LIVED AS SQUAW

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 709, 8 July 1929, Page 13

LIVED AS SQUAW

WOMAN COLLECTS OLD MUSIC ESKIMO AND INDIAN A new music—yet the oldest in the world —has been taken to England. So old is it that mothers in the j Stone Age lulled their babies to sleep with its unusual harmony. It is the music of the Eskimos and j the North American Indians, which musicians and scientists vouch is from 5,000 to 10,000 years old. It tells of the tribal customs and j the feastings and fightings of the Red j man, and of the joys and sorrows of the Eskimo amid his snow and ice. At the suggestion of the Canadian Government, Miss Juliette Gaultier, a direct descendant of the famous i French explorer. Pierre Gaultier de la Verendrye, the discoverer of the Can- j adian Rockies, went to London to j give a recital. Trained for opera by Lombardi, teacher of Caruso, Miss Gaultier gave up her stage career seven years ago for the task of collecting the ancient saga, chants and incantations of the Red Indians and Eskimos. Life of a Squaw She has lived the life of the Indians, enduring hardship and facing many dangers. She has collected between 200 and 300 unknown songs, which have been handed down from father to son from the Stone Age, and these have been translated and registered in Canada s national archives. “I spend four to five months each ! year living the life of a squaw in a i tee pee In the Indian reserves,” Miss I Gaultier said. “The first thing is to gain their confidence. To gain their confidence I wear their clothes—white buckskin, bead headband and feather—and talk their language. “When we have made friends I sing those of their songs I know, which so surprises them that they usually respond with other songs, which I write 'down note for note.” Sacred Rattle To retain the spirit of the music Miss Gaultier accompanies herself only on the primitive instruments of the Red man and Eskimo. Her oniy instruments are: An Eskimo tom-tom, a mere strip of hide stretched across a shallow hoop. Indian drum. Rattle of reindeer hoofs and cedar bark. A sacred rattle for healing the sick, made of old trading beads. These she will use at her recital in London, when she will appear on the platform in the dresses of a squaw and an Eskimo.