Brisson, J. (2015).

Exoticism in multicultural choral repertoire: A comparison of Lydia

Adams Mikmaq Honour Song and Stephen Hatfields Nukapianguaq Canadian Music
Educator / Musicien Educateur Au Canada, 56(4): 30-34.
In Brissons (2015) article, she discusses the need for multiculturalism in
classrooms with the examples of two pieces: Lydia Adams Mikmaq Honour Song and
Chris Hatfields Nukapianguaq. Adams Mikmaq Honour Song is the first piece Brisson
(2015) brings up in her article and she states that the primary reason [it] is problematic
is that several aspects of Adams arrangement mark the piece as an exoticized
representation of Mikmaq culture The tonal cluster has no connection to Mikmaq
traditional musical practices and is used to give the piece a vague aura of ancient
spirituality and ritual. The wind and animal sounds, on the other hand, recall
stereotypical and romanticized images of Indigenous peoples as noble savages, living
in an uncorrupted and pre-civilized state of harmony with nature. On the other hand,
Hatfields Nukapianguaq is more acceptable since he gives sources for the chants used
and uses sounds that are common to the Inuit culture. The examination of these two
pieces show that without proper research and knowledge, an ill-informed attempt at
being diverse could result in offending people instead of educating them.
My best friend and I taught preschool music together at a church twice a week
from September 2014 to June 2015. Starting in January, we decided for our curriculum
we wanted to do a different country each week to expose our students to different styles
of music. From there we decided that we wanted to make our students feel like they
were making the decisions in our classroom, so we planned twenty-five weeks of
lessons before the term. This allowed the students to run up to our globe and pick a
country, which would be the country for the week. Together, we did tons of research to
make sure our material was well informed but appropriate for preschool students. It was
rewarding to put in the extra effort for our lessons. I believe to correctly teach a subject,
you must be aware of the history behind it.