Hamilton music legend Tom Wilson is set to receive the Order of Canada.
Best known as a frontman for Junkhouse, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and Lee Harvey Osmond, the 64-year-old is a three-time Juno winner.
Wilson scored 11 top-10 hits with Junkhouse, has multiple gold records and has written with some of Canada’s finest musicians, like Sarah McLachlan, City and Colour and Colin James.
In the mid-’90s, Wilson also gained notoriety for imagery through paintings on guitars and canvas, with works shown off at galleries in New York City, Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa.
That included a 40-by-40-foot mural of Wilson’s The Mystic Highway, which became a fixture on James Street North in 2015.
He began a lifelong journey to reconnect with his identity through storytelling, culminating in the critically acclaimed autobiography Beautiful Scars.
Wilson was adopted and raised by a great-aunt and uncle in Hamilton, discovering as an adult that his birth parents were both Mohawk from Kahnawake.
“This is a very emotional and unexpected moment for me. I bring with me Bunny and George Wilson, the two people who gave me a fighting chance, my family and every one of my Mohawk ancestors,” Wilson said in a statement.
“I hope this appointment will help to influence the results of my work for Indigenous education and support my positive intentions as I help bring a deeper awareness of the true history of this country and the power and beauty of Indigenous people forward through my art, my writing, and my music. The future generations depend on the hard work we do today.”
Wilson joins some 85 new appointments to the Order of Canada for 2023.
Other Hamiltonians honoured this year include human rights advocate Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, who spent 27 years (1976-2003) as a professor at McMaster University’s Department of Sociology.
Materials scientist, engineer and McMaster professor Gary Purdy is also receiving the Order of Canada.
Director for the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute Savage Bear has also been appointed, as well as hematologist Jeffrey Weitz and chancellor Santee Smith.
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