Sandy Scofield Raises Awareness Through Music
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Sandy Scofield is a Cree singer, guitarist, pianist and leader of the band Iskwew. She recently spoke with Matador Network about music as entertainment, education and political act.
The interesting and in-depth interview covers how Sandy got into traditional music with Iskwew, her Cree culture, current issues that pertain to Indigenous peoples of Canada, and performing on the international circuit.
In Music as a political act: Cree musician Sandy Scofield Sandy is quoted:
"...when we get to go play international festivals it’s really important because, you know, one of the girls that sings with me, she went to Italy and some guy said to her, ‘Where are you from?’ and she said, ‘Well, I’m Cree Indian from Canada,’ and he was just aghast, he was saying, ‘No. They were all extinct. They don’t exist,’ and she’s going ‘You’re crazy!’ You know?
But there’s crazy ideas out there, so especially if we’re on the international stage, we’re trying to show the very best of who we are. And in Canada, half of our work is in what we call Indian Country, which is all of the country except dominant society doesn’t see us. So we perform for other native people or we perform for dominant society, and so when we perform for dominant society, it’s the same thing again. We’re trying to show the really fantastic things about our cultures, our collective culture which really concerns community, egalitarianism to a certain extent, just pride, culture, the interconnectedness of all life and that we’re interconnected with one another — things like that.”
Read the whole article at matadornetwork.com and enjoy this track Waniska by Iskwew.
STREAM: Iskwew - "Waniska"
