Since Robbie Robertson’s death, donations have poured in for Woodland Cultural Centre near Six Nations, Ont. | CBC News

Following the recent death of Robbie Robertson, the family of the famed Canadian musician made a heartwarming request.

“In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support a new Woodland Cultural Centre,” said the statement.

Since his death, the centre, which is in Brantford, Ont., and dedicated to the preservation of Indigenous language and culture, has received an outpouring of donations — more than $50,000 in his name — and international attention. 

Robertson, the guitarist and principal songwriter of the Band, died on Aug. 9 at age 80 after a long illness. Born in Toronto, he was also a member of Six Nations, the First Nations community where his mother was born. 

The centre’s executive director, Heather George, told CBC Hamilton she has done dozens of interviews in recent weeks, including with Rolling Stone magazine. 

“It really highlighted that Woodland exists,” George said. “I think that not everybody knew that we were here.”

Aging centre needs upgrades

The centre is on the site of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School and is close to Six Nations. It serves as a museum, gallery, resource library and educational centre. 

George said that before Robertson’s death, the musician was co-chairing a capital campaign to help construct a new building for the centre. Its current facility was built in the 1950s as a gymnasium and has serious structural issues, George said. 

“It’s something that I think he really was committed to, and to have his family add their support to that is so, so kind and so generous,” she said. 

George said the goal is to raise $65 million. The donations made in Robertson’s name will go toward hiring a staff member to co-ordinate the project, George said. 

Six Nations member Kelly Boutsalis said the call for donations was “really touching.”  

“I was really surprised when I saw that,” Boutsalis told CBC Hamilton in August. “It really made me feel like he did have that connection to the community.”

Boutsalis, who lives in Toronto, works as an associate programmer with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and as a freelance journalist.

She said the Woodland Cultural Centre is one of her favourite museums. 

“They’re doing a lot of work… so that people can see what residential schools were all about. The contents of the cultural centre have just been, I feel like, lovingly maintained for so many years.”

Robertson’s connections with Six Nations

Growing up on Six Nations, Boutsalis remembers her dad playing Robertson’s music as a child.

She became even more of a fan herself in 2019, when researching ahead of the TIFF premiere of Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, the documentary about his early life and formation of the group. Boutsalis interviewed Robertson at the time.

“I was just so excited to speak with him, and he was great. He was really nice, very excited to speak with me too, which is something that you don’t always get with someone of his status.”

Robertson had previously discussed the importance of his Six Nations connections.

In an interview with CBC’s Metro Morning in 2017, he spoke about the childhood memories in the community that influenced his art.

He said he was about eight years old when, on a trip with his mom to see relatives, it struck him that “everybody there could play, or sing, or dance or do something with music.”

Robertson recalled moments that sparked his love affair with the guitar.

“To see somebody sitting beside you in a chair and hear their fingers moving on the instrument, and hear them breathing when they were singing, all of that, it gave me chills.”

In a statement after his death, the Woodland Cultural Centre also referenced those beginnings.

“Robertson’s career was influenced by early trips with his mother Rosemarie to visit family in Six Nations of the Grand River— a community known for supporting musical and artistic talent,” it said.

“His greatest legacy will be the opportunities his trailblazing work continues to provide other artists to celebrate and promote Indigenous culture.”