Anskoonamakew lii Shansoon
Anskoonamakew lii Shansoon means Giveaway Songs. As Andrea says, “A giveaway is a powerful statement of trust. To trust in Creator. To trust in reciprocity. To trust that good actions flow back to you in good way. So…go receive these new songs as my giveaway. They are for you.”
Andrea’s new Michif language album was released on November 18th, 2022!
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Andrea Menard’s next musical collection, Anskoonamakew lii Shansoon (Giveaway Songs) is here!
Over the last year, Andrea Menard traveled across the Métis Homeland to work with various Elders and Language Keepers for the creation of 11 new Michif language songs. This compilation of prayer and community songs is called Anskoonamakew lii Shansoon, which means Giveaway Songs.
Because the Metis people were a traveling people, the Michif language is a "traveling" language as well. The language and dialects differ from region to region because most Métis people were multi-lingual and communicated with the various peoples who lived around their specific communities. Andrea tried to incorporate as many dialects as possible.
With very few Michif speakers left, Andrea created this collection of Michif language songs to preserve the Michif language. She wanted to give the next generation of speakers tools to keep learning. Anskoonamakew lii Shansoon include songs for Grandmother Moon, Water prayer songs, a Fire honour song, healing songs, teaching songs, as well as storytelling ballads, and even a funny, raunchy community song. Andrea knows the Métis heart and tried to capture that faithful, indomitable spirit in every song.
Anskoonamakew lii Shansoon means Giveaway Songs. As Andrea says, “A giveaway is a powerful statement of trust. To trust in Creator. To trust in reciprocity. To trust that good actions flow back to you in good way. I trust that these ten giveaway songs will travel out in a good way for the betterment of our people.” Andrea also honours Elder Tom McCallum and Verna DeMontigny for helping her find the name, Anskoonamakew lii Shansoon, for this collection of ten Michif language songs.
With the support of the Gabriel Dumont Institute, which is a Metis resource centre out of Saskatchewan, this collection of songs will be released on November 18, 2022.
Audio Files
FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD THE 13 GIVEAWAY SONGS
Riel’s Prayer is a teaching song whispered to the Metis people from the Spirit realm. What would Riel want to say to you right now? He would want to remind you of who you are. To remember that you have the heart of the buffalo. And he would want you to be wary of the potential dangers in your midst.
Translated by Graham Andrews
Ayn Feu Shansoon is a song for the Sacred Masculine spirit. It’s a release song. It’s a song to honour the fiery power that resides in all of us, but was written especially to help men+, and those who carry Fire medicine, to find a way to express that fire safely. Sing this song and let it burn out of you.
Translated by Graham Andrews
Mahican Kita Oyoo is a healing song. It calls out the pain and suffering in your heart to be released. Let it go. Release it to our Mother. And know the howling of the wolf is powerful medicine to help you howl out your own pain.
Translated by Tom McCallum
Kookoom La Leun is a prayer song for Grandmother Moon. It’s a way to honour and thank Grandmother Moon for her many blessings. It was written to hold medicine for all of Grandmother Moon’s phases, but is especially powerful on New Moon and Full Moon nights. Sing it as a gratitude song.
Translated by Verna DeMontigny
Ramant lii Riviere is a song that follows the journey of the Metis people along the rivers. From falling in love with the dream of a new life, to raising families on those riverbanks, to losing their lands to colonial policies.
Translated by Jules Chartrand
Water Prayer Song is a prayer song for women+ all over the Metis Homeland, and all over the world. Women+, who are the lifegivers, are being asked to sing their water songs to bring healing to the waters and to the people. After hearing that so many Metis women didn’t know any water songs, Andrea created this song to fill that void. The Water Prayer Song has been translated into 4 languages, but she hopes this is just the beginning. It’s a giveaway. So take this song and translate it into YOUR language.
Translators: Maureen Belanger - Cree Michif, Verna DeMontigny - Heritage Michif, Áine Seoighe - Irish, Pascale Goodrich-Black - French
Go to Water Songs page here.
Nipi Nigamoonis means little water song. It is an intimate prayer song between you and Water. Again, this song is for the women+ who are looking to start singing their water songs to bring healing to all.
Translated by Maureen Belanger
Go to Water Songs page here.
Memmere’s Rubaboo is a storytelling ballad, told mostly in English. It follows a strong, fictional, Michif Matriarch from the early 1900’s who deals with the law in her own way. It’s poignant and funny and educational, with a Michif chorus for practise. There are always great teachings available when we pay attention to how our Matriarchs handle conflict.
Translated by Marjorie Beaucage
Sing Like a Fiddle is a fun community song. It is a throwback to community dances where all the furniture is moved out and everyone is gathered in one room around the fiddle. The song pokes fun at that one tipsy relative, who wishes they could do what the fiddler does.
Translated by Paul Chartrand
Nitootimuk - Visiting Song is a prayer to the Spirits and Nature Keepers who dwell in the sacred places. When you become open and aware, you can feel the life, vitality and beauty present in nature. By thanking the Beings who keep these places pristine and profound, you actively participate in sustaining health and wellness for all. It is a song of reciprocity. Like putting down tobacco, you sing this song to give back to those who give to you unconditionally.
Translated by Tom McCallum
Nitootimuk - Leaving Song is a gratitude and goodbye prayer to the Spirits and Nature Keepers who dwell in sacred places. As you leave a sacred place, you offer your warm thanks for the beauty, vitality and life experienced in your visit. By thanking the Beings who keep these places pristine and profound, you actively participate in sustaining health and wellness for all. It is a song of reciprocity. Like putting down tobacco, you sing this song to give back to those who give to you unconditionally.
Translated by Tom McCallum
Kimiyootootin is an Honour Song. It is also a love song. When sung from the heart, it offers deep respect and love to the recipient. By expressing honour and love in such a balanced way, you elevate the relationship to the sacred.
Translated by Graham Andrews
Originally created for the play, “You Can Call Me Marie” by Tai Amy Grauman
Wesahkoteeweenowuk is a celebration of the Metis and the Michif language. It inspires you to remember who you are. That you are the roots that grow after a fire. By singing your songs, and listening to the stories, you grow. And the Metis people emerge stronger than ever.
Translated by Tom McCallum
Originally written for the documentary, Weesahkotewenowuk by Judy Iseke
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Meet the Metis Language Keepers
Verna DeMontigny
Fouillard’s Corner, Manitoba
Verna DeMontigny is a Michif elder and language keeper who was born and raised in a small Métis community known as Fouillard’s Corner. Verna grew up immersed in Michif language, traditions, and beliefs. She is a fluent Michif speaker and is proud of where she comes from. Fouillard’s Corner was established around 1940, when the Métis people were relocated from the community of Ste Madeleine when the government put in a community pasture for cattle.
Verna practises and teaches the Michif language the as well as many traditional skills, such as sewing, baking, beading, dancing, and sash weaving. Deeply proud of her Métis heritage, Verna enjoys working with children and students of all ages to pass on her culturally rich knowledge.
Verna is an honoured elder and advises on many Métis specific events and gatherings. She was the co-chair of the first Métis Studies Symposium, and helped in naming the conference: Maawachihitotaak, which means Let’s Get Together.
Translated “Kookoom la Leun” and the Heritage version of “Water Prayer Song”
Elder Tom McCallum
Ile a la Crosse, Saskatchewan
Tom McCallum was born and raised in Ile à la Crosse, Saskatchewan. He is a Sundance lodge keeper, a respected Métis Elder, a storyteller, a Michif language keeper, and an eloquent speaker. He is an Achuhk uskaatum, which means Spirit Worker. And his traditional name most commonly used is White Standing Buffalo.
Tom is fluent in Nêhiawuk and Michif and is a passionate advocate for the Michif language. He generously offers his time and knowledge to many Métis nieces and nephews who seek to learn, and to many organizations and events as well. Tom has been featured in several documentaries dedicated to preserving the Michif language, including Our Elders’ Stories and Weesahkoteeweenowuk.
Tom grew up on the land and uses traditional teachings to work with inmates, youth, men’s healing circles, and in cross-cultural workshops.
Translated “Mahican Kita Oyoo,” “Nitootimuk - Visiting,” “Nitootimuk - Leaving,” and “Wesahkoteeweenowuk”
Paul Chartrand
St. Laurent, Manitoba
Paul Chartrand is one of twelve children in the family of J.A. Chartrand, a Metis trapper and carpenter of the historic Metis community of St.Laurent, Manitoba along Lake Manitoba. The extended Chartrand family lives across Lake Manitoba in the region of Duck Bay, Pine Creek, and points north as well as across the southern portion of what is now Saskatchewan.
Following a long career as Professor of Law, he is currently a sole practitioner at Paul Chartrand Law Office. His numerous publications on law and policy include the seminal book Manitoba's Metis Settlement Scheme of 1870 (Saskatoon, U of Saskatchewan Native Law Centre, 1991) on the great dispossession of the Metis lands and Who Are Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples? (Purich Publishing 2002) as well as a popular book about Falcon's Song, the Metis National Anthem.
He has advised Indigenous organizations at the local, national and international level, including participation over 28 years in the process leading to the adoption in 2007 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and also in the process leading to the recent adoption of the OAS Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Translated “Sing Like a Fiddle”
Marjorie Beaucage
Vassar, Manitoba
Marjorie Beaucage is a Two-Spirit Métis Auntie, filmmaker, art-ivist, educator, a land protector and a water walker. Born in Vassar, Manitoba, to a large Métis family, Marjorie’s life’s work has been about creating social change, working to give people the tools for creating possibilities and right relations. Whether in the classroom, community, campsite or the arts, Marjorie’s goal has been to pass on the stories, knowledge and skills that will make a difference for the future. For Marjorie, story is medicine.
As a Two-Spirit Métis Elder, Marjorie takes on the tough topics that need to be discussed. Her work is focused on giving voice to, and creating safe cultural spaces for, traditionally silenced or excluded groups. Marjorie is known on the local, regional and national levels as one who speaks truth to power, and who holds space for difference. Her 40+ films and videos embody this vision of the world.
Marjorie has been a Grandmother for Walking With Our Sisters, the Elder for OUT Saskatoon, and the Elder-In-Residence for the University of Saskatchewan Student Union. She has also been called on for national research initiatives that focus on Indigenous women living with HIV, Indigenous Harm Reduction, Indigenous youth who experience sexual and gender-based violence, and posttraumatic stress. In all of these, Marjorie returns to story as medicine, to art as medicine. Marjorie says of her work, “creation is a powerful thing; whether you’re making a baby or a loaf of bread or a movie, it comes from the same place. To get people to tap into that energy, that creates possibilities, so they don’t get stuck in this craziness that we’re in is transformative.”
As a current Board Member of Chokecherry Studios, Marjorie is giving back to future art-ivists as they stand up for themselves and their community through art, music, and writing. She is currently working on getting her book, Movements of my Life, published, creating video poems as well as completing an artist residency at PAVED Arts in Saskatoon where she creates harm reduction video shorts.
Translated the chorus of “Memmere’s Rubaboo”
Jules Chartrand
St. Laurent, Manitoba
Jules Chartrand is a retired Métis born and raised in the Michif Community of Saint Laurent on Lake Manitoba. Besides French Canadian ancestry, he has ancestry among several western First Nation groups, ie. Saulteaux and Cree. He grew up speaking the Michif Language, which is a dialect of French, as spoken in St Laurent and all over the North West in Canada. In his youth, he worked with his father in commercial fishing and carpentry and haying for farmers. After high school, he worked for CN Rail as a telegapher, station agent, and in train traffic control.
Retiring early, he worked as a court clerk in Winnipeg and St Boniface. After taking a course in driving with the Reimer Driving School, he drove trucks long haul for several years. Jules always took an interest in the history of St Laurent, in the Métis and their language. At festivals in St Laurent he gave historical tours of the community and did the same for groups of tourists, teachers, and others coming to St Laurent. He also spoke in the schools at St Laurent to help preserve the history and language of the people. He was a member of the local St Laurent Theatre Group for over ten years. Jules has appeared in several documentaries, including A Diary of the Crow Wing Trail, by Lorne Chartrand and Nos Cousins Canadiens, by Berengere Casanova of Paris France, which was aired in France.
He continues to get involved in various works of art in the Francophone, Métis and elder communities, and competed this year in the Francophone seniors programs: “Coeur d’Artistes” where he did very well, telling tales of St Laurent.
Translated “Ramant lii Riviere”
Graham Andrews
Prince Albert-Batoche, Saskatchewan
Graham Andrews is a member of the Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement in northeastern Alberta, one of only eight communities in the world where land has been legislatively set aside exclusively for Métis people. He is originally from the Prince Albert-Batoche region of Saskatchewan.
Graham regularly shares the language and culture of the Michif people, and has been honoured to provide insights on numerous committees and councils including: Alberta’s Indigenous Climate Leadership Initiative; the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation; and as a witness before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Graham has acted as advisor and translator to various Michif singers, theatre artists, writers, and students pursuing degrees at the graduate and post-graduate level.
He is uncompromisingly Michif, in the spirit of his numerous grandparents, aunties, and uncles, who are veterans from the North-West Resistance of 1885. He is the youngest grandchild of Eva Henry, who, in addition to being woven into the fabric of his upbringing, was, following the death of her father, Pierre Henry, raised by her mother, Clara Boyer, by Clara’s parents, Napoleon Boyer and Nancy Anderson, and by Pierre’s parents, Jerome Henry and Marie-Rose Vermette; each of the latter four of whom were among those who fought at Batoche and Fish Creek.
Translated “Ayn Feu Shansoon,” “Riel’s Prayer” and “Kimiyootootin”
Maureen Belanger
Ile a la Crosse, Saskatchewan
Maureen Belanger is a well-known Métis performer and improvisational artist from the Northwest Saskatchewan community of Ile-a-la Crosse. She is a comedian, an actor and a storyteller who preserves her Michif language by incorporating Michif into all her performances. Maureen is also the general manager of Upisasik Productions Inc., the only Métis-specific theatre company in Saskatchewan. Upisasik, which means “small” in Michif, gives voice and expression to Métis culture, language and heritage through the arts, and creates learning opportunities and cultural expression for Métis youth.
Belanger's love of acting and theatre began 25 years ago. She developed her signature character Ernestine, a spirited Métis Elder, and has been entertaining and educating audiences all across Canada on the Métis people and their struggles.
When Maureen is not acting, she is helping uplift her community in another way. She has a degree in social work and has worked a social worker for the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools and the Saskatchewan Income Security Program.
Translated “Nipi Nigamoonis” and the Cree Michif version of “Water Prayer Song”
“— Four out of 5 stars —
Singing the Michif Language.
It’s not often that music recorded a few weeks ago evokes a vivid atmosphere of many centuries past. Andrea Menard’s latest project might have the word song in its title, but what we are engaging with here are hymns. ...
...Imagine a sea shanty slowly metamorphosing into a river song with canoe paddles as a rhythmic base and you get the idea of the distances, geographies and souls that inhabit these songs. ”
A Copyright Request
for filmmakers and media makers
Album Credits
All songs written by Andrea Menard, except Memmere’s Rubaboo written by Andrea Menard and Robert Walsh,
© 2022 Velvet & Hawk Productions, SOCAN, Made in Canada
With Michif translations by Tom McCallum, Verna DeMontigny, Jules Chartrand, Maureen Belanger, Paul Chartrand, Marjorie Beaucage, Graham Andrews, French translation by Pascale Goodrich-Black, Irish translation by Áina Seoighe
Producer & Arranger: Robert Walsh
Recorded at Time & Place Studios, Edmonton, AB
Mixed & Mastered by Robert Walsh
Musicians: Robert Walsh - guitars, mandolin, bass, hand drums
Daniel Gervais - violin, viola, nikelharpa
Daniel Stadnicki - percussion, drums
Darcy Phillips - piano, organ
Andrea Menard - rattle, hand drum
Lead vocalist: Andrea Menard
Backup vocalists: Robert Walsh, Pascale Goodrich-Black, Graham Andrews, Pierre Sabourin
Artwork: Murray Lindsay, Gabriel Dumont Institute
Beadwork on Cover Artwork: Permission from Gregory Scofield