Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize

“Thank you to Polaris and the Slaight Family for honoring my father’s work. In the Grail legend, Parsifal heals a withered land by asking the wounded king: “Whom does the Grail serve?” On his 1971 Summus album, my father inverts that whole myth. He steps into Parsifal and merges the Grail and the sovereign into Crowfoot. In Grail lore king and land are one; Willie sees that bond but moves myth with history’s truth. The Grail’s holy water becomes Crowfoot’s tears. The wasteland isn’t a curse...it is colonial violence. Crowfoot is the wounded king. The light flows directly from the wound, and this is how our country of Canada is created. Willie forces the raw question: who is served by this suffering? He turns the mythic artifact into embodied grief with sanctity and sovereignty inseparable. Not an easy cure, but an enduring, luminous indictment of the crown. ”

— Lawrence Dunn, son of Willie Dunn

““McLaren Furnace Room was where it all started for us, so to have people still connecting with the record more than 30 years later really means a lot. The fact that this award was voted on by the fans makes it even more special. They’ve given these songs a life far beyond anything we could have imagined when we made the record when we were 21 years old. We’re incredibly grateful”— Joey Serlin, The Watchmen “McLaren Furnace Room was made in a pre-internet time when we were young, hungry, and focused solely on making the best record we could. There were no filters or cynicism, just an instinct to follow the music wherever it led. I’m thrilled this award recognizes Canadian albums as complete works that continue to resonate decades later and thanks to our incredibly loyal fans for making this happen.” — Sammy Kohn, The Watchmen ”

— The Watchmen’s Joey Serlin and Sammy Kohn