Jeff Lemire's final tribute to Gord Downie will have you in tears
The two artists worked together on Secret Path, about the life and death of Chanie Wenjack.
As tributes have been pouring in across the country for Gord Downie, perhaps none have captured the late Tragically Hip frontman's impact this past year so gracefully as the one from artist Jeff Lemire. The two worked together on Secret Path, an album and graphic novel about Chanie Wenjack, an Indigenous boy who fled a residential school more than 50 years ago, only to die on the train tracks hundreds of kilometres from his house.
The honours bestowed upon Downie had a profound impact on him, with the Assembly of First Nations naming him, "Man who walks among the stars." Downie said it was one of the greatest moments of his life, so it's fitting to see him here taking the same path as Wenjack, a boy who, in Downie's final grand statements, ensured everyone in the country knew about.
You can buy a copy of Lemire's print here, with proceeds going to the Downie Wenjack Fund.
— Jesse Kinos-Goodin, q digital