Alumni Profiles
CMU alumnus gives new voice to historic Métis anthem
CMU alumnus Erik Gillespie ’24 spent hundreds of hours this summer helping bring a historic Red River Métis anthem into a new generation through the Michif Anthem Project.
CMU alumnus Erik Gillespie spent last year working as a restaurant server, but this summer he took on a tall order of a different kind: updating a 200-year-old anthem of the Red River Métis for a new generation.
The historic anthem, "La Chanson de la Grenouillère" ("The Song of Frog Plain"), is one of the best-known pieces of Métis oral tradition. It was composed by Pierre Falcon, a Métis fur trader, poet, and songwriter, following the Victory at Frog Plain on June 19, 1816.
The confrontation between Métis workers transporting trade goods for the North West Company and colonists employed by the Hudson's Bay Company became a significant moment in Métis history and identity.
"That was the first day they flew the [blue infinity] flag and declared themselves a sovereign nation—it's a really significant date," Gillespie says.
Gillespie comes from a Métis family with roots in St. François Xavier, Manitoba, a historic Métis community that was also home to Falcon. He graduated from CMU in 2024 with a Bachelor of Music and is a multi-instrumentalist.
"Don't we already have a really old anthem?" Gillespie recalls asking when he first heard about the Michif Anthem Project.
"They said yes, and that's kind of the issue," he says.
The original song has 12 verses and follows a chronological narrative with a repetitive musical form.
"It's written to preserve this story... which makes for a great story, but not necessarily a great anthem."
The White Horse Plains Michif Elders Advisory Group entrusted Gillespie with composing a new version of the anthem. It needed to be no more than four verses, retain elements of the original melody, incorporate key moments from the story, and take on the character of a national anthem.
"The purpose of the project is really twofold," Gillespie says. "It's to revitalize the anthem so it's not forgotten, to make a more modern version of it that you could play at ceremonies and events."
The other goal is to bring the anthem into schools, encouraging Michif language learning and helping preserve Métis heritage.
Gillespie immersed himself in the work. He combed through family trees and old sheet music provided by Université de Saint-Boniface, met with Métis songwriters and Elders, and listened to or played through at least 30 versions of the anthem, examining what they shared and where they differed.
From there, he chose a melody, reworked the verses, and added chords to shift the tone of the piece.
His time in the CMU media studios and music classrooms helped prepare him for a project of this scale.
"CMU gave me the tools I needed to really learn how to write music—how to make a lead sheet, for example. I still draw on all of the music theory, like songwriting arrangement rules, that you need to do things like this," Gillespie says.
"What I learned on how to navigate digital audio workspaces, how to arrange music in a way that sounds pleasing to the ear, how to thoughtfully navigate cultural boundaries... Those are skills I learned here."
Even with that knowledge and experience, Gillespie says he sometimes wrestled with the magnitude of the responsibility and trust he had been given. When he doubted his approach, he sought guidance from Elders closely involved with the project.
"I've been extremely thoughtful in how I approach it," he says. "I spent hundreds of hours on it this summer trying to figure out how to do it authentically in a way that pays homage to the text of the piece, still gets the important messages across, and does it in a way that will please them."
He also received support from CMU Associate Professor of Music and composer Neil Weisensel, whose door remained open whenever Gillespie needed guidance.
"I'm so proud of Erik for the work that he's doing with Elders and community members to put together this Michif Anthem Project," Weisensel says. "He's been doing some great work and has been getting kudos from senior members of the Manitoba Métis Federation government."
For Gillespie, the project has become deeply personal. He gets emotional when speaking about the anthem, both because of the time he has spent immersed in its history and because of what the work has meant for his own Métis identity.
"I'm just thrilled to be a part of it; it's an incredible opportunity," he says. "It taught me a lot about my own history."
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