Canadian rock icon writes 'The Legend of Bobby Bird' for Sask. residential school victim

In 1969, 10-year-old Bobby Bird ran away from the Timber Bay Residential School in Saskatchewan but it would be decades before his family ever found out what happened.

That search is the basis for the new song “The Legend of Bobby Bird” by Juno award winning rocker Art Bergmann.

“I knew all about the residential schools and their legacy through seven generations and was listening a lot to the testimonies at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. So all of that knowledge was there,” Bergmann said. “But to bring it home through the story of one boy, it really brought it home.”

Bergmann said he was compelled to write the song after he read an article called “Cold and Alone” in the Calgary Herald, written by Star Phoenix writer Jason Warick last fall.

“This story I read it two days in a row. Then it just came in a flash. I just wrote the basics right away within two days,” Bergmann said.

“With the song I wanted to have him represent all of the vanished kids… I wanted him to become a legend where they all chose nature instead of going back to those prisons. They’d rather just disappear instead of going back. That’s where the legend comes in; they joined the spirits of the earth instead of the non-spirit world of those brutal schools.”

There was a short search for Bobby after he ran away from school. Years later a First Nations hunter found human remains and a white tailed deer bone but it would take decades for DNA evidence to confirm it was actually Bobby.

“With the legend I wanted to turn it around so they weren’t cold and alone at the end. They became one with nature and made a deal with whoever to exchange bone for bone the world of the deer,” Bergmann said.

After the song spilled out of him, Bergmann contacted Bobby’s family.

“I wanted to get their blessing to make sure I got it right. His name gets repeated over and over and if that was going to be hurtful I didn’t want to put it out,” Bergmann explained.

“They didn’t want to use the word Cree. This is very important to them, Cree is not how they talk about themselves, Cree is a colonial construct,” Bergmann explained.

“So I had to learn some words. It was difficult, but they taught me how to say them and I hope I got them right in the song. It’s been very educational on my part.”

After the song was finished, Bobby’s family were some of the first to hear. Bergmann said it’s created a relationship he hopes to continue but the song can reflect beyond just the one story.

“When I play it I barely get through it without weeping. So I would like this country to listen, think, and learn more about what happened,” Bergmann said. “I want them to hear this song, and weep, and get down on their knees in remorse, even if they say ‘the sins of our fathers’, we can help make it right now.”

Bergmann will be working with the family to make a music video and spread the legend of young Bobby and the children of the residential schools. Even after being a key figure of Canada’s early punk rock scene and picking up large awards, Bergmann said this is one of the pieces of his own legacy that he is most proud of.

“This is one thing I can do in my life that will have a positive effect, actually make some kind of positive change,” he said. “I’ve never had any power. I dealt with awful, awful people in the music business, the record business before, and now this little thing without all those people involved is happening and it’s really gratifying.”

The Legend of Bobby Bird by Art Bergmann (LISTEN)

The story of Bobby Bird,
he was ni’hio, ten years old
one of those who never returned
from those schools where souls were burned.

Bobby lies in the dark, thinkin’
how hard can it be….
for a tough, trapline kid like me?
but its 200 kliks from the mighty town of La Ronge
home through the bush
Saskatchewan

Cold and Alone Bone for Bone
Bobby Bird go home Bobby Bird

It was late October when Bobby ran
from the kind of treatment, who could understand
They beat him every time he opened his mouth
They beat him on the back
for speakin’ his tongue
Ni’hio, Ni’hi yewup’kh

Cold and Alone Bone for Bone
Bobby Bird go home Bobby Bird

When he was identified
DNA down his mama’s side
with a white tail deer bone
the story was KNOWN

Not cold and alone
Hear the wolves moan
with Bobby Bird

It took four days ‘fore the brothers
sent someone lookin’
another dead Indian, not surprisin’

Bobby didn’t think twice
when he heard that truck on the road
He jumped that ditch
Into the woods he strode

NOT cold and alone
Hear the wolves moan
with Bobby Bird

You can deny it was genocide
but the curse of this land still resides
in those vanished kids and their photo SMILES

Never to return, with Bobby Bird
NOT cold and alone
hear the wolves moan