Edward Gamblin (1948 – 2010) was a
Canadian country rock
Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal s ...
singer and songwriter, who was one of the most influential early stars of
First Nations music.
["A pioneer of aboriginal music, he gave voice to his fellow residential school survivors"]
''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', August 25, 2010.
Born in 1948 at
Cross Lake,
Manitoba, Gamblin was a member of the
Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...
people.
At the age of five, he was sent to the residential school at
Norway House, where he remained until transferring to the residential high school at
Portage la Prairie in his teens.
He left high school at 16 and hitchhiked to
Winnipeg, where he stayed briefly before returning to Norway House, where he formed his first band, Cree Nation, in 1966.
He married his childhood classmate Aurelia Monias in 1970, and the couple lived in both Winnipeg and Norway House at different times.
Gamblin performed with a variety of bands over the course of his career, most notably Northern Lobo, and wrote more than 60 original songs.
[Brian Wright-McLeod, ''The Encyclopedia of Native Music''. University of Arizona Press, 2005. .]
In his later years, Gamblin became an activist for healing and reconciliation around the abuses of the residential school system, writing "Survivor's Voice" and working with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. He also attracted press attention for reuniting with Florence Kaefer, a teacher at the Norway House school who hadn't known the full extent of the abuses going on in the student residence.
‘I remember you. You were my teacher.’
'' United Church Observer'', May 2009.
In 2008, Gamblin had an accident on stage, cutting his ankle. The wound became infected, and resulted in the amputation of his leg.
Discography
*''Edward Gamblin''
*''Wild Child''
*''Don't Blame It on the Rain''
*''Soldier Blue''
*''This Can't Go On'' (1975)
*''Greatest Hits'' (2002)
*''Bright Blue Moon'' (2003)
*''Cree Road'' (2006)
References
1948 births
2010 deaths
Canadian country singer-songwriters
Musicians from Manitoba
Cree people
First Nations musicians
Canadian country rock musicians
20th-century Canadian male singers
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