JIMERSONTOWN — Jonathan Maracle, founder of Broken Walls, recently presented his musical program at the Redhouse Memorial Chapel in Jimersontown.
Broken Walls was conceived in 1995 with the goal of ministering to peoples of all cultures to breakdown the walls of separation between cultures. Dancers often join in with the group, demonstrating honor to the Creator through dance.
Maracle utilized the Buffalo hide pow-wow drum, the Mohawk wind flute and his guitar. An energetic man, he was a one-man band Saturday evening and at the Sunday morning service, but was assisted on the Buffalo drum by Tim Ledsome and Pastor Winfield Bowen.
Broken Walls full band also includes Kris Delorenzi, bass player and backup vocalist, and Bill Pagaran, percussionist and a Tlingit Indian from Alaska.
Maracle has composed numerous compositions. For “Christmas on Turtle Island,” the group won the 2009 Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards for Best Flute Album and Best Instrumental Album.
The unique flute playing possesses a haunting sound reminiscent of some Celtic music and the eerie sound of the loon, the duck which occupies distant, wilderness lakes.
Maracle’s father, Andrew C. Maracle Sr., was a Mohawk Indian while his mother, Lillian J. (Ross) Maracle, was of Scottish descent, tracing back into the Bruce family.
His father was a missionary to the Mohawk Indians. During his younger years, the elder Maracle and his classmates were physically punished by the school teachers whenever they spoke the Mohawk language.
Pagaran leads a suicide prevention program in Alaska called “Carry the Cure.” The program is presented at other sites in Canada by the group, especially communities where the suicide rate may be the highest in the world.
Maracle has presented at the Redhouse Memorial Chapel for three years. His group has traveled extensively in the United States and Canada as well as Australia, Austria, China, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Mexico, Peru, Switzerland, Scotland and Ireland.
Broken Walls is based on the Tyendinaga Territory in Ontario, Canada. For more information, contact them at (613) 396-1954, office@brokenwalls.com or www.brokenwalls.com.
Contact the Redhouse Memorial Chapel at 945-5607 or Pastor Bowen at 378-4817.
