Photo: Adrian Sutherland. Photo by Nadya Kwandibens.
By Shari Narine
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Windspeaker.com
After a decade-and-a-half of recording music and writing songs, his new book The Work of Our Hands: A Cree Meditation on the Real World is the first time Juno-nominated Cree singer Adrian Sutherland has put pen to paper in this manner. And, he admits, it was more difficult than he anticipated.
“With songs, you’re…writing as short as possible and getting the message really, really concise. And writing for a book, it’s a complete opposite. You’re stretching things out and trying to be more descriptive, so it’s a lot more difficult for me,” said Sutherland.
One of the joys in reading The Work of Our Hands is how Sutherland weaves the lyricism of his songs into the prose. As an example, he writes “Just beyond the reach of the streetlights and the rutted roads begins the menacing, nurturing immensity of the land, where shadows and restless spirits have voices.”
Sutherland combines the struggles of living in his home community of Attawapiskat First Nation with connection to the land and the lessons learned.
“The time that I spent thinking about some of these experiences…and being able to meditate on some of the ideas and some of the views that I have about the world around me, I think that’s kind of more how I saw it,” he said about telling his story as a meditation and not a memoir.
While writing a book had been something he visualized at a young age as he spent time on the land trapping and hunting, it was a dinner conversation just before COVID in 2019 that started to put the pieces in place.
“I think as you get a little bit wiser and older, it seems more appropriate to look back and reflect on certain things in your life and experiences and to maybe shed light on certain things. Particularly being a First Nation and some of the challenges that we face up in the Far North communities, I thought it was important to talk about those experiences,” said Sutherland, who is 48 years old.
He grounds his experiences in the physical aspect of doing. The focus of the chapter titles are on work done by hands: playing a guitar, building with a hammer, hunting with a rifle, carrying a water cannister and building a sweat lodge.
“For me, it was important because a lot of my experiences have been just very simple. Whether it was trapping, whether it was building a blind or setting nets, everything was very hands-on. And I felt like that really taught me something that nothing else could really teach you. It really taught me to look at the world differently,” said Sutherland.
However, Sutherland bookends his meditations with two fantastical stories about a decade apart. He begins with the second event: “The low angle of the sun made the floor glow with pink light, but two dull spots stood out like islands. When I shuffled over to investigate, I saw that they were polar bear tracks…The front door was closed. Undamaged. There was no hint of how a bear could have got into the house, or left.”
At the end, he recounts what was the first polar bear event and “which was the beginning of a lifelong journey of learning about Native spirituality, particularly our belief system.”
On a bird hunting trip on James Bay, Sutherland, his cousins and uncles got caught in a sudden storm. They took refuge in a pitched tent and used their two freighter canoes as a wind break on the bank. The snow came and during the night, Sutherland was woken by “heavy, plodding footsteps.” He woke his cousin, who heard nothing. Terrified and exhausted, Sutherland fell back asleep. The next morning, his uncle called him out and showed him polar bear tracks.
“The tracks headed straight to my side of the tent, then they veered eastward towards the bay, running until they disappeared into the water,” he wrote.
“It was such a profound experience, both experiences were,” said Sutherland. “I go back to that memory and I go back to that experience sometimes and I wonder. I wonder if they were connected somehow. I wonder if that bear was there to protect me or that bear was bringing a message to me.”
As he writes about the polar bear at the tent, “What was its purpose, then? Of course, we can never know. But to know that it had a purpose, that its purpose included me, that its awesome power could huddle close enough to touch, struck me then and strikes me still as something more than a hint that the world is telling us something important. I have thought about that night ever since.”
The Work of Our Hands has inspired Sutherland’s newest album, which is scheduled to be released in 2026.
“I grabbed different things I thought that were important from the book… For example, I talk about the meaning of the stars and the meaning of clouds, and I thought those were some really cool thoughts. Or spirits in the trees and different things that invite in that curiosity as a listener,” he said.
Sutherland says he’s been “trying hard to dig deep here and make these songs the best songs they can be.”
While he stresses his work is never about winning awards, he also admits, “I do want to be a Juno Award-winning musician.”
This yet untitled album based on The Work of Our Hands could be the one to win him that honour.
“I’m going to really push myself. I’m going to try to not get distracted by anything. I’ll do my best to put up this really, really great album inspired by the book that we just finished. And I just want to put that out there into the world and I think it’s going to be great. I’m just really excited about it already and I can’t wait to get this out,” he said.
The Work of Our Hands: A Cree Meditation on the Real World will be released Dec. 30. It is published by Penguin Random House Canada. It can be purchased at https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/the-work-of-our-hands-a-cree-meditation-on-the-real-world/9780735241695.html