Downie first heard of Wenjack's story from Downie's brother Mike, who showed him a 1967 Maclean's magazine article called " The Lonely Death of Charlie Wenjack". He died alone from exposure and hunger next to a CNR railroad track. Wenjack began walking home, not realizing his family lived more than 400 miles away. Initially, Downie wrote Secret Path as 10 poems, inspired by Wenjack's story, and how he died running away from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ont., in October, 1966. Secret Path began as 10 poems inspired by a 1967 magazine article The album is one of this year's Polaris Music Prize nominees, and over the next several weeks, we're sharing five things you might not know about each one. Secret Path also won accolades from Indigenous communities for shedding light on the legacy of residential schools and racism in Canada.
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Downie won songwriter of the year for the songs "The Stranger", "The Only Place to Be" and "Son". The album won two Juno Awards in 2017, for adult alternative album of the year and recording package of the year. Broadcast nationwide, their final Kingston concert was a moment fans won't soon forget.ĭownie also released Secret Path the same year, an album about Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old Ojibwa boy who died trying to walk home after escaping a northern Ontario residential school. In 2016, Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie shocked fans when he announced he had terminal brain cancer, and later in the year the band set out on a cross-country tour. (9:30 NT) on CBC-TV or via cbc.ca/arts/secretpath at the same time. 21, 2016, with more than 30 members of the Wenjack family in attendance, it also features live performances with Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene), Josh Finlayson (Skydiggers), Dave Hamelin (the Stills) and Charles Spearin (Broken Social Scene). Gord Downie's Secret Path in Concert, a one-hour, commercial-free special of Downie's 2016 Toronto concert, will make its broadcast premiere this weekend, commemorating the 51st anniversary of Chanie Wenjack's death.įilmed at Roy Thomson Hall on Oct.