PROFILE
DARCY ATAMAN
By Samantha Dotson
When forging the path that you wish your life to take , it ’ s important to remember what you can offer as an individual , and never stop trying to prove it .
Growing up in Winnipeg , Darcy Ataman developed a hunger to know more about the world around him . He attended the University of Manitoba to obtain a Bachelors of Psychology , but quickly realized that he belonged in the music industry .
Ataman found that what he enjoyed most was producing music , and upon touring New York City with a band he was working with , decided that he was going to cut his teeth in the Big Apple . He banged down doors until he was invited to sit in on a session .
Amidst successfully growing his reputation as a producer , Ataman found himself utilizing his spare time reading about other parts of the world . The AIDS pandemic was at its apex , and Ataman remembers thinking to himself , “ Why isn ’ t this on the front page of our newspaper ?”
In 2006 , he made a move towards international development by grouping together several successful Canadian artists to record “ Song for Africa .” This recording raised funds for the fight against AIDS , and was unveiled to global leaders during the opening ceremonies of the XVI International AIDS Conference held in Toronto that year .
“ I was starting to feel really bad about not being a doctor or a politician ,” says Ataman , who had not been to Africa before the recording had been released . He remembers feeling weird speaking on the matter without having seen it first hand , so his next course of action was to get there .
Gathering all the musicians that worked on “ Song for Africa ,” Ataman set out for Africa to create a documentary of the same name that would showcase the people and projects that the funds had impacted .
In 2009 , Ataman and his crew spent five weeks in Rwanda filming a second documentary and recording an album . He recalls only having one day off in those five weeks , and they decided to bring their recording gear to a nearby community so that the children could have a chance to record their songs .
“ Through some friends at an organization called Partners in Health , we drove three hours to the hills , and the whole community was waiting for us ,” he recalls . “ There were literally kids trying to crawl through the windows to get in .”
The lyrics that the children shared with Ataman were full of extremely heavy subject matter – HIV , the right not to sell their bodies to survive , their right to be loved , their right to go to school . “ We quickly understood that music is a great way to talk about these subjects ,” says Ataman . “ They can ’ t talk about it directly , but they can sing about it .”
It was then that he knew he had something that doctors and politicians did not . “ That was the spark of thinking that we had something that we could do better than anyone else , as artists ,” he explains .
It took years of testing , piloting , and building the scientific backend to do things ethically and properly , but in 2011 , Make Music Matter ( MMM ) was officially born .
Ataman has now been to Africa 15 times .
He insists that MMM has rekindled his love for genuine and sincere art . “ In these conflict zones , it gives people a reason to get up in the morning and try again one more day , because music is free ,” Ataman says . “ It ’ s about the last thing left that they can ' t take from you .”
He tells of how they are testing the healing power of music through their innovative brand of music therapy at Panzi Hospital ’ s aftercare facility , Maison Dorcas , along with partners the
Photo : Jeppe Schilder
Panzi Foundation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with survivors of extreme sexual violence . Through facilitation , the program encourages the women to write , sing , and record their songs and aids them in their recovery processes .
There are researchers on staff that track the results across all major health indicators , including post-traumatic stress disorder , anxiety , and depression . They have been able to scientifically prove that there is a significant reduction across all three factors within three months of the program .
The songs that the survivors write get airtime on the radio in the Eastern Congo . Ataman says that there are instances where the military has called in to the radio stations to protest , saying that they ’ re the good guys , which is not the truth . “ It ’ s fascinating to me , that they have the guns and they ’ re scared of the songs ,” Ataman muses .
Though the weight of the task can bear down on him , and he knows that he cannot save everyone , Ataman maintains that the success stories that they have collected over the years keep him pushing forward to do all that he can .
One survivor at Panzi Hospital wrote a song called “ My Body Is Not a Weapon ,” with defiant lyrics that tell of how she is going to fight back against all of the injustice and save her country . This song went on to affect another survivor so deeply while she helped perform the song live that she left the stage and picked up her child for the first time – a child that had previously been rejected for reminding her too much of the trauma she had suffered .
“ When I have a bad day , those are the things I remember ,” says Ataman . “ Those are the things that keep me going .”
He insists that you have to carve your own way as a music industry professional , and that the world doesn ’ t owe you anything . “ We can ’ t be afraid to fail ,” he says . “ If you frame it right , every failure is a learning opportunity .”
Ataman is looking forward to a future that sees his project growing exponentially . “ Now that the model is proven and finely tuned , our next stage is what we call scaling ,” he says – “ taking this as far and wide as we can .”
Samantha Dotson is a photojournalist from Toronto . She enjoys a good concert , spending time with loved ones , and live tw-eeting about the Toronto Maple Leafs or The Walking Dead .
18 PROFESSIONAL SOUND