada, Monday, after the Pope was gifted a headdress in the Maskwacis Nations.

“There’s a term in our language … the Cree term for Canada is ‘Kanata,'” explained Chief Randy Ermineskin of the Ermineskin Cree Nation.

“‘The true north strong and free?’ Our land was pure and it’s hurting because our people are hurting. So that’s what she was trying to demonstrate, this land was – before the settlers came, before these disruptions – we had a way of life and that’s what she was trying to get the message across,” he said of the singer.

“As young as she was, she was trying to send a message that something happened, there was a disruption, we had a way of life, it was disturbed. Now, what are you going to do to fix that? That’s what she was trying to get across, because nobody else would have said that, I think. On behalf of those that didn’t make it, she made a statement to everyone that there is a great deal of work that needs to be done today going forward. That’s what the Cree term means, Kanata.”

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A number of people have pointed out that renditions of “O Canada” can have slight differences to the English anthem because the words cannot be directly translated into the Cree language.

“What she sang about was … I know what she said was our creator, keep us all safe on Mother Earth. Ka Kanata – Canada – is our land, there’s the truth. That’s what she’s singing,” said Clarence Whitstone, a Cree language interpreter and translator for the papal visit.

The woman, dressed in traditional clothing, was visibly emotional throughout the song, with tears running down her face as she projected her voice to the crowd.

As she concluded the song, the woman cried out before speaking to Pope Francis, who was standing on a stage. The woman then turned and walked away from the Pope as the crowd around her began to applaud.

Whitstone, a survivor himself, says he cannot speak directly for the woman or any Nation, but in his view, the woman’s decision to sing to the Pope may have been a sort of act of defiance, showing her truth.

“It did have emotional effects on me because of our European contact and under residential school, their heading was ‘kill the Indian in the child’ and that was the genocide, we were supposed to lose our language, our ceremonies, our identity. But when she sang that song, (saying) ‘I’m here, I’m happy that I still have my language, my customs, my traditions – I kept them, they didn’t take them away from me,’ that caused me an emotional effect, and I’m a strong person that survived. I’m a survivor,” he told CityNews.

He notes the woman’s words highlighted a purity that was robbed of Indigenous people and that there is a need for change moving forward.

Even after the Pope leaves, Whitstone believes the emotions that will remain will be mixed. That may be especially true for those who are part of the Catholic Church.

Video of that moment has been widely shared on social media. Many have reacted by simply saying this was a powerful moment.

Others have said they were moved to tears by the emotion in the song, adding the intergenerational pain inflicted by the residential school system and colonization is still felt today.

Whitstone hopes that the Ka Kanata song will help encourage others to learn more about the country and its history.

—With files from Sarah Chew