(Toronto) A posthumous philanthropic appeal by musician Robbie Robertson, who died on Wednesday, has drawn attention to a cultural restoration project in a Six Nations community in Ontario.
The family of Robertson, who died at the age of 80, had asked in the chronological notice not to send flowers, but rather to make donations for a new building at the Woodland Cultural Center in Brantford, said his director, HeatherGeorge.
The Woodland Cultural Center is located on Six Nations territory and on the former grounds of the Mohawk Institute residential school. The federal facility closed in 1970 and is now preserved as a historic site to educate people about the impacts of the residential school system in Canada.
The Cultural Center provides resources to promote Indigenous language and history, with the goal of sharing the story of the Haudenosaunee people, through exhibits and performances.
Robbie Robertson, best known as the former guitarist of 1970s American rock band The Band, was a frequent activist for the Six Nations of the Grand River, where he spent part of his youth.
In his 2016 autobiography, he wrote that this community had greatly shaped what he subsequently became. He explained that it was there that he learned about music and “how to tell a story.”
His biography is sprinkled with memories of his time in this community and the difficult childhood experienced by his mother, Cayuga and Mohawk, and other members of his family.
Robbie Robertson had recently agreed to serve as honorary chair of a campaign to replace the dilapidated old cultural center building. His family’s request for posthumous contributions made an unexpected contribution to this campaign.
