Episode 54 | Special Episode on The LiLoHia Project: with guests Gerald Auger and Sass Jordan

About Gerald Auger:

Gerald Auger is an actor, producer, writer, entrepreneur and motivational speaker from Alberta, Canada, of Woodland Cree descent. He graduated from Grande Prairie Regional College in 1995 with a Marketing Management diploma and a Small Business Management certificate. In 1996 and 1997 Auger was awarded the National Native Role Model by the Governor General of Canada and spent the next two years visiting more than 30 communities across Canada, inspiring his aboriginal peers, relating stories about his experiences and bonding with locals through cultural events and ceremonies. After being spotted at the opening ceremonies of the 1995 Canada Winter Games, Auger was given a supporting role in the 1998 film Il mio West (later dubbed Gunslinger’s Revenge), also starring David Bowie and Harvey Keitel. Filmed in Italy for Pacific Pictures, it was the first spaghetti western to use First Nations actors in aboriginal roles.

In 1999 Auger became the first aboriginal recipient of the Rotary International Integrity Award for the Avenue of Nations in Alberta. Auger had a lead role in the 2002 National Geographic IMAX-production Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West, and the next year he played Crow Hunter in an episode of the four-part Hallmark Entertainment TV miniseries Dreamkeeper.

In addition to being in the opening and closing ceremonies for the Arctic Winter Games as Anook the Rockman for The Heroes Journey in 2010, Auger had a role in the cult classic FUBAR 2 and played a Native guide and interpreter in Western Confidential (starring FUBAR’s Paul Spence) as well as a Native policeman in The Plateau.

Auger produced, wrote and directed the 2007 short film Walking Alone about the life of rapper Shawn Bernard, and the 2008 National Film Board of Canada documentary Honour Thy Father that tells the story of his conflict with the Anglican Church (which refused his late father to have a traditional native funeral), and won Best Film Representing Cultural Diversity at the Alberta Motion Picture Industry Awards in 2009.

As owner and Chief Executing Officer of the business Black Eagle Entertainment, Auger plans to produce films, television series and documentaries aiming to advance the status and expose the stereotyping of his people. Auger is currently (spring 2013) working on his latest film project The Forgotten Truth of the Wilderness where he explores the idea that the Son of God was one of the greatest Sundancer’s that ever lived for he was one of the first men to give his flesh to a tree.

About Sass Jordan:

The roots that grew Canada’s Queen of Rock, Sass Jordan, started in Europe and edged across the pond to the veins of metal pulsing in the musical metallurgy of Montreal in the 70’s. Montreal’s burgeoning ’70’s scene included a ‘no holds barred’ approach to glam, punk, blues, prog, metal, country, jazz, folk, with the added attraction of a homegrown sound created by the Quebecois artists of the decade, unique to the landscape and pertinent to the denizens of the period. There was no better musical place to be in the ’70’s- and this was the backdrop that nurtured one of the pioneers of female fronted rock – Sass Jordan.

In the years since these auspicious beginnings, Sass has found herself working with and in the company of many of the people that inspired her to do what she does, amongst them the incomparable Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Steve Miller Band, Van Halen, The Foo Fighters, Cheap Trick, Santana, Joe Cocker, Styx, Rodger Hodgson, April Wine, Jeff Healy, and countless others. She has won various awards, including Juno and Billboard, and has sold over a million records world wide.

Sass was a feature actor in the episodic tv show “Sisters”, and from 2003 to 2008 starred as one of the four judges on the hugely popular television series, Canadian Idol. Her songs and performances have been featured on numerous television shows, including the iconic 90’s ‘Baywatch’ and ‘Knight Rider’,  The Dennis Miller Show, and SyFy’s ‘Defiance’.

There are very few female singers out there that are used as an example to describe a sound/style, but Sass is one of them.