The Work of Our Hands: On Finding the Sacred in the Real World

In a world yearning for meaning, the path to spiritual renewal may lie through the discipline and freedom that only hard work can show us.

Life is hard in Attawapiskat. Outsiders see the poverty and despair, the sagging, mold-filled houses with generations packed into each one. The substance abuse and the suicides. The decaying water system, that has come to symbolize the everyday injustice faced by First Nations communities.

So why does Juno-nominated Cree musician Adrian Sutherland live there?

The Work of Our Hands reveals a dimension of his own experience that headlines cannot capture and outsiders cannot see. The answer to why? is the answer to how?

By exploring his world through the concrete experience of his hands, as they hold a guitar, a hammer, a rifle, or a cannister used to carry water to his family home, and the materials from which the traditional Cree sweat lodge is constructed, Sutherland not only paints a portrait of a world few of us have ever seen, he also lays out the way the world itself can teach us right and wrong as clearly as we can detect a musical note that is off-key.   

Everyday life in Attawapiskat means choosing a difficult path, learning from the contours and hard edges of the world, and striving to do what is right. That is freedom. How many of us can say we are free?

Gritty, personal, and above all attuned to the meaning that we can discern only when we carefully hold the physical world in our hands, Sutherland’s story pulls us away from the abstractions and false promises of the disembodied reality we have stumbled into to approach deeper truth and meaning.

ADRIAN SUTHERLAND is a recording artist from Attawapiskat on James Bay. He released four albums with his band Midnight Shine before turning to solo projects. Since 2021, he has been nominated twice for the JUNO Awards and won ‘Best Americana Album’ from the World Entertainment Awards. A father of four, grandfather of seven, and a hard-working husband, Adrian is proud of who he is and where he comes from. He speaks his Cree language, is a respected cultural leader, and practices traditional ways of the land. Among his numerous roles in the community, he is a Master Corporal with Attawapiskat’s Canadian Ranger Patrol, where he leads young people on wilderness initiatives.