A performance by singer-songwriter Kym Gouchie at High Beam Dreams early next month will represent a full circle for the artist, who is a member of the Lheidli T’enneh Nation (historically known as the Fort George Indian Band). During a performance three years ago in Gibsons, Gouchie revealed that she had recently added the ukulele to her repertoire, and had obtained a Canada Council grant to develop a children’s album.
Flash forward to March 2025, when Gouchie received a Juno award nomination for her album, Shun Beh Nats’ujeh/We Are Healing Through Songs. She attended the televised awards ceremony at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, wearing a gown designed by Tracey Peters, an Indigenous education worker and jingle dress dancer of the Ts’kw’aylaxw Nation.
“I never actually set out to win a Juno,” said Gouchie. “I set out to be a Juno nominee. It took me a lifetime to create this album — of learning, of connecting, of growing. It was my concept and my songs, but when you create an album, you’re bringing all of these people together into a space to create something that now basically becomes ours.”
This week Gouchie will launch a B.C. performance tour that first touches down at the Vancouver International Children’s Festival. While the festival provides a platform to share songs in the Dakelh (Carrier) language, it has also become a learning experience for Gouchie herself. She spent three hours working with an accessibility specialist to create a compelling visual story for young spectators with a range of abilities.
“That was an eye-opener,” Gouchie said. “We went song by song, telling people what was going to happen, especially for people who have anxiety, visual impairment, hearing impairment, ADHD, or autism. I’ve never had something like that before, but I’ve thought about having a disclaimer.”
A disclaimer for a children’s entertainer? Some of Gouchie’s new songs could be triggering, she acknowledged. In 215+, she reflects on the 2021 announcement of unmarked gravesites at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School: “T’abeh hoonust’i wasahiya / Hoonust’i neghaninja / No more my body lie deep in the ground / Hallelujah I’ve been found.” A message of redemption and hope runs through all the new tracks, which culminate with the meditative number Stay in the Now: “Unclench your jaw, soften your brow / Take a deep breath, stay in the now.”
For Gouchie, staying in the now means also keeping her eyes trained on both the past and future of the cultural heritage she embodies. As a self-described Elder-in-training, she has become a passionate advocate for the preservation of traditional languages.
“I get to use my vehicle of music to be able to revitalize and preserve my Indigenous language, which is really what this album was about initially,” she recalled. “I applied to the Canada Council to research and record an album in my ancestral languages, which are Dakelh, Cree, and Secwepemctsín.” There is a sense of urgency: in the last year alone, two fluent Dakelh speakers in the Lheidli T’enneh community passed away.
Using lyrics like those of her Dakelh Counting Song, Gouchie has witnessed the cross-cultural appeal of her ancestral tongue. During Vancouver appearances, she’ll be joined onstage by a non-Indigenous five-year-old who has mastered the numbers: “Lhukui, nankoh, tagih, dunghi.” At her Gibsons concert (which will be preceded by an all-ages workshop), she will be accompanied by cellist Naomi Kavka and keyboard player Brigitte Demeter (vocalist Gouchie also plays guitar and hand drum). Kavka, who is not Indigenous, has absorbed enough of the language that she counts her cribbage points aloud in Dakelh.
“I like to say that my shows will make you cry, laugh, and heal,” Gouchie said. “My band are all non-Indigenous people; they hear the language, they chant with me. That is the truest act of reconciliation. That’s the change I see.”
Gouchie’s “Move, Groove and Sing” workshop takes place at High Beam Dreams in Gibsons on June 1 at 1 p.m.; her concert of “singing, dancing and learning” follows at 3:30 p.m. Tickets for both events are available at the venue and at A Little Brit of Heaven in Sechelt, or via highbeamdreams.com. Gouchie, a proponent of “slow touring,” plans to spend an extra day on the Coast to connect with the land, water and community.
