West Coast Now
“Paddle Song,” a Haida song performed by Erica Jean Reid (Gidin Jaad)
In English her name is Erica. But her traditional name is Gidin Jaad (Eagle Woman).
And in a new video posted by the George Wright Society she performs a song that’s especially relevant to our isolating times.
“I’m honored and humbled to join you today and to welcome you,” she says in the video. “I’m going to share a song that’s collectively owned by the Haida Nation.”
It’s called “Paddle Song” and she explains that “we use this song when we need to come together and to work together.”
A write-up of the video explains that “Gidin Jaad (Eagle Woman) Erica Jean Reid follows her matrilineal lineage of her mother Carol Crosby, and is born to the Naay ‘Yuwans X̱aaydag̱a (the Big House People) clan of Skidegate, B.C., on Haida Gwaii.”
Learn more about the George Wright Society here.
