Over the weekend, I watched a streamed broadcast of Handel's Messiah.  Although I've seen Messiah many times, I enjoyed this one in particular.  Why?  Presented by the "Against the Grain Theatre," an innovative production and drama organization based in Toronto, this Messiah features a cast of Indigenous singers from all parts of Canada.  From Vancouver to the Yukon to the Northwest Territories to Nunavut to Halifax and Prince Edward Island, a diverse array of Indigenous singers voice the timeless lyrics of Handel's Masterpiece.  Adding to the uniqueness of this production, the singers are presented singing from the wildernesses of their native provinces.  We see the icy stretches of Nunavut, the dense forests of Alberta and Manitoba, the rocky shoreline of Newfoundland-Labrador, and the tundra and mountains of the Yukon.  It is as much visual as it is aural.  The result is highly 

moving and spectacular.     In some cases, the singers have reworked some of the lyrics to fit their Indigenous background.  While some Handel purists and/or aficionados might quarrel with such changes, they may miss the point.  We become party to some insightful observations into the meaning of the Messiah.

     When Yukon singer Diyet van Lieshout hikes through the snowy tundra of her native land, the Kluane Mountains rising behind her, singing in Southern Tutchone, her birth tongue, "O Thou that Tellest Us Good Tidings," she announces, translated from Tutchone, "The creator is here."

     Linguistic "purity" aside, isn't this the point?  In the midst of a troubled world, the one who made it and who has long wished to redeem it, now has finally arrived to do so.  The creator is here.