Métis fiddler honoured to support delegation
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/03/2022 (1626 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
ROME — When fiddler Alex Kusturok led the Métis delegation out of the Vatican Monday, his one-month-old son was on his mind.
“I was thinking how great it will be one day that he can read his father was here at this time, honouring the delegates and elders with my music,” he said.
Kusturok, 30, lives in Cold Lake, Alta. His family moved around, from Vancouver to Ottawa to Swan Lake, but he started life in Winnipeg.
“I’m building roots in Cold Lake, but Winnipeg is home,” he said. “I still love the taste of Sals.”
Kusturok and Brianna Lizotte, 21, were asked by the Métis National Council to accompany the delegation to Rome and provide musical support, which included playing the Red River Jig — the Métis “anthem”— as they led the delegation into St. Peter’s Square following their meeting with Pope Francis.
“No words can describe how powerful it felt,” he said. “I came here to be of service. I’m honoured to be able to support the delegates and elders in this way. I’m very blessed to be part of this experience.”
It’s something he recognizes he might have missed had he not decided to give up alcohol in 2019.
“I’ve had three years of sobriety,” he said. “(Before that) I had fallen off track. I couldn’t hold down a gig due to my drinking.”
He marked his first year of sobriety with a recording titled Phoenix, about being a fiddle player and lifting himself out of the ashes of alcoholism.
The son of Patti Kusturok — 1994-1996 national fiddling champion and member of the Manitoba Fiddle Association Hall of Fame and the North American Fiddlers’ Hall of Fame — he learned to play at the age of seven and grew up going to dances throughout Manitoba with his mother.
Jigging — a combination of First Nations dancing and Scottish and French-Canadian step-dancing — originated in the Red River area in the 19th century.
Although the musical tradition is dying out in Manitoba, he said the opposite is true in northern Alberta, where he moved in 2016.
“There, everybody jigs,” he said. “It’s like what Manitoba used to be. A lot more young people are involved.”
He teaches fiddle, jigging, dancing and playing the spoons in Métis settlements and First Nations communities in Alberta.
Although he grew up Catholic, he doesn’t consider himself to be one now.
“I’m on a spiritual journey,” he said. “I believe in a power greater than myself. God is bigger than anything I can understand.”
He said he’ll always be searching in an effort to live a fulfilled life and find meaning.
“That’s something I can do now that I’m not drunk,” he said.
And he’s committed to preserving his Métis musical roots.
“I want to pass it on,” he said. “I want to make sure it doesn’t end with my generation.”
John Longhurst is in Rome this week to cover the papal visit by Indigenous people for the Free Press. See coverage of the visit at www.winnipegfreepress.com/papalvisit
The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba through our Religion in the News project. This reporting continues because readers like you step forward to fund it.
Donate now to support our reporting on religion.
Your donation is eligible for a charitable tax receipt.
BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba through our Religion in the News project. This reporting continues because readers like you step forward to fund it.
Donate now to support our reporting on religion.
Your donation is eligible for a charitable tax receipt.
BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Related Articles
Papal visit 2022: Full coverage from Rome
Advertisement Advertise With Us
Advertisement Advertise With Us
The Free Press acknowledges the financial support it receives from members of the city’s faith community, which makes our coverage of religion possible.
