“Why put yourself through that?” My grandma had asked me. “Just go buy food.”
I remembered looking down, speechless. Traces of soil were still stuck under my fingernails.
How do I even begin to explain feeling fulfilled by that kind of labor — digging my hands in the Earth to grow food, to deepen my relationship with what nourishes my body?
“What is life for, if not for working to provide for those you love and honoring Creation with the labor of your hands?” — Adrian Sutherland
How do we hold the tension between automation advancements intended to make everyday life easier, with the intimacy that can only come through the work of our hands? What can we learn from Cree worldviews and ways of living? And what does it mean to navigate hardships that arise from systemic injustice next to the ones that come from a deeper participation in life?
I'm excited to share my latest conversation with Adrian Sutherland, a roots-rocker-with-heart from Attawapiskat in Ontario’s Far North, whose latest book is The Work of Our Hands: A Cree Meditation on the Real World.
Join us as Adrian offers a glimpse into the Cree traditions, crafts, and worldviews that have influenced his life as a musician, and more!
Highlights from our conversation I’m still sitting with…
This delicate part on healing in and with community…
Green Dreamer Kaméa: In a later portion of the book, you talk about how healing can’t necessarily take place on isolated terms by individuals because community plays an integral role in that. I’m curious what led you to that particular realization.
And also, what do you think this means in a world that has already uprooted so many people, corroded so many community relations, where a lot of people don’t even necessarily have the privilege of, like, supportive communities or safe spaces to kind of root and situate their healing within?
Adrian Sutherland: Yeah, I think you hit it right on the nail there. There’s just so much going on in the world today, and it’s hard to feel like you belong to whatever community it is that you really connect with.
Even in my own community, like, my experience has always been that sometimes I feel like I don’t belong. In some ways, it’s made me feel kind of sick, either emotionally or mentally, because of some of the things that go on in our community here, particularly around the behaviors of certain leaders or things like that.
We have social issues just like any other place. But I think because we’re sort of at a micro-scale, everything sort of seems a lot, the problems seem a lot bigger, you know what I mean, in the community. So that can really have an effect on you as an individual.
I feel like sometimes you feel heavy, and you feel when your community is not well. You feel that mentally, you feel it emotionally. So you’re only going to be as well, as healthy, as your community is going to be, I think…
I was on the Chief and Council many, many years ago, and I wanted to do something good for the community. I always make time for volunteering. I’m trying to do my part to make the community better. Because if the community is better and healthier, I know in the end I’ll feel a lot healthier and better.
So having those spaces too is really important — where you feel safe, or you’re able to go and just be yourself around others. And being able to express yourself freely without having to feel like you’re ridiculed, is also important. I think, again, it’s just creating the conditions for having a healthy community is that we all play active roles in that as people.
This part on why Adrian has chosen to stay in his “remote” fly-in First Nation in Ontario’s far north despite all the challenges…
Adrian Sutherland: Sometimes, I question why I continue to live here. There’s some tough things you gotta contend with. […]
I always say it’s the connection that I have to the land here. I always come back to that.
When I start thinking about, okay, maybe I can go live in this city or that city, and I don’t have to worry about all these things that are frustrating me nowadays, and be kind of where you’re free about it…
But then I always come back to, like, I want to do these things. I want to go out on the land, I want to make mittens out of caribou hides, and I want to smoke tan them, and I want to lace snowshoes traditionally. I want to carve them with my hands and all these different things I still want to do as I move into my, hopefully, into my golden years, which you get older, you’d be able to focus on some of those things more and have time for things like that.
So I always come back to that, the culture, the Cree traditions, and the land. I always come back. And I just don’t think I could live without it anywhere else.
Cozy up and tap in ~
Tune into our full audio discussion with the embedded audio player on Substack or via Green Dreamer EP478; and join as a supporting subscriber to receive my personal episode notes and watch the bonus video version of our conversation here!
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About our guest ~
Adrian Sutherland is a roots-rocker-with-heart from Attawapiskat in Ontario’s Far North. His melding of roots, rock, folk, and blues creates a signature sound and style all his own, drawing inspiration from his life, the land, and his Cree language and culture. Twice JUNO-nominated, Adrian’s first book (The Work Of Our Hands) is being released by Penguin Random House Canada. One of the only professional recording artists who lives in a remote fly-in First Nation, Adrian carries first-hand perspective on many important issues. During this time of reconciliation, he is hopeful for Canadians to walk together in love and respect.
Artistic credits ~
(B/c we cherish art from real humans!!)
Follow and browse more from our episode artwork’s illustrator: Haruka Aoki (Instagram @thecosmicharuka)
Sink in deeper ~
The Work of Our Hands: A Cree Meditation on the Real World, a book by Adrian Sutherland
Keep up to date on Adrian’s upcoming music and albums
Who We Are: Four Questions For a Life and a Nation, a book by Murray Sinclair
Rhizome out further ~
Hilding Neilson: Astro-colonialism and honoring the stories of our dark skies (Ep413)
Tyson Yunkaporta: Shifting from ‘health & wellness’ to communities of care (Ep453)
Melinda M. Adams: Cultural fire and the longings of the land (Ep458)
Stay tuned, and thank you so much for supporting our interviews and this reader-powered newsletter!! x
