Stirring oratorio pays homage to Indigenous veterans – Winnipeg Free Press

Apr. 24, 2026

‘My war wasn’t in Europe. My war was when I came back to Canada and I couldn’t vote until 1962,” says composer Andrew Balfour.

He’s paraphrasing a quote by an Indigenous veteran and the inspiration for his oratorio notinikew (i went to war).

Its soaring choral and orchestral soundscapes have been captured by Dead of Winter on a new record, which was launched in the Manitoba Legislative Building’s neo-classical Rotunda on Wednesday, hosted by MLA David Pankratz, Special Envoy for Military Affairs