Ideas for Indigenous Resources (Canada)
Samian, Génocide (video, 3:51) Samian www.samianmusique.com is an Algonquin (Anishinaabe) rapper from the Abitibiwinni First Nation of Pikogan, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, who performs in French, and (in a historic first) in the Algonquin language (Anishinaabemowin). He has performed with Québec rapper Loco Locass, and mentored several Indigenous musicians, singers, and writers in the APTN program Le Rhythme. Samian recently launched his own recording label, Nikamo Music (Nikamo means “sing” in Anishinaabemowin). This song outlines Canada’s genocidal history, featuring lyrics like “Ils ont peur des Indiens instruits” (“They are afraid of educated Indians”).
*United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: (several-hour read)
Namwayut: an Indigenous-led project conceived “in a good way”
In the summer of 2021, Kwagiulth, Stó:lō, English, Irish, and Scottish soprano and dramaturg Marion Newman created the opera Namwayut for the Calgary Opera “Opera Labs,” in collaboration with composers Ian Cusson and Dr. Parmela Attariwala, as well as librettist Yvette Nolan and a team of singers and crew. This project unfolded under conditions that Newman considered respectful and nurturing, which resulted in a deep and fruitful collaboration. Each artist’s voice was heard and held with respect, equal weight and a sense of community.
Allowing Indigenous artists to conceive their own projects within their own cultural frameworks, while offering them proper support, space, time, and compensation is essential to redressing existing imbalances in classical music. It is not up to settler-composers to create Indigenous content; rather, settlers are asked to step aside and to nurture and support Indigenous artists as they create their own content, reflecting their protected cultural heritage and stories. Settlers can continue to thrive as composers in their own traditions, but they cannot drive projects that feature Indigenous content and themes.
We invite you to watch this short documentary on Namwayut (Kwak’wala, the language of the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples of northern Vancouver Island, smaller surrounding islands and adjacent mainland BC in Canada, meaning “we are all one”):
calgaryopera.com/namwayut (short documentary, 25:15)
Australia Council for the Arts: Protocols and Resources for working with Indigenous people Protocols published by the Australia Council for the Arts to guide interaction with Indigenous artists and to encourage Indigenous self-determination. Funding is dependent on compliance with the protocols, which are used nationally and internationally as a guideline.
Dylan Robinson, Hungry Listening. Minneapolis/London: University of Minneapolis Press, 2020. (involved reading – perhaps several weeks of reading and processing) A pivotal resource for Canadian musicians and composers, essential to understanding Indigenous sovereignty in music and the arts. Dylan Robinson upends settler expectations, sharing Indigenous perspectives, and also partially withholding them in order to show that there are Indigenous cultural realms that are not accessible to non-Indigenous people. Dylan uses event scores, poetry, and historical and artistic events to show how settlers can adjust their “starving” approach, in which they are fundamentally acquisitive, exploitative, and consuming, to a more respectful, understanding, and appreciative approach to Indigenous music and culture.
Hannah Standiford offers a brief summary and review of Hungry Listening (article, few-minute read)
Dr. Robin Gray – Embodied Heritage: Enactments of Indigenous Sovereignty (video, 1:08:36)
Dr. Robin R.R. Gray is Ts’msyen and Misikew Cree, and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Her research projects focus on the repatriation of Ts’msyen songs from archives, and foundational issues related to the preservation, management, ownership, access and control of Indigenous cultural heritage. In this talk given at Western Washington University, Dr. Gray states: “Our heritage is a living force that yields power. It is a type of power that is sacred and lawful, that reinforces relationships and responsibilities, that communicates our unique ways of knowing, being, and doing, that authorizes history and records events, and that validates political authority to places targeted by states and institutions.
Indigenous Canada Course (FREE!) An introductory, 12-unit Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) highlighting the significance of stories and storytelling in Indigenous societies that surveys history from the perspective of Inuit, Nehiyawak, Kanien:keha’ka and Klingit peoples, presented by the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. This course covers key issues facing Indigenous peoples today from a historical and critical perspective, delving into national and local Indigenous-settler relations.
The Path: Your Journey Through Indigenous Canada (Indigenous Cultural Awareness Training) (Disponible en français) A program designed by NVision, a majority Indigenous-owned company offering cultural competency training through the medium of Inuit, First Nations and Métis stories from coast to coast to coast. Themes include the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations. In the words of Murray Sinclair (former Senator, and former Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – TRC), “We have described for you a mountain. We have shown you a path to the top. We call on you to do the climbing.”
Nagamo Publishing – Indigenous Composers A company of Indigenous composers working in many media for Nagamo Publishing, featuring David Strickland, Cris Derkson, Bryden Gwiss, G. R. Gritt, Handsome Tiger, and others. Watch this one-minute trailer for the upcoming short documentary, Joe Buffalo, about a survivor of Canada’s notorious Indian Residential School system who has become an Indigenous skateboard legend.
