Fiddling and jigging: 2 inseparable Indigenous traditions that run in families

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This story is part of Resonate: Songs of Resilience in recognition of National Indigenous History Month and National Indigenous Peoples Day. CBC Indigenous with CBC Unreserved celebrates communities and families through music.
When Brianna Lizotte was growing up, she would watch home movies recorded by her grandfather of 1970s kitchen parties. In them, she'd see family members playing the fiddle and guitar and dancing to the music.
"There was a huge era of kitchen parties and music in our family for lots and lots of generations," said Lizotte.
Lizotte is Métis and grew up in Sylvan Lake, Alta., about 140 kilometres south of Edmonton. But the last fiddle player in her family died when she was about 10, and then there was a drift.
"That was like a huge culture shock, I'd say, to not have any music anymore," said Lizotte.
Then Lizotte had a dream where she was playing the fiddle at a kitchen party like the ones she would see in the home movies.
"I woke up the next day and told my mom, 'Hey, can I get a fiddle?'"
Fiddling is synonymous with Métis music, and has been part of Métis, First Nations and Inuit culture since the Europeans brought the instrument to North America. Fiddling and jigging go together, and many people say you can't have one without the other.
"The thing that makes fiddle music in the Métis music world different from bluegrass or Irish or Scottish is that horse gallop rhythm," said Lizotte.
"You could hear that rhythm pretty much in every tune that you play."
She started getting paying gigs at about 13 years old with the Métis Nation of Alberta (now called the Otipemisiwak Métis Government), and by the age of 16 she had won the rising star award from the Alberta Men and Women of Country Music in 2016.
"It just came very naturally," said Lizotte.
"Looking back at it now, it definitely feels like some maybe ancestors and some blood memory kind of flowed in there while I was learning."
WATCH | Brianna Lizotte and Ethan Graves play a tune:
Watch Métis fiddle legend Brianna Lizotte perform
10 hours ago
Duration 2:24
Lizotte and her husband teach workshops on Métis music, dance and history and this year, her second album Winston and I was nominated for a Juno award in the traditional Indigenous artist or group of the year category.
"Being able to bring forward Métis music in that traditional category, it's really important to highlight that because that is a form of traditional Indigenous music," said Lizotte.
On the walls of Lizotte's home in Sherwood Park, just outside of Edmonton, hangs her grandfather's fiddle alongside one made by one of Canada's most decorated fiddle players, John Arcand.
Runs in families
Arcand, known as the "master of the Métis fiddle," is from near Debden, Sask., and now lives in Saskatoon.
He founded the Emma Lake Fiddle Camp in 1988, teaching children and youth to fiddle, and started the John Arcand Fiddle Fest in 1998, which ran for 22 years. Arcand comes from nine generations of fiddle players and learned playing by ear from his uncles using fiddles around the house.
"Music runs in families; everybody that's got music in them will eventually show up and pass it on without them knowing it a lot of times," said Arcand.
Arcand said he's likely taught more than 10,000 fiddle players over the years between the Emma Lake camp and his fiddle festival. He helped revitalize the tradition after a period when the instrument became less popular, which he attributes to the rise of rock and roll and people learning to play guitar instead of fiddle.
"Prior to [the camp and festival], fiddling were just about non-existent in Saskatchewan," said Arcand.
He's received the Order of Canada, a Queen's Jubilee Medal and two lifetime achievement awards: one for Outstanding Contribution to Old Time Fiddling from the Canadian Grand Masters, and one from the inaugural Lieutenant Governor's Saskatchewan Arts Awards.
Now 83, he plays the fiddle every day saying, "If you don't play, you'll lose it."
He also says when it comes to fiddle playing, you can't separate it from dancing.
"You've got to learn to dance to be a good fiddle player," said Arcand.
"You learn to play fiddle while watching people dance. You've got to follow the people taking their steps and play along with them kind of thing."
Arcand said once at a Back to Batoche festival in the 1970s he played the fiddle for 18 hours straight while people danced.
"Without the two components, one of them will die off and people won't know what they're playing for," said Arcand.
The joy of jigging
"The way to drive a Métis crazy is to nail his moccasins to the floor and play the Red River Jig," is a folk saying recorded by musicologist Lynn Whidden.
This saying might be true for the members of United Thunder, a square dance and jigging group in Manitoba. The eight-member group formed in 2017 and has had great success winning competitions like the Norway House Cree Nation Treaty and York Boat Days competition for a $20,000 prize.
"When I'm dancing, I forget about absolutely everything, and I'm just in that moment, and it's a very pure feeling for me," said Brandon Courchene, a member of United Thunder from Sagkeeng First Nation.
Courchene was formerly part of the jigging group Sagkeeng's Finest that won Canada's Got Talent in 2012. Now he dances for United Thunder when he isn't working as a school bus driver and educational assistant and teaching kids how to jig for a dance group called Sagkeeng Anicinabe Dancers.
"I'll dance till the wheels fall off," said Courchene.
According to the Manitoba Métis Federation, Métis jigging was created in the Red River area around Winnipeg in the mid-1800s and the most famous dance is the Red River Jig. Stories differ about exactly how the tune came to be but there are three main stories.
Some say it came from a fiddler imitating a Scottish bagpiper playing by the Forks, where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet in Winnipeg, according to an account from the Winnipeg Free Press published in Drops of Brandy: An Anthology of Metis Music. Bagpipers would play on the west bank and Métis and French would listen on the east bank. One evening a Métis fiddler imitated a bagpiper across the river and played a melody that became the Red River Jig.
Another story is that the Red River Jig came from Québec in the early 1800s and was originally called La Jig du Bas Canada or La Grande Gigue Simple.
The most widely accepted account of the origin of the Red River Jig is that it was played as a wedding dance for a Métis couple at Red River in 1860. The fiddler composed a new tune for the wedding and the priest at the wedding called it the Red River Jig.
Ashley Harris, a member of United Thunder from Ebb and Flow First Nation, comes from a family of champion jiggers, and taught herself to dance after years of watching her family perform.
Her favourite dance is the Red River Jig.
"It just comes naturally," said Harris.
"I just think it's the Métis anthem."
Harris said jigging is an important part of celebrating Métis and First Nations culture, and is part of who she is.
"I feel like the Métis dance is just a powerful, powerful dance and it brings people together," said Harris.