During 2019 at The International Year of Indigenous Languages, a group of students from Allison Bernard Memorial High School in Canada’s Eskasoni, Cape Breton performed a beautiful cover of a Beatles song, “Blackbird.” The indigenous language Mi’kmaq is native to their area. The year before, the school introduced their Digital Mi’Kmaq program to make the school more accessible to Nova Scotia’s First Nations children. The International Year of Indigenous Languages is a United Nations sponsored observance that tries to raise awareness about the consequences of losing Indigenous languages around the world.
The goal of the program is to establish a link between language, peace, development, and reconciliation. Since the digital language course first launched in 2018, thousands of students from preschool to 12th grade have been introduced to a wide array of hands-on digital programs in communities around Nova Scotia that serve First Nation students. These students are learning about Big Data, 3D Modeling, Computer Science, Animation, and more. They’re also learning the core fundamentals of STEM programs (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). They hope to grow their program even more in the coming years.
Paul McCartney wrote “Blackbird” for the band’s 1968 album, “The Beatles,” which is also known as “The White Album.” McCartney said that he got the idea for the song when listening to the call of a blackbird when he was visiting Rishikesh, India. The song also symbolizes race relations in the U.S. in the 1960s. The guitar portion of the song was inspired by a Johann Sebastian Bach piece, “Bourree in E Minor,” which was written for the lute and is frequently played on classical guitar. The finger-picking guitar technique that McCartney uses in the song is one taught to him by a folk singer named Donovan.
YouTube
Watch this beautiful performance below. These young people did a beautiful job with this.