Manitoba Métis Fulbright scholarship winner gives voice to Indigenous women through opera | CBC News

A Manitoba Métis singer who is doing research on Indigenous opera has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Canada scholarship — which she said will give her a platform to continue sharing Indigenous stories.

Camryn Dewar is Red River Métis and one of 14 Canadians awarded a Fulbright student award, a highly sought-after U.S.-Canada exchange scholarship awarded to young professionals.

“When I found out … I remember running around the house jumping up and down, squealing and everything because I was so, so excited,” said Dewar.

The soprano from Stony Mountain, just north of Winnipeg, says the scholarship — for $25,000 US over an eight-month academic year — will relieve the worry of having to work to pay off for her tuition, allowing her to focus on her study at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where she’s focusing her research on Indigenous opera.

She’s already finished the first year of her master’s of music in opera performance degree, and is set to graduate in the spring.

Thanks to the scholarship, “I have a platform that I’ve been given to be able to talk about … first of all, [that] Indigenous people still exist — we’re everywhere,” and “also, we make music, and we make really good music — and not only that, we make opera.”

From rural Manitoba to Carnegie Hall

Dewar said on her father’s side of the family, playing instruments is “kind of in the blood.”

“Musicianship, jigging and fiddling guitar and piano is such a huge part of [the] Métis culture … and I really have my Métis background to thank for being musical in the first place,” she said.  

At the age of four, Dewar followed her grandmother’s advice and began piano, voice and hand drum lessons. But it wasn’t until she was 13 that she decided to be a professional performer, after being cast in the children’s chorus in a Manitoba Opera production of La Bohème.

“I was looking out at the [Centennial] Concert Hall, rows and rows of seats with the spotlights … it’s just everything how you picture it, and I was like … ‘this is what I want to do, for sure,'” she said. 

Her first experience with Indigenous opera was during her undergrad at the University of Manitoba, performing an excerpt of Missing — an opera about missing and murdered Indigenous women by Métis playwright Marie Clements and composer Brian Current.

“I truly felt like my soul was pouring out of my body — it was such a visceral experience,” she said. “With Indigenous music specifically, it really feels like everything is just coming out of you.” 

As an emerging artist, Dewar said support from the Métis community, and particularly the Manitoba Manitoba Federation, has been invaluable, opening doors with financial help while completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Manitoba and leading to a career that’s already included performances at prestigious venues like the Banff Centre in Alberta and Carnegie Hall in New York.

Dewar is focusing her lecture recital series — a capstone project for her master’s degree — on the evolution of how Indigenous women are represented in opera, and the shift from the “romanticization” of Indigenous women in eurocentric operas.

That shift has included work that explores violence against Indigenous women, which is “very powerful, important and huge,” she said.

And now, “we’re at a point where we’re just trying to kind of normalize Indigenous people” in art and popular culture, including opera.

That normalization “is a huge part of equal representation, because … we’re finally moving away from just stereotypes,” she said. 

Mel Braun, head of the Desautels faculty of music’s vocal program at the University of Manitoba, met Dewar for coaching sessions while she was a first-year student and introduced her to Missing.

The pair worked together for years, and Dewar grew “into her body as a singer,” Braun said, freeing up her vocal capacity and technique, while also finding her figurative voice.

“Her voice is beautiful,” and “speaks for itself when she sings, but she’s [also] a powerful advocate,” Braun said. 

Dewar’s work to present music from Indigenous composers is a cause that “really needs taking on,” particularly in the opera world, he said.

“Opera usually ends up with the woman dying for some reason,” said Braun.

“There’s a whole tradition in the matriarchy of Indigenous culture of very strong leadership from women … and the more we can encourage this, the better.” 

Work to collaborate with Indigenous artists, “mentoring and bringing forward the young Indigenous singers and composers — it’s so long overdue,” he said.

Dewar said she feels a sense of responsibility to give voice to Indigenous stories, and advocate for herself and other Indigenous women on stage.

“Indigenous opera is really good, worth knowing and supporting,” she said. “We need to be in the same space that everybody else is.” 

She’s also excited about how that representation can affect the next generation. 

“It shows little girls that there’s so much possibility for them and so many different things that they can do … but they never would have thought [of], because they [have] never seen themselves,” she said. 

“We deserve to have our voices heard just as much as anybody else’s.”

Telling the world stories of Indigenous women … through opera

A Métis opera singer from Manitoba is one of 14 recipients of this year’s Fulbright scholarship.