LEELA GILDAY
A captivating Dene singer/songwriter, Leela Gilday is a passionate, soulful performer who takes listeners on a
journey through a musical world where freedom and joy balance sorrow and injustice. Her lyrics, reflective of her northern roots, embrace the essence of Dene life from an urban perspective. Leela comes from Yellowknife, NWT and is a member of the Dene Nation. “We have long recognized her as a talented member of our nation,” says Dene National Chief, Bill Erasmus
Who was your inspiration when you were growing up?
As a child, my parents were my primary inspiration because they really believed in me. It’s really important to have that because it gives you the confidence that you can do anything.
were there any issues you dealt with as a young per- son that you see young people dealing with today?
One of the major things that I have lived with in my life andI see a lot of is about identity. Because of colonization, and especially with pop culture, we don’t see ourselves as Native people reflected very much in the mainstream media. So growing up for me, even though I was surrounded by family and friends, it was kind of a weird time. I never found myself until I was 17 and really started to understand myself as a Native person, or as a Dene, and how that relates to the world and the earth. What I see a lot of people dealing with is cultural dislocation, a lack of cultural identity, and what that really means in our lives as Native people. That of course relates back to residential schools and what generations before us went through. It’s a wonderful thing to rediscover yourself as a Native person.
What advice would you give to young musicians?
I would have to say practise. Practise, practise, practise. That’s the most important thing.
What is your message to the aboriginal community?
Now is the time for us to shine. Showing the world our Aboriginal traditions and leading by example for society to follow.
What’s the story behind your story?
I’ve talked in different interviews about how I came to be at this point in my life. One of the things that I often talk about to youth is following your heart path. When I was 26 years old I had been working for a few years in a day job in Toronto. It was a really good job, and an important job. I was working for my best friend who owned her own production company. We were making an Aboriginal youth role model television series. It was really important work in that way and the people I
was working with were awesome. I was making good money; I was finally making a decent living and I had my own place in Toronto. But despite all of these things I was completely unhappy. And the reason I was unhappy was because I was not following my heart path. I was not doing what it is I was meant to do on this earth—and that is to play music.
So that year I decided I would produce my own album, quit my day job, and give everything to just being a full-time musician, with no back-up plan. I would leave Toronto.
What is your vision for your community?
I think that Dene have the potential to become leaders when it comes to green energy. Also, because we have so many abundant natural resources, we have the potential to demonstrate our traditional values with regards to relating to the land instead of the blatant resource development that’s been going on recently.
what role should our traditions and cultures have in the lives of our first nations youth?
First of all, tradition and culture are two separate things. Tradition is set, but culture is fluid and always changing. Our traditions are in the past, but our culture is what we take from our traditions and put into our daily lives. For youth,it’s important to be involved in as many cultural activitiesas you possibly can. This helps you remember who you are and where you came from. The arts are good because Native people are very artistic in a traditional sense. Dancing, singing, and painting all played a role in our traditional lives. The more you do that, the more you will know who you are, and feel more secure in your identity.
It’s been 12 years and I’ve never looked back. Certainly there have been some challenging times, but I think people need to have the courage to really pursue their dreams and respond to what it is they hear inside them.
That doesn’t necessarily mean they need to leave their job. You have to be smart about things. When I quit my day job I had just launched an album, I had a bit of savings, I had a little safety net, but I had no back-up plan. I was not going to go and look for another job. It was scary, but it’s what enabled me to write music for a living, have these albums, and perform for millions of people around the world. I have an educational degree in music but it’s not an easy field. A lot of the people I went to school with don’t play music anymore.
How have music and acting helped you towards having a more positive life?
It goes back to following my passions—being the best I can possibly be through my music, and through other things like television acting.
