Mark Taylor’s Flutes: Connecting Audiences to Indigenous Sound and Culture

By Chevi Rabbit, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News (ANNews) – The flute, one of the oldest instruments known to humankind, has long carried stories through generations. The Indigenous flute held particular importance in courtship, ceremony, and storytelling. Today, Cree flutist Mark Taylor continues that legacy, mastering both the craft and the music, and sharing it with audiences across Edmonton. “I grew up in Treaty 5, just outside of Winnipeg, in a small town called Selkirk, Manitoba. I did not grow up on a reserve,” Taylor recalled. “When my father and his siblings were being taken to residential school, my grandmother – who had attended residential school herself – told them to go hide. They ran into the bush and hid. A lot of my family didn’t go back…

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