Music and Culture grad student Heather Horak has been awarded a major grant, in partnership with her local heritage centre, Maison Fairbairn House, to explore the musical subculture of the hippy era (‘60’s/’70’s) and its influence on community identity and values in the Gatineau Hills/West Quebec area.
The musicology project, which Horak designed and wrote to help Fairbairn Centre develop its musical heritage programming, received a grant from Heritage Canada: Community Life, Development of Official Language Communities/Cooperation with the Community Sector. The program will roll out over two years and includes ethnographic and academic research and a series of interactive community activities and installations designed around the themes of the project and results of the research.
“My older sister and I sold lemonade to hitchhiking hippies on their way to Woodstock Festival in New York State 50 years ago,” shares Horak. “The musical subculture of that generation reverberates strongly throughout my life story and pursuits, both as a musician, activist, and human being. The presence of ‘hippy’ type values such as inclusiveness, acceptance of difference and encouragement of creativity is still what draws many people to the Gatineau Hills even 50 years after Woodstock.”
Continues Horak: “Differentness’ migrants in the hippy era ntroduced these countercultural values and were the foundation of what we take for granted today. Music played a huge role in expressing the ideas and building the subculture of that time. Here in the Gatineau Hills, music and ‘hippy’ values still provide a ‘glue’ around which people gather and celebrate our uniqueness.”
(L to R) Neal Sundet, steering committee; Christi Loughery, research assistant; Helen MacKinnon, Fairbairn Heritage Center Administrative coordinator; Justin Meunier Research Intern and Digital Media support; Heather Horak, Lead researcher and Project Manager/Coordinator; Nicolas Lebel, Research Intern
Horak notes that this new research project is not connected with her Carleton thesis which focuses on a small stringed instrument from the Andes in South America called the charango. She is studying its presence and trajectory in diasporic intersections in Europe. Click here to read a blog that Horak wrote about her research.
Horak is appreciative of the mentorship she has received from her thesis advisor Prof. James Deaville. “He has been very supportive to all my endeavors outside of the normal bounds of the program requirements, which have been many.”
The master’s student returned to studies after 30 years of diverse life experiences related to music, education, intercultural exchange, as well as holistic medicine.
She has received many other awards including, the SSHRC-CGS Bombardier, Michael Smith Foreign Study Fellowship, MITACS Globalink, MITACS Accelerate, and several Carleton Departmental scholarships.
