A rap written and performed by Nathaniel and Morgan of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, with beats produced and mixed by Eljay II.
This short lil' rap was written as part of the short documentary Keepers of the Water, that tells the story of the kids who live in Fort Chipwyan, Alberta, which is directly downstream from the Tar Sands - the most environmentally polluting industrial project in the world. The members of their community are dying of rare forms of cancer, the fish and moose meat have tested positive for highly toxic levels of arsenic, the water is no longer drinkable, and there is no end in sight. On their own initiative, these kids came together to protest this environmental crime.
Australian indie/rock/pop band The Medicshave just released a video for the second single, Joseph, from their forthcoming album.
The video is a well crafted mix of live and backstage footage, capturing the bands energy and passion. Check it out and then download the song for free from triplejunearthed.com/themedics.
My name is Ta’Kaiya. I am Sliammon. I am an environmentalist and I am fighting for my culture, the ocean and the healing of our earth.
Ta'Kaiya Blaney has been singing with her musical mentor Aileen De La Cruz since her parents got her into singing lessons at the age of 4. At 10 years old she has performed at festivals, schools, conferences, film festivals and tribal journeys across BC and internationally in Bandung, Indonesia. She has been chosen as one of 20 “We Canada” Champions - an organization putting pressure on Canada to show leadership at the UN Earth Summit 2012 in Rio De Janiero. This summit will review and set goals for a future that is sustainable and promotes social justice.
In preparation for The Earth Summit 2012 taking place next summer Ta'Kaiya will be travelling across Canada, from Halifax to Victoria, visiting classrooms offering workshops about the environment and collecting the visions from our future leaders.
Already Ta'Kaiya recieves letters from students in schools where she has visited. Students wrote Ta'Kaiya letters explaining the super tanker proposal that they are up against in Bella Bella and several Gitksan classes have written Ta'Kaiya with appreciation for her music.
RPM: What do you enjoy about singing?
Ta'Kaiya Blaney: I enjoy songwriting because you get the message and what you want to say to people into that song so when you sing it you can really mean it.
RPM: What kinds of emotions are you trying to express in your songs?
TB: I wrote one song called Shallow Waters with the Enbridge Pipeline proposal that goes from the tar sands to Kitimat. It's crossing through First Nations territories. It's about a future where an oil spill happens on our traditional land and how sad it would be. The message of that song is we really can't put this pipeline in. That song was coming from me and it's what I was passionate about so I mean it when I sing it.
RPM: Why do you think it's so important for our young people to have a voice with what's going on in the world today?
TB: I think every voice matters young or old. Even if it’s the voice of an elder or a child. It's still a voice that’s speaking out and is passionate about the healing of the earth and the healing of the traditions. I think it's important for kids to understand this too.
RPM: Who else in your family practices singing and/or music?
TB: On my dad’s side, my cousins and my Kookpa, they do traditional singing, dancing and drumming. When I was 5 or 6 when I learned Amazing Grace. My Kookpa translated the first two verses into Sliammon.
RPM: Have you been learning some of your language?
TB: Yes, this year I have been learning Sliammon. I want to be able to go back to Sliammon and speak the language. I think it’s really amazing to be learning my traditional ways. I think it’s important because in the past our traditions were lost because of the residential school. We don’t have as much of our culture and in the community only some of the elders and adults know it. I think it’s really good for some of the younger generations to know it so their culture doesn’t get lost forever.
RPM: What do you do to prepare for going on stage?
TB: One of the challenges of speaking is getting your message to your audience and you have only one chance when you are on stage to express what your message is. It's really important to get your message to your audience so that they can understand what you are speaking about. Its what you need to prepare for.
RPM: Is there anything you do to prepare yourself so that you are clear and strong and in a good space?
TB: I know for one thing when I get on stage I can't be angry or anything like that because my mind doesn’t work well when I am angry. I can't be tired because when you get on stage and you are trying to get someone to listen to you, you can't be in a bad mood or else they get the wrong kind of idea. I have to relax a little before I go on stage or perform anywhere.
RPM: Are there other things that bring you happiness other than singing and public speaking?
TB: Reminding myself of the message and how I am a part of stopping this pipeline and helping heal the earth. Just being reminded of that is all I need because it's really amazing for me.
RPM: What is your vision for the future?
TB: My vision would be a green economy and sustainable practices and our culture not being negotiated or for sale by the government. And world peace.
RPM: Is there anything else you would like me to include in my article?
TB: There is this thing that I always say at the end of my speech and it says: “You have a voice, be heard. You have a gift, share it”
Ta'Kaiya in actively gathering stories about how unsustainable development is effecting our land. She is encouraging people to send her letters. For more info check out her website takaiyablaney.com.
The CBC National News will be airing a profile on Ta'Kaiya this Sunday, December 11 at 10 p.m. She will also be on the second season of Down2Earth, which airs on APTN and NITV Australia, as part of their focus on young Aboriginal environmentalists. If you miss CBC news on Sunday go to Duncan McCue's CBC page next week to view the video.
Here is an older video of Ta'Kaiya singing Wonderful, Beautiful at the 2009 Tribal Journeys hosted by the Suquamish Nation. Ta'Kaiya explains "It's about don't give up, don't let anyone make you feel bad. Even if you fall, you can stand up and stand tall."
'Tis the season for looking back on the year, reflecting on the highs and lows, and seeing what moments stand out in our memories. Here at RPM, we've been thinking about our favourite moments in Indigenous music culture and this week we bring you our Top 16 Indigenous Music Videos of 2011.
The way technology has developed the past few years, making a video isn't as hard as it used to be. You can still roll out the 35mm camera and a crew of 20 people, or you can DIY an entire piece with just an iPhone. This means that artists are getting to interpret and share their music visually more often and more creatively than ever before and 2011 saw a myriad of fantastic videos come out of Indian Country.
Here are RPM's Top 16 Indigenous Music Videos of the year:
One of the most heartfelt tracks in our Top 16, Land of Broken Dreams, and this video directed by Reign Wapioke, share an honest perspective of Rez-life through the words of Shoal Lake rap artist D Thought.
15. Ali Fontaine - Say it to Me
Showing the bright lights of the Big Apple in vivid colours and tones, this is the first of two videos in our Top 16 directed by Jesse Green. Ali is herself a bright new light in the music scene and this performance video captures her sweetness and strength perfectly.
14. Kool Krys- Showstopper
While the track is from Kool Krys' third album Listen to Your Art, this video is her first ever. Funded by MuchFACT and directed by Marc André Debruyne, it surely wins most colourful video of the year and is a good bet to put on full screen and full blast if you're getting ready for a night on the town.
13. Ostwelve - Graveyard
You may know Ostwelve, aka Ron Dean Harris, as a member of the RPM editorial team and host of the RPM podcast, or you may know him as the prolific hip-hop and rap artist, composer, producer and filmmaker that he is. While Os didn't put his own video on the ballot for our Top 16, the rest of the RPM team agree this video, shot at the 2010 zombie walk in Vancouver, is one of our favourites.
12. Wanbdi- On the Upside
Wanbdi's venture into solo work (she's also the drummer for Indigenous) revealed not only her vocal talent, but her ability to make the most out of limited resources. Made entirely on her iPhone, this video is an awesome example of what you can achieve with just a song and a good idea.
11. Gurrumul & Blue King Brown- Gathu Mawula Revisted
In rich blues and browns and featuring The Chooky Dancers from Galiwin'ku, Elcho Island, this video is for the collaborative piece Gathy Mawula Revisted from two amazing Australian Artists, Gurrumul and Blue King Brown. Sung in Yolngu and English, it captures each artist beautifully.
10. Filthy Animals - Killing Me
The second zombie-themed video in our list, and taking a page from the George Romero zombie film era, the Filthy Animals released Killing Me as more than a music video, but a kind of short film. At ten minutes long, directory Ryan Cheale and the Filthy Animals trio - Broms, P-Nutty and Big Bear - put together an entertaining piece of macabre, shot largely during Winnipeg's 2010 zombie walk.
9. A Tribe Called Red - Woodcarver
A Tribe Called Red have caught on fire this year. Their multi-media approach to music has made them one of the hottest bands on Turtle Island and while they've put out a few videos in 2011, Woodcarver stands out as a tribute to John T. Williams, incorporating audio from news pieces around the tragic shooting of the Nitinaht carver.
8. Don Amero - Right Where I Want to Be
It's been a big year for Métis roots/folk artist Don Amero. His recent album The Long Way Home has been gaining accolades, fans and awards across Turtle Island. 2011 also saw the release of Amero's first ever official music video, Right Where I Want to Be, capturing the upbeat sweetness of the love song on film.
7. Winnipeg's Most- All That I Know
Winner of Best Video at the 2011 Aboriginal People's Choice Music Awards (one of the groups's six wins at this year's awards), this video for Winnipeg's Most's All I Know is directed by Stuey Kubrik. Kubrik's cinematic take on a cold, snow-covered Winnipeg has seen the views on YouTube push past half a million, and counting.
6. Last Kinection - Are We There Yet
Sumptuously coloured and beautifully shot, you can almost feel the heat in the air in this video directed by Joel Wenitong for Australia's Last Kinection. The track Are We There Yet is the first single off of their October 2011 release Next of Kin and highlights the band's hopeful and proud message while still being real about the issues facing us living in colonial capitalism.
5. Yelawolf - No Hands
This video from Alabama born, Cherokee rapper Yelawolf has racked up over a million views in less than 4 months. Directed by Erick Peyton and produced in collaboration with videogame giant Ubisoft, it is based on the game Driver San Francisco. It's a fast, slick and polished ride through surreality and reality.
4. Billy Joe Green - Honey Girl
Anishinabe blues-guitar slinger Billy Joe Green earned his rock legend status as a swaggering sideman for other bands for years. In 1997 he released his first solo project, and three others since. This video, directed by Jesse Green, takes you right to the dance floor of a hazy blues bar with the best seat in the house.
3. Laura Ortman - Lost My Shadow
This video won Best Music Video at the 2011 imagineNATIVE festival, a well-deserved win for director Nanobah Becker. The track features Laura on electric guitar, violin, vocals and subway recordings, the last perhaps being the inspiration for this mysterious interaction on the New York subway.
2. Elisapie Isaac - Turning My Back
The enigmatic and haunting voice of beautiful Inuk singer Elisapie Isaac drifts effortlessly between her native Inuktitut and English in this gorgeous single from her recent album There Will Be Stars. This sultry, desaturated video is well matched to that dreamy vibe, beuatifully directed by Robert Leboeuf.
1. Samian feat. Sauit - So Much
It's an impossible task to pick our most favourite music video of the year, but this hot and sunny piece is such a great example of contemporary Indigenous music culture, as well as just a straight up fantastic video from Samian, that we're putting it at #1. An Algonquin French rap mixed with Innu Montagnais reggae singing, all shot on the streets of Cuba, makes for the kind of cultural mix that artists are creating across Turtle Island and beyond these days. Check it out and try to soak up some of that Cuban sun.
That's it! Thanks to all the artists who continue to create and share their work.
The Path Without End is an animated short by Elizabeth Lameman. It tells Anishinaabe stories of the Moon People and features music by Cree electro-cellist and composer Cris Derksen.
Anishinaabe stories of the Moon People are retold through an experimental steampunk animation by Irish/Anishinaabe/Métis Elizabeth Lameman with music by Cree cellist Cris Derksen.
Among the greatest of guitar legends in the history of Rock N' Roll - according to the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine - are a number who are of Indigenous ancestry.
Rolling Stone's list "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" includes Robbie Robertson, the legendary creator of the electric distorted power chord Link Wray, and Kiowa legend Jesse Ed Davis.
Davis was one of the great guitarists for hire in the late 1960s and early 1970s, playing on records and on stage with true rock royalty. After touring with Conway Twitty and playing on Taj Mahal’s first three albums, he went on to work with George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Leonard Cohen, and Keith Moon, among many others. When it came time to record his own albums, the friends who showed up to play along told the story of just how essential Davis had become: Contributors to Jesse Davis (1971) included Eric Clapton, Gram Parsons and Leon Russell.
Indeed, each of these three of our guitar-slaying brothers are iconic in their own right and are well-deserving of the recognition!
Here's Robertson's classic Somewhere Down the Crazy River:
The 25th Annual ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Awards took place last month in Sydney, Australia, celebrating the best in the Australian music industry.
Here is Album of the Year nominee, territory artist, Gurrumul Yunupingu's beautiful performance with Missy Higgins.
We asked Six Nations blues-rocker Derek Miller what he's watching on YouTube lately and he gave us this list of his current favourites.
Sit back, relax and enjoy Derek Miller's curated picks!
Track Listing:
Daft punk - Da Funk
Steve Earle - Darlin' Commit Me
Bill Hicks - Positive Drug Story
Goldfrapp - RocketA Tribe Called Red - Electric Powwow
Mitch Hedberg - Stand Up
Rihanna - We Found Love
Kanye West - RunawayLink Wray - Tuscon, Arizona
John Bonham - I'm in a Rock N' Roll Band
Greenwich Village's little known Cherokee folk singer the late Karen Dalton brought a soulful honesty from Enid, Oklahoma.
Well known to those apart of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 60's, Karen Dalton was an inspiration to many musicians at that time. Bob Dylan states in his autobiography that after arriving in New York in 1961 " My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday and played guitar like Jimmy Reed... I sang with her a couple of times" Although she was never broadly well known, probably due to her aversion to recording and that she often chose to cover songs, her aching, blues-soaked, and tender voice affected many of those that had the opportunity to see her live.
Dalton was born Karen J.Cariker in Enid Oklahoma on July 19, 1937. Her Cherokee mother, Evelyn, used to sleep on a brass bed in the backyard. In the early 60's she took her 12 string guitar and banjo, left her husband behind, and moved to Greenwich Village, New York where she began playing at small live venues. Lacy J Dalton (who took Karen's last name as a tribute) rented Dalton and her boyfriend a room. Lacy learned from Dalton to soften her voice and to speak her lyrics. She remembers Dalton as having "a certain gentle warmth, in her best moments, a sort of cleanness that you don't see often in this world. She was a wonderful cook, and she could make anything grow. She was magical."
Although very talented, Karen Dalton battled heavy drink and drug use. After separating from her husband, she eventually became estranged from her children and dealt with her pain by self medicating. Like so many artistic spirits she had a heightened sensitivity to what was happening in the world and chose to live whim by whim and would often disappear with no notice.
“Karen’s mother was full Cherokee, and told her that if your vibrations were right, plants would grow into your room, as Karen had grown onto the Village folk scene. She had the Beat spirit as well, the existential angst which felt life was dark, perpetually in pain, and that was how you became your art, if you were a real artist." - Lenny Kaye of the the Patti Smith Group
Nik Venet recorded all of Dalton's first album Its So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You The Best (Capitol, 1969) in one session and many of the tracks were done in one take. Her second album In My Own Time (Just Sunshine Records, 1971) was a combination of traditional folk tunes, blues, covers of soul hits and tracks by singer-songwriters. In My Own Time was recorded at Bearsville Studio near Woodstock in upstate New York. Apparently in preparation to record, Dalton returned to Oklahoma to fetch her two teenage children, her dog and her horse in order to feel at ease.
Despite the stellar musical support lent to her by producer Harvey Brooks and all of the musicians featured on the album, it flopped commercially and nobody offered to front the money for another. Dalton drifted farther out of the music scene and deeper into her self destructive tendencies. By the early 90's she was living on the streets of New York, after an unsuccessful stint at rehab she passed away from AIDS and drug use complications in 1993. She spent the last few months of her life in the care of guitarist Peter Walker in upstate New York.
This past weekend, the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians hosted the Cabazon Indio Powwow XXX in Indio, California. With 65 participating tribes, the annual event was packed with more than 450 dancers and 6,000 attendees.
We spotted the powwow on Indian Country Today and found this fantastic clip on YouTube of the MNX Crew providing an inter-tribal dance song:
Over on mydesert.com we came across a beautiful photo set of the powwow's grand entry. Here are a few of the vibrant moments caputured by photographer Crystal Chatham:
The music of Brooklyn-based White Mountain Apache artist Laura Ortman is the soundscape for this new video about Bob Haozous (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache) and his sculpture Artificial Cloud.
The Artificial Cloud is a massive steel monument made by Bob Haozous in honour of one of nature's wonders. It stands at the borderline between the traditionally black and white communities in Tulsa, OK. In this video, Haozous talks about how we are destroying nature and eventually we will have to make monuments to remember parts of the natural world.
Haozous also shares thoughts on his journey as an artist, his father's struggle as an Indigenous person to receive recognition as an artist, reclaiming his Apache name, and regaining his "right to be an Indian." "It's not a right that comes from blood or politics, it's something that you give your children."
The thoughtful piece, by thislandpress.com, is cut to music by the lovely Laura Ortman. Enjoy.
As requested by his fans, Mdewakanton Dakota-Metis, self-proclaimed "Chief Of Pop" Lil' Pappie has released a new video of an acoustic rendition of Love You Down.
Revolutions Per Minute is a global new music platform, record label, and boutique agency for Indigenous music culture. RPM’s mission is to build a visionary community of Indigenous artists and to introduce Indigenous music to new audiences across Turtle Island and around the world. Our main site, RPM.fm, has featured the work of more than 500 Indigenous artists and shared their music across our social networks of more than 275,000 followers.
RPM Records is the first of its kind: a label for contemporary, cross-genre Indigenous music, run by Indigenous people. Selected by The FADER as one of “5 New Canadian Record Labels The Entire World Should Know”, RPM Records artists include Ziibiwan, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Exquisite Ghost, and Mob Bounce.
