The Secret Path

Gord Downie began Secret Path as ten poems incited by the story of Chanie Wenjack, a twelve year-old boy who died fifty years ago on October 22, 1966, while fleeing from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ontario, and attempting to walk home to the family he was taken from over 400 miles away. Gord discovered the story of Chanie Wenjack (miscalled “Charlie” by his teachers) by his brother Mike, who introduced him to Ian Adams’ Maclean’s story from February 6, 1967, “The Lonely Death of Charlie Wenjack.” This project is an album, an accompanying graphic novel, and also an animated film.