Hard work in Hand Drum Workshop to stay connected

By Kelly Anne Smith

NIPISSING FIRST NATION – There were a few blisters and small cuts. Someone had to start over from the beginning and one participant started theirs upside down.

It was all part of Hand Drum Making Workshop with instructors Blair Beaucage and Tory Fisher. They offered a workshop in traditional hand drum making recently in the Culture Room at Nbisiing Secondary School on Nipissing First Nation.

Beaucage instructs students in Grades 9 to 12. “My main job is a teacher of Ojibway language here at Nbisiing Secondary School. And I teach the drum as well as Aboriginal values.”

Tory Fisher is also a teacher of language and culture at the elementary level.  Fisher explains the importance of the drum. “The drum represents the heart beat of our Mother Earth. It speaks to the connections we have with our Mother Earth, and when we hear the drum, it provides us our connection of where we come. The drum and songs are used for prayer in every element of ceremony, from opening to closing.”

Big drums and hand drums accompany social, ceremonial and spiritual songs. A traditional soundtrack plays as people work at various tables. A little girl pulls strips of deer hide with her mother to stretch it.

“What you are going to do is pull the string,” instructs Tory.  “You want to bring it over here because we are going to make a cross again. We are going to go underneath.”

“Mom, let me pull.” That is six-year old Calla with mother Penny Bois-Grossiant.

Ruby Green says “Oh no” when I ask if this is her first hand drum. She works beside Jack Couchie, who has been making hand drums for fifty years.

“Everybody starts out in stages. I was a traditional dancer for thirty-five years. And before that I was making drums,” noted Couchie.

Jack is helping Ruby, who has a broken arm and is making a drum for her son. “He is in Brantford hanging out with the Mohawks.” Ruby adds that Jack Couchie is a founder of the North Bay Indian Friendship Centre.

Jack said “I helped start the North Bay Indian Friendship Centre forty-one years ago. I started two drum groups.”

Jack goes over to a table and picks up a hand drum. “I made this about forty years ago. And that drum stick.”

Drum sounds are heard in the background when speaking to Jack. Someone is checking their drum.

Jack says that hand drums are made of deer hide because it is not as thick and therefore not as strong.

“It will pull so hard it will break all this here. This ring will break. That’s why you can’t use moose or cow hide on hand drum. You can use it on the big drum,” added Couchie.  

Blair and Tory are in the same big drum group, Little Iron.  They often travel to play at events and powwows. Blair is sharing his story with the group making their new drum. He pointed to a series of photos on the wall of the big drum making process. Thick moose hide is used to take the force of the drummers. “We had the ladies paint on the drum. We didn’t get any lacing done on it. Lacing is traditional but no one wanted to come into the room because it smelled so bad. It just has to dry out.”

Blair shows me their first drum. “It cracked.” He explains that the hand drum is usually for personal use. His hand drum was coming along after about four hours.

Tory said that George Couchie taught him how to make his first drum at 14 years old. “Ever since then I’ve been helping others. I passed on my first drum to somebody else.”

“Sometimes bear grease is used to maintain them so they don’t dry out. But you can’t put much. If it has too much moisture the membrane can break,” Tory explains how to care for a hand drum.

Kim Commanda and 10 year old daughter Amber work on a drum. Commanda says she made a drum a long time ago and wants to make one for where she works.”

Calla calls out “six” as she is counting hide strips.

“Ingodwaaswi” says Tory.  “Try to say that.”

Calla asks “What’s that?”

“It is six in our language,” he says.

Tory asks Kerry Lynn Peltier if her arms are bigger now. She says “yeah” and laughs.

He tells her, “My uncle always says that doing traditional work teaches one to be honest because you have to do it right.”

Kerry Lynn said it was her first drum made totally of hide. “I made one up at the university [Nipissing] but we used sinew. This one is all deer hide. It’s a lot more difficult. It is a good thing to do on a Sunday. I’m here with my mother-in-law Judy Manitowabi. And the view is great from here. “ She nods toward Lake Nipissing.

Blair can be heard coaching, “Nice and center, nice and center.”

Judy Manitowabi said it was the first time she ever made one. “I had one at home but I didn’t make it. It was gifted to me. I think when you make it, it is yours. Your spirit is in it when you make it yourself.”

Pelltier added, “Then you appreciate all the hard work that goes into making a drum.”

Chantal Vezina and her daughter Andrea also made hand drums for the first time. Andrea agreed that it was hard.

Jack Couchie says that, “Our language describes like no other in the world. Drum is odewe`igan an. Ode is a heart.”