Artists hope “Day of Mourning” song helps raise money for safe homes
- EFN Staff | August 26, 2018
Two performers released a song on the 19th annual Day of Mourning to remember the victims of the sex trade on August 14 in Saskatoon’s Pleasant Hill Park.
Mike Scott along with Lawrence Brass wrote a song called ‘Day of Mourning’ to commemorate the people on a list that continues to grow every year. Over the last 19 years, Egadz who organize the annual event, have added 125 names of those who died as a result of murder, suicide, overdose and disease that plague young Indigenous youth.
Scott is related to five people on that list and found it important to take part of this annual event.
“This is more than just a song to me…the lyrics throughout this music video explain the reality Indigenous youth face on a day to day basis,” said Scott in a media release. “This music video not only tells my story, it speaks to so many other people who have lost someone to that dysfunctional lifestyle.”
The video was produced by a group of talented young adults in Saskatoon with the help of Egadz, a non-profit community-based organization that provides programs and services to children, youth and their families who need to improve their quality of life. Egadz Executive Director Don Meikle said there were over 300 people in attendance at the Video for Day of Mourning event.
“It’s always a sad day, even for our staff, it’s one of the hardest days of the year,” said Meikle. “We know so many of the young people that have lost their lives. The sad part was we added four more names [to the list] this year.”
Meikle said the two performers wanted to help Egadz to fundraise for two safe homes for young people at time of crisis. In doing so, the duo created this song to captivate a larger audience and attention to the cause.
Egadz formed a GoFundMe page where they are asking for monetary donations to raise money to build these much-needed homes for those at risk in Saskatoon. To build the two homes, they are looking at $700,000 but they are hoping to raise $15,000 from the video itself. So far, they have reached close to $2,000. Although they are far from their fundraiser goal, they are not giving up on the idea of these homes.
“Community is behind some homes like these,” said Meikle. “The vision and the idea behind these homes came from the youth. So, it’s important that we work hard to make that a reality.”
Their Go Fund Me page is titled Egadz Youth Centre.