MP Charlie Angus combines Native advocacy and punk rock roots
Most people know Charlie Angus as the NDP MP for Timmins–James Bay, an energetic and enthusiastic thorn in the side of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. Many First Nations people will also know him as an ally and unflagging advocate of Native issues in Canada. Given all that it’s easy to forget that Angus was once a popular punk-rock musician.
Back in the 1980s, Angus was often on air with stations like MuchMusic and CHUM-FM as a member of the punk-rock band l’Etranger, which also featured another future politician: NDP MP Andrew Cash.
After leaving l’Etranger, Angus began working with the homeless in Toronto. Musically, he went on to form the Grievous Angels, an alt-country band that has stayed with him for the last quarter of a century. The group has just released an album, The Great Divide.
While Angus put his musical career on the shelf to pursue politics, the politics brought him back to music. Some issues could only be discussed through song.
“This whole album actually began with the writing of “Diamonds in the Snow” (for the children of Attawapiskat), partly because I realized that words are so devalued in political life,” Angus told the Nation. “There is such an ugly atmosphere in this age of the message box, the talking point and the attack lines.”
His frustration with the political cynicism of the Harper government pushed him over the edge. “One night I just couldn’t get my head around a government that was so obstinate and cold-blooded towards small children and so I sat down and wrote ‘Diamonds in the Snow’. It seemed the simplest way of explaining what was otherwise too hard or difficult or toxic to say,” said Angus.
From there the song became the anthem to the Shannen’s Dream, a child-led movement for First Nation’s education rights. The name honours the late Cree youth leader Shannen Koostachin.
Angus was inspired by the Irish and Scottish folk songs he absorbed as a child. He hopes his new songs will share a history that might not otherwise be told.
Angus has also released a video for the track Four Horses in conjunction with James Daschuk’s new book, Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life. The book was not only the inspiration for the song, but it prompted Angus to ensure that this history be known by all Canadians.
Both book and song address a long-forgotten page in Canadian history, when Prime Minister John A. Macdonald used starvation to break the independence of the western Cree and Assiniboine.
“I talk about what happened and the brutality of it in a song, and exposed the devastating impact those policies had on First Nations people.
“I could speak about it in the House (of Commons), but it would just be denounced by the talking points and I knew that there is a more profound issue here,” said Angus.
As Angus has such a large Aboriginal youth following on his two Facebook pages, his hope is that this tune can teach this shameful part of history to the people whose ancestors it happened to as well as non-Native Canadians. He feels everyone needs to know and understand this part of history and its far-reaching impact on the generations.
Angus said The Great Divide includes songs about other issues that he feels strongly about such as the Afghan war, gangs and life on the road.
While he may sing about politics, Angus did insist that he is not singing to Parliament’s other parties.
“I am not interested in singing to those punters. I don’t sing to politicians and I don’t sing to politicians’ wives. I am not interested.
“I play for people who want to hear music. For me, music is something that is about building community and so I like to build community,” said Angus.
The Great Divide is available on iTunes.