You are invited to our Exhibition Film and Talk about the Cree Fiddlers of James Bay by Dr Frances Wilkins. The event will give you time to look around our photographic and ephemera exhibition featuring the Cree people of an area of northern Canada.
This is a study of ethnomusicology and the fascinating adoption of the fiddle into the culture some of the remotest communities on the planet. After taking time to look around the curated photographic and ephemera exhibition, there will be a talk by Dr Frances Wilkins followed by a screening of the 1980 film The Cree Fiddlers of James Bay directed by Bob Rodgers. This documentary traces the history of the fiddle's arrival in Canada 300 years ago via Scottish traders from Orkney. The Cree population of what is now Northern Quebec adopted the instrument, and many Cree residents are master fiddlers. In this film two Cree fiddlers travel to the Orkney Islands, the birthplace of the music they learned from their fathers and grandfathers. The film captures the warmth and good will of this reunion.