Hovak Johnston, a Yellowknife Indigenous artist and writer, was with Downie in June when they both received awards from Governor General David Johnston in Ottawa. Gord’s live performance of The Secret Path was my last day in Toronto before permanently moving here almost exactly a year ago.” I worked on this project quite significantly from Yellowknife.

“He wanted to bring the injustice of residential schools to light and felt that telling Chanie Wenjack’s story was his greatest accomplishment. He thought his most important legacy was The Secret Path,” Essery stated. His legacy will obviously be his music which has moved so many Canadians. “The work I did on The Secret Path deluxe package included the album, book and 10 posters which I designed with (Gord’s) handwritten lyrics.

She designed the last ever Tragically Hip album – Man, Machine, Poem and Downie’s solo album The Secret Path for which she won a Juno Award for Package of the Year. Isis Essery, a Yellowknife graphic artist, had a closer relationship with Downie than most people. Yellowknifers turned out by the hundreds at several locations in the city to watch the band’s final concert live from Kingston, Ont., the band’s hometown, in the summer of 2016.įans gathered again earlier this year for a Tragically Hip tribute show at the Top Knight with proceeds going to charities in honour of Downie. Photo courtesy of Hovak Johnstonĭownie died Tuesday night “with his beloved children and family close by,” the band said in a statement on its website Wednesday morning.ĭownie, who was a married father of four, was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2016. His fans across the city were mourning the Canadian icon’s death this week. Johnston and Downie received awards from the governor general that day. Yellowknife artist Hovak Johnston plants a kiss on the cheek of a smiling but frail Gord Downie in June of this year. The lead singer of the iconic Canadian band, the Tragically Hip, Downie, 53, passed away Tuesday, of terminal brain cancer. Yellowknife residents are mourning the death of Tragically Hip front man Gord Downie.

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