LibGuides: Indigenous Studies: Indigenous Music

Introduction

This guide provides OC Library and web resources related to Indigenous music as well as search strategies on this and related topics. Indigenous music spans across genres and so the featured resources in this guide aim to show a variety of expressions rather than focusing on one artist over another.

IMPORTANT: the dominant structure for organizing information is from a western perspective, for this reason you may need to use outdated (sometimes offensive) terminology to find resources related to Indigenous peoples; please contact us if you'd like assistance navigating this.

Combine keywords related to the concept of Indigenous identity with keywords related to your area of interest.

For example:

Indigenous	Aboriginal	"First Nations"
Inuit	Métis	"Indians of North America"
Indian	Native	Name of Nation or Community (e.g. Secwépemc)

AND

Music	Musicology	"Musical performance"
Songs	Songwriter	"Sound recording"
Musician	Sound	Specific genre (e.g. rap)

Search Tips:

Use quotation marks to search for a phrase (e.g. "sound recording").
Use an asterisk to search for words with the same stem (e.g. music* retrieves music, musical, musicology, musician).
Terminology changes over time. You many need to search for alternative spellings of a word, for example: Sto:lo, Stó:lô, Staulo, Stahlo or you may need to search for alternate words, for example: Kwakiutl/Kwakwaka'wakw or Nootka/Nuu-chah-nulth

Subject headings are a tool designed to help researchers find similar materials. These are only some examples of the many subject headings that Okanagan College Library uses. Spend a few minutes exploring them when you find a book in the catalogue that supports your research.

Search by Subject Terms

Indigenous music
Aboriginal music
Indians of North America -- Music
Indians of North America -- Music -- Social aspects -- Canada

picture of search bar showing subject terms

Featured Music/Videos

Arlette Alcock is an award winning Métis singer and songwriter. Her songs are "inspired by her heritage as well as the social, environmental and political climate that affects us all." Though it is being released after the confirmation of a mass grave at the Kamloops Indian Residential school, the song Midnight Mass Graves was written more than 10 years ago when a mass grave was found at St. Anne's residential school in Ontario.

Snotty Nose Rez Kids is a hip hop duo composed of Haisla rappers Darren "Young D" Metz and Quinton "Yung Trybez" Nyce [1]. The Warriors is a resistance song made specifically for the Tiny House Warriors' battle against Kinder Morgan.

"Juno nominated Cris Derksen is an Internationally respected Indigenous cellist and composer. Derksen braids the traditional and contemporary, weaving her classical background and her Indigenous ancestry together with new school electronics to create genre-defying music." [1]

PIQSIQ is an Inuit throat-singing duo comprised of sisters Tiffany Kuliktana Ayalik and Kayley Inuksuk Mackay. They perform "ancient traditional songs and eerie new compositions." This song is completely improvised.

Jonathon Adams is a two-spirit, nêhiyaw michif (Cree Métis) baritone who studies and performs classical music across the world. This medley is a combination of two songs, one is Métis and is the story of a person who has lost their love and who asks the nightingale to give them news of their lost love. The second song is a Cree song written in a dialect that is no longer spoken and Adams does not know the words he is singing but thinks of it as the nightingale’s response. (From an interview with Adams on CBC's q, June 17, 2021).

Featured Books at OC

Aboriginal Music in Contemporary Canada
First Nations, Inuit, and Métis music in Canada is dynamic and diverse, reflecting continuities with earlier traditions and innovative approaches to creating new musical sounds. This book narrates a story of resistance and renewal, struggle and success, as Indigenous musicians in Canada negotiate who they are and who they want to be.
Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes
Expressive culture has always been an important part of the social, political, and economic lives of Indigenous people. More recently, Indigenous people have blended expressive cultures with hip hop culture, creating new sounds, aesthetics, movements, and ways of being Indigenous. This book documents recent developments among the Indigenous hip hop generation.
Hungry Listening
Reimagining how we understand and write about the Indigenous listening experience, Hungry Listening is the first book to consider listening from both Indigenous and settler colonial perspectives. A critical response to what has been called the "whiteness of sound studies," Dylan Robinson evaluates how decolonial practices of listening emerge from increasing awareness of our listening positionality.
Kika Kila
Since the nineteenth century, the distinct tones of kika kila, the Hawaiian steel guitar, have defined the island sound. Using rich musical and historical sources, including interviews with musicians and their descendants, Troutman provides the complete story of how this Native Hawaiian instrument transformed not only American music but the sounds of modern music throughout the world.
Mediating Indianness
Mediating Indianness investigates a wide range of media--including print, film, theater, ritual dance, music, recorded interviews, photography, and treaty rhetoric--that have been used in exploitative, informative, educative, sustaining, protesting, or entertaining ways to negotiate Native American identities and images.
Musical Intimacies and Indigenous Imaginaries: Aboriginal Music and Dance in Public Performance
Author Byron Dueck outlines a compelling theory of musical publics, examines the complex, overlapping social orientations of contemporary musicians, and shows how music and dance play a central role in a distinctive indigenous public culture.
Music of the First Nations
This unique anthology presents a wide variety of approaches to an ethnomusicology of Inuit and Native North American musical expression. Contributors include Native and non-Native scholars who provide erudite and illuminating perspectives on aboriginal culture, incorporating both traditional practices and contemporary musical influences.
Opera Indigene: Re/presenting First Nations and Indigenous Cultures
This volume explores how operas on Indigenous subjects reflect the evolving relationships between Indigenous peoples, the colonizing forces of imperial power, and forms of internal colonization in developing nation-states.

Featured Articles

"Coming Home" Through Music: Cree and Classical Music in Tomson Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen
Olaveson, H. (2017). “Coming Home” Through Music: Cree and Classical Music in Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen. Canadian Literature, 232, 65.
"Singing my Spirit of Identity": Aboriginal Music for Well-being in a Canadian Inner City
Harrison, K. (2009). “Singing My Music”: Aboriginal Music for Well-Being in a Canadian Inner City. MUSICultures: Journal of the Canadian Society for Traditional Music/Revue de La Société Canadienne Pour Les Traditions Musicales, 36, 1–21.
Can't hold us back! Hip-hop and the racial motility of aboriginal bodies in urban spaces
Buffam, B. (2011). Can’t hold us back! Hip-hop and the racial motility of aboriginal bodies in urban spaces. Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 17(3), 337–350.
Doing Long Work: Critical Perspectives on Indigenous-Settler Collaboration in Canadian Art Music
Strachan, J., & Nickleson, P. (2018). Doing long work: Critical perspectives on Indigenous-settler collaboration in Canadian art music. University of Toronto Quarterly, 87(4), 83–101.
Finding Lessons in Hip Hop: How Hip Hop (Helped to) Educate Four Métis Youth
Fowler, L. (2019). Finding Lessons in Hip Hop: How Hip Hop (Helped to) Educate Four Métis Youth. Antistasis, 9(1), 117–130.
Language, Music, and Revitalizing Indigeneity: Effecting Cultural Restoration and Ecological Balance via Music Education
Prest, A., & Coble, J. S. (2021). Language, music, and revitalizing Indigeneity: Effecting cultural restoration and ecological balance via music education. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 29(1), 24.
The long and narrow road: An Inuit student's journey through post-secondary music
Jacque, K., & Waterman, E. (2019). The long and narrow road: An Inuit student’s journey through post-secondary music. Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music/ Revue Canadienne de Musique, 39(1), 123.
Musical discovery, colonialism, and the possibilities of intercultural communication through music
Carfoot, G. (2016). Musical discovery, colonialism, and the possibilities of intercultural communication through music. Popular Communication, 14(3), 178–186.
Promoting Sovereignty, rapping mshkiki: a critical (Anishinaabeg) reading of rapper Tall Paul's 'prayers in a song'
Mays, K. T. (2016). Promoting sovereignty, rapping mshkiki (medicine): a critical (Anishinaabeg) reading of rapper Tall Paul’s ‘prayers in a song.’ Social Identities, 22(2), 195–209.

News and Magazine Articles

9 Indigenous musicians reflect on what truth and reconciliation means to them
[CBC, 2021]
New Label Ishkodé Records Invokes Anishinaabe Prophecy to Celebrate Diverse Indigenous Music
[Monte Cristo Magazine, 2021]
Manitoba country singer explores barriers facing Indigenous artists
[Global News, 2021]
New record label aims to bring Indigenous music to the masses
[APTN, 2021]
Indigenous song keepers reveal traditional ecological knowledge in music
[The Conversation, 2020]
Indigenous students learn the language one song at a time
[APTN, 2019]
Nunavut musician and children's TV host Riit recognized for her work
[CBC, 2019]
Jeremy Dutcher: 'The days of internalised colonialism are done!"
[The Guardian, 2019]
National Indigenous Music Impact Study
Led by APTN, this study looked at the challenges, successes and barriers that the Indigenous music community faces and estimated the contributions and impacts the Indigenous music community has on Canada.

Featured Podcasts

APTN: Face to Face
Episode: Anishinaabe singer-songwriter Leonard Sumner is making music to work through grief (April 13, 2021)
Indigenous in Music with Larry K
Join Larry K from the Ho Chunk Nation, as he brings you a mix of Indigenous music. Enjoy live interviews and a mix of new music from our Indigenous musicians from around the Western Hemisphere.
Red Man Laughing
Episode: The Evolving Sounds of a Generation
They dig into the way the Indigenous music scene has evolved through the decade, the effect of streaming and satellite radio, the evolution of the festival programming scene and the few remaining challenges Indigenous artists face.
Sound & Vision
Episode: Indigenous Music and Representation on the Screen
Native musicians Lil Mike & Funnybone, Samantha Crain, and Halluci Nation talk about their involvement in the recent TV shows Reservation Dogs as well as in Halluci Nation’s case, Rutherford Falls, and how important and meaningful Native representation is in mainstream entertainment.

Other Resources

Native American Music Awards
"The Native American Music Association is helping Native societies transform as our music provides a continuing capacity for community renewal and cultural enrichment."
Indigenous Music Awards
The Indigenous Music Awards celebrates the talent of Indigenous recording artists and music industry professionals.
Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards
The SSIMAs presents awards representing a variety of music genres as well as awards for cultural contribution, significance, legacy, and social voice from within the Indigenous community across Turtle Island including an international award for Indigenous artists around the world.
Okanagan Indigenous Music and Arts Society
An all-Indigenous music and arts festival that showcases the beauty and diversity of Indigenous culture.
sakihiwe Festival
Produced by Aboriginal Music Manitoba which presents Inuit, Métis, First Nation, Native American, and Indigenous music artists and groups from Turtle Island and beyond.
International Indigenous Music Summit
The International Indigenous Music Summit (IIMS) is the only global event dedicated to creating awareness, sharing resources, and building opportunities for the Indigenous music community.
Native Drum
Native Drum is devoted to the rich heritage of First Nations culture and music in Canada.
Indigenous Music Development Program
Mission: To assist people in the Indigenous community in Manitoba to develop sustainable careers in music by connecting them with opportunities within Manitoba Music and beyond.
Spotify: Indigenous Playlist
A free space for Indigenous creators in Canada. Currently curated by Adrian Sutherland (2021).
Indigenous Cloud
This Indigenous run project is passionate about the distribution and the preservation of Indigenous music and media in North America and around the world.
Indigenous Music Countdown
The Indigenous Music Countdown is adamant their goal is and always will be to promote and further Indigenous music. It can be heard worldwide on Soundcloud, Sirius XM, and 12 Canada wide radio stations including NCI FM.

Related Guides

Both these guides have lists, by genre, of Indigenous musicians as well as other resources.