www.timeriksen.net
The Oromo gospel song "Aarsaa Gaalaataa" performed by members of the Rehobot Oromo Choir including Tim Eriksen at a memorial for Minja Lausevic at the Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis, MN on October 13, 2007. The last time Minja and Tim performed with the choir was at the Walker Art Center's "Festival Dancing in Your Head," when they appeared with Ornette Coleman and the Bang On A Can All Stars. The group for the memorial consisted of (left to right, front row) Tsehai Wodajo, Maartaa Namaaraa, Aster Namaaraa, Elsa Namaaraa, Tim Eriksen
(back row)...?...? (sorry, can't see you in the video) and Ephraim Olani.
Though never a power majority, the Oromo people constitute the largest ethno-linguistic group in Ethiopia, with many living also in Sudan, Kenya, Somalia and internationally. Minnesota's Twin Cities are fortunate to have one of the world's largest (predominantly refugee) Oromo communities.
The Namaaraas, who have received/composed the lion's share of the Oromo Lutheran hymn repertoire, are from the western mountains of Ethiopia's Wallaga (Wollega/Welega) region. Tim Eriksen and Minja Lausevic began performing with the choir in 1999, when their "world in two cities" research into Minnesota's Lutheran music took an unexpected turn. They spent their first Minnesota Thanksgiving with this extended family, eating budeenaa and ito on the same plate with turkey and pumpkin pie. This collaboration resulted in the first ever CD of Oromo gospel music (Elsa Naamaaraa's 2001 recording "Hundinu Harka Kee Keessa Jira, Yaa Gooftaa.") The people in this video were also the very first to visit Minja, Tim and Luka when Luka was only a few hours old and, as usual, they sang and prayed and brought food enough for a week!
Whatever one's technical assessment of this "performance," it displays something of the depth and breadth of this community and singing tradition. Depending on who you ask and when, this song is sometimes considered a "western influenced" song, as opposed to a strictly Oromo one.
Minja Lausevic died in July, 2007, and as the video perhaps attests, she is deeply loved and missed by many people around the world. On July 28, 2007 she was remembered in simultaneous Sacred Harp singings in Greenfield, MA, Newcastle, England, Eugene, OR, Sand Mountain, AL and Minneapolis, MN. The next day a tree was planted in her memory in front of the Children's Indian School on the Nez Perce/Umatilla Indian Reservation, and emails, letters and phone calls came in from Canada, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Australia, England, Austria, Germany, Norway, India, Indonesia and many of the United States. May we all give reason to be remembered and missed so profoundly.
http://www.cla.umn.edu/twocities/rprojs/lutheran/enamarra.asp
www.timeriksen.net
http://myspace.com/timeriksenmusic
Tags: oromo namaaraa lausevic tim eriksen gospel rehobot minneapolis cedar cultural center world in two cities sacred harp
