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TORONTO —
For Ottawa-based rapper and motivational speaker Cody “Coyote” Purcell, working through intergenerational trauma meant sticking to his dream of making music.
Purcell grew up in Ottawa’s Pineview neighbourhood, which at the time was known for violence and gang activity.
“A lot of people that I grew up with in this neighbourhood – some didn’t make it, some are deceased, some are locked up in jail,” Purcell told CTV News’ Creeson Agecoutay.
Purcell himself joined a gang after high school, and it wasn’t until taking part in an Indigenous justice program at 21 that he turned his life around.
“They brought me to my first sweat lodge, round dances, powwows and had a healing circle where I was able to vent and tell them everything,” Purcell said.
For Purcell, that meant unloading the crushing weight of being an intergenerational trauma survivor – his father was forcibly taken in the sixties scoop, a federal program that ripped Indigenous children from their homes and placed them with non-Indigenous families.
Purcell’s family was displaced for more than 20 years.
“It was very hard not know where my family was from,” he said. “Having to take 25 years to have any kind of connection to them.”
Now settled into Matachewan First Nation in northern Ontario, and using his basement recording studio, Purcell is revitalizing the Ojibwe language and poetry he learned from his father – a declaration of reclaiming his identity.
Purcell’s journey is now something he speaks about with at-risk youth.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked in various youth centres in his community – helping others find their path.
“Have the vision in front of you and don’t look back.”
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