Voices From the Earth Chronicles Vault

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First Nations Voices

By David Kattenburg

Between the winter of 1992 and spring of 1994, backpack on my back and a vintage, analog Nagra III reel-to-reel tape recorder over my shoulder, I traveled across Canada – twice — visiting places and interviewing people from Prince Edward Island to the west coast of Vancouver Island. Out of this audio-recording adventure, thirty-two hour-length docs emerged, exploring planet Earth, global ecology, and sustainable human endeavour.

The Earth Chronicles, the series was called.

Totem Pole Arrival Event, Winnipeg, September 2016 (David Kattenburg)

Totem Pole Arrival Event, Winnipeg, September 2016 (David Kattenburg)

Producing the Earth Chronicles was a task of epic proportions. In a room at the Yellow Brick House, on Strathcona Street South — now long gone — countless hours were spent listening back to all these voices, on dozens and dozens of reels of quarter-inch tape; wax pencil and razor blade in hand, slicing, splicing and assembling sequences; lengths of magnetic tape around my neck, over my shoulder and knees, and piled up neatly across the floor.

Across town, in the production studio of 93.3 CFMU, McMaster University Radio, I pumped out thirty-two editions of the Earth Chronicles, all perfectly narrationless. Voicescapes. Most everyone introduces themself.

Totem Pole Arrival Event, Winnipeg, September 2016 (David Kattenburg)

Here’s one of the Earth Chronicles series, featuring the voices of First Nations people from across Canada — ‘The Sweetgrass Road’.

Listen to ‘The Sweetgrass Road’ in today’s podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here.

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