Thelma Plum Feels Change For The Better

Thelma Plum has been making some major noise in Australia after winning the triple j Unearthed competition, and now shares some answers to some questions.

The triple j Unearthed competition for the National Indigenous Music Awards in Australia took place last month, and a surprising winner surfaced from its ranks. Seventeen-year-old Thelma Plum took the judges and audience by storm and took the honors of winning the competition and the opportunity to perform at the National Indigenous Music Awards on August 11th in Darwin.

We got a chance to ask some questions of Thelma and she was kind enough to answer.

RPM: What is your name, location and occupation?

Thelma Plum: My name is Thelma Plum, I am from Brisbane and I am a musician.

RPM: How do you do today?

TP: Very well thank you, recovering from a gig last night!

RPM: After winning the triple j Unearthed competition, congratulations by the way, how have things changed for you?

TP: Thanks so much! Things have changed so much - for the better though! I think this was a great thing for my music as it has now opened lots of doors.

RPM: When you started music, did you ever expect such a great reception?

TP: I started when I was very young, so not really!

RPM: Who were your major influences growing up, musical or not?

TP: As cliche as this sounds, my parents. They have always influenced me for the better and inspired me lots with my music! Paul Kelly has also been a huge musical influence to me my whole life.

RPM: Are there any new artists out there that are on your radar?

TP: So many! Brisbane is thriving with musicians at the moment, Steve Grady and Andrew Lowden are two Brisbane artists who are amazing!

RPM: If you could work with any artist, past or present, who would that be?

TP: Paul Kelly! No questions asked!

RPM: What, if any, challenges have you faced as a young Indigenous woman in the music industry?

TP: I don't think I have really faced too many challenges to do with that so much. Though being so young definitely makes it harder to play gigs sometimes as I'm not old enough to get into the venue!

RPM: Do you have any advice for the youth out there looking to enter the world of music?

TP: Just go for it! You are so young, you have nothing to lose!

RPM: Thanks for your time Thelma!

Watch: Thelma Plum - singing her new untitled song

VIDEO: She King - "This Is Me"

We've got a new video from Six Nations rocker Shawnee Talbot of She King for her acoustic expression This Is  Me.

She King, based out of Toronto, is mostly known for their hard-hitting, glam-rock style of music and performance along side the ever-classic rock ballad format. This time we get up close and personal with Shawnee Talbot, the bands lead singer, in this intimate and acoustic performance of her song This Is Me.

She King will be touring with Glass Tiger and Roxette this summer and you can check out the tour schedule at sheking.ca.

DJ Keeps the Fire Burning

Kevin Kicking Woman found solace in music from a childhood of abuse. Now, as a radio DJ, he shares across the airwaves the traditional music that helped him overcome his struggles.

Every Friday morning on Montana's College Radio station KBGA, Kevin Kicking Woman shares the traditional music of Turtle Island with his listeners on his show Greeting the Sun. It's the music that helped see him through a difficult childhood - adopted out of his family at the age of two, Kicking Woman experienced abuse and bullying as he was moved through multiple homes.

From RezNetNews, Volunteer DJ Shares the Power of Native American Music:

...he began to sing Native American songs that gave him strength. Singing became a gateway that allowed him to leave this world and lose himself in the music and the power of the songs.

“When I start singing I praised the spirits that help carry me," he said.

And now he helps others through the power of music as a volunteer DJ at KBGA College Radio at the University of Montana where he has his own show called ‘Greeting the Sun’. Kicking Woman’s show airs every Friday morning from 6-9 a.m.

Kicking Woman has taken his love for music to a post secondary education, with an undergrad in Native American studies and anthropology, he is now completing a master's degree in cultural anthropology in music. He's working towards using that degree to document the traditional songs of the Blackfeet tribe.

His path to a happy, successful life wasn’t an easy one, but it’s one that can be learned from.

His mother left him when he was six months old, leaving his father to raise him. But his father had problems of his own. He eventually was placed into three abusive homes until he was finally old enough to take care of himself. At nine-years-old Kicking Woman had enough. After being knocked out by a shoe that was thrown at him from across the room he turned to prayer for help.

"I sat at the edge of the bed and I began to cry. I asked God to kill them and I was going to kill myself. All of a sudden I got this really warm feeling in my body and it was like a message came to me. It said ‘Look into your heart there’s a fire burning don't let it go out’,” Kicking Woman said.

Read the whole story at RezNetNews and stream KBGA live at kbga.org.

DOWNLOAD: Street Pharmacy - "Make You Well"

From alternative-rock-reggae band Street Pharmacy, turn up this week's RPM download - Make You Well - from the band's most recent album Divorce.

Street Pharmacy is a 5-piece band hailing from Welland, Ontario, and lead by Métis singer-songwriter Ryan Guay. Ryan started the band after he was released from the Hamilton Mood Disorder clinic due to a misdiagnosis of Schizophrenia. The experience inspired the band's name and a lot of their early songs. With four albums now under their belt, Ryan and the band are just getting better - Divorce is a polished, solid mix of passionate and driven alternative rock, laced with reggae grooves. Get your prescription filled and download Make You Well now.

DOWNLOAD: Street Pharmacy - "Make You Well"

Indian Summer Music Awards 2012 Nominees

More in awards season news - the Indian Summer Music Awards (ISMA) announced their nominees! Check them out here.

The Indian Summer Music Awards take place each year at the Indian Summer Festival on Wilwaukee's lakefront in Wisconsin. The winners of the awards will be announced Saturday September 8th, at a ceremony hosted by Joy Harjo.

Here are the 2012 Indian Summer Music Award nominees:

Blues Song Living The Blues from Just Living The Blues,  Bluedog Everybody’s Got The Blues from The Art of Peace, Michael Jacobs

Contemporary / Modern Instrumental Song What May Come from  String Theory, Joseph Strider Watersong  from Supernation , Vince Fontaine's Indian City Lightning Drum  from Waking From the Roots, Coyote Jump Shades of Blue and Shades of Blue, Gabriel Ayala Into The Sunset from Earth Songs, Douglas Blue Feather and Danny Voris

Country Song Come Home from My Country Song, David St. Germain Beautiful from My Country Song, David St. Germain Runaway from Ali Fontaine,  Ali Fontaine Forever Young from Ali Fontaine,  Ali Fontaine Right Where I Wanna Be from The Long Way Home, Don Amero

Folk Song House of Sand from The Art of Peace, Michael Jacobs La Lupa (The She Wolf) from La Lupa (The She Wolf), Jimmy Lee Young The Rain Gonna Come and This is How the Story Goes, Dustin Lee

HipHop Song Ijinamowin from Visions from One Nation, Flying Down Thunder and Rise Ashen Foolin' Around from Saved by the Bell, REZHOGS Hear My Cry and Hear My Cry, Frank Waln I Miss You from B. of Dakota South Records, Brandis Knudsen Games  from The Hangover, Nightshield

Pop Song Missing You    Just Living The Blues    Bluedog God Bless the Whole World    The Art of Peace    Michael Jacobs Supernation    Supernation    Vince Fontaine's Indian City Sunrise    Supernation    Vince Fontaine's Indian City La Lupa (The She Wolf)    La Lupa (The She Wolf)    Jimmy Lee Young

Rock Song Cross My Heart  from Just Living The Blues, Bluedog Supernation from Supernation, Vince Fontaine's Indian City Stand from Supernation, Vince Fontaine's Indian City That Bottle in Your Hand    A Residential School Story, weaselhead The Hangover from The Hangover, Nightshield

Traditional Native American Drum Song Monkey Meat I from Tribute to the Oldtimers, Pipestone Fancy Trick Song from Warriors in the Mist, Tha Tribe Wanbli from Drum Boy-Mistikwaskihk Napesis, Northern Cree This is It from Horse Dance-Mistatim Simoowin, Cree Confederation Sing With Me  from Dancerz Groove, Northern Cree

For a complete list visit indiansummer.org/music--entertainment/this-years-nominees.aspx.

VIDEO: Indigenous Music & Hip-hop Jam

Check out this wicked collab of freestylin' from Rwandan hip-hop artist Pacachi with traditional Batwa musicians.

From ABC Radio's Into the Music:

On the hills outside Rwanda's capital city, Kigali, traditional Batwa musicians found a new voice in the urban community through an unlikely collaboration with local hip-hop artist, Pacachi.

Pacachi, and two other hip hop guys, Obie and Freddy, spent a day jamming with the Batwa singers, improvising lyrics.

There's an interesting synergy between this indigenous Batwa music and the street hip-hop that is rising as the most popular music genre throughout Rwanda. Both groups use music to express their frustrations, their own hardship and the hardship of others.

After jamming, they decided to do a collaborative compilation, combining traditional Batwa music with street hip-hop. Pacachi took members of the Batwa community to a studio in the slums in Kigali and they recorded songs together.

You can hear the whole story at abc.net.au but first enjoy this jam!

VIDEO: Indigenous Music & Hip-hop Jam in Rwanda

NIMA 2012 Finalists Announced

The 2012 NIMA finalists were announced this week with the awards ceremony set to take place August 11, 2012, in Darwin, Australia.

The National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMA) celebrate Australia's most outstanding Indigenous musical artists, from "the Top End to Tasmania." Young newcomers The Medics have scored three nominations, with multiple noms also going to Troy Cassar-Daley, Busby Marou, Gurrumul Yunupungu and Impossible Odds.

Here are the highlights of this year's finalists:

National Artist of the Year

• The Black Arm Band
•  Gurrumul Yunupingu
•  Jessica Mauboy
• Busby Marou
• Troy Cassar-Daley

National Album of the Year 

• Ngambala Wiji Li-Wunungu – Together We Are Strong - Shellie Morris and the Borroloola Songwomen
• Winanjjara - Warren H Williams and the Warumungu Songmen
• Foundations - The Medics
• Busby Marou - Busby Marou
• Home - Troy Cassar-Daley

National New Talent of the Year 

• The Medics
• Impossible Odds
• Dewayne Everettsmith

Read the full list of finalists at nima.musicnt.com.au.

Watch the video for National Song of the Year finalist Song of Arnhem Land, by East Journey:

DOWNLOAD: Honey Dawn Karima - "Beautiful Warriors"

Dr. Honey Dawn Karima  is a prolific Creek/Cherokee recording artist, novelist, poet, fiction writer, journalist, filmmaker, playwright and radio host - ie an artist and creator regardless of the medium. Check out this track Beautiful Warriors, featuring Cloudwalker.

Honey Dawn Karima's achievements in her many pursuits are remarkable. Among them is her music and her latest album The Desire of Nations which features a mix of her unwavering, serene and pitch perfect vocas soaring over beats with rhymes from numerous guest hip-hop, alternative and dance artists. Through her music, Honey aims to honour her culture, language and traditions, while also inspiring dance, reflection and joy.

DOWNLOAD: Honey Dawn Karima - "Beautiful Warriors"

The Black Arm Band Company Holds a Mirror

Australia's The Black Arm Band Company is a music theatre group that reflects and expresses contemporary Aboriginal identity. NPR recently featured the muti-media music company on their work as protest, education and positive action.

From Aboriginal Musicians 'Band' Together To Expose Oppression, on npr.org:

A black arm band is a gesture of mourning around the world. But for aboriginals in Australia it has come to mean something else.

The "black arm band view of history" is a version of history that takes a critical — some would say militant — analysis of Anglo-Australia's mistreatment of indigenous people. Much like American Indians, indigenous Australians — who've lived on their continent for at least 40,000 years — have had their land stolen, treaties broken, and children taken away.

That's exactly what The Black Arm Band sings about. ...it's a kind of all-star protest music supergroup, featuring a rotating roster of Australian indigenous musicians who are all successful in their own right.

...Dan Sultan is a 28-year-old aboriginal rocker who's played with The Black Arm Band from the beginning.

"What The Black Arm Band is trying to do," Sultan says, "is open people up, open peoples' eyes up to the situation, just put a big ole mirror up so people can have a bit of a look at themselves."

Together since 2006, The Black Arm Band Company has produced 5 major productions, their most recent being Dirt Song which explored Aboriginal languages, and features both Indigenous and non-Indigenous performers, as well as international guests. In the below video, About Black Arm Band, member and songwoman Lou Bennett describes their work as "an act of reconciliation, that both black and white can co-exist and worth together to create beautiful, high, excellent art."

More from npr.org:

One of Australia's best known aboriginal singer-songwriters is 57-year-old Archie Roach. His most famous composition is his personal story of what have come to be called the Stolen Children. These are the aboriginal sons and daughters — especially mixed race children — who were forcibly removed from their parents by the Australian government to be raised by white foster families between 1870 and 1970. (Roach was 3 when he was taken away.)

..."We can be our own worst enemy," Roach says. "It's no use, us pointing the finger of blame at anybody else anymore. We gotta point our finger straight back at us. We can't blame colonialism anymore. We gotta get out of it, change our mindset."

It's well worth reading the full transcript, or listening to the 8 minute radio documentary at npr.org/2012/07/04/156204104/aboriginal-musicians-band-together-to-expose-oppression. To learn more about The Black Arm Band Company watch the below.

WATCH: About Black Arm Band

About Black Arm Band from The Black Arm Band on Vimeo.

DOWNLOAD: Indigie Femme - "Am I Ready"

We're showcasing a gem from the Navajo and Aotearoa Maori Country Rock duo Indigie Femme by giving you their track called Am I Ready.

Based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Tash Terry and Elena Higgins have been making music since November of 2006. Indigie Femme, the child of collaboration between the two singer-songwriters, released the song Am I Ready on the album Indian Souvenir in 2010. That year saw many miles for the musical duo who toured both the West Coast of North America as well as much of Australia.

The tour payed off when in 2011 the duo received several awards for their music, including a Native American Music Award (NAMMY), double New Mexican Music Awards (NAMA) and becoming Sacramento Community of Color Diversity honorees.

The band is coming off of a few months of performances, but if you're in the area of Santa Fe in the month of August be sure to catch them at Cowgirl Santa Fe on Saturday, August 18th from 2-5pm, and tweet about it!

I uploaded a @YouTube video youtu.be/tG-8fL6GDEY?a Am I ready?

— Indigie Femme (@indigiefemme) June 17, 2012

DOWNLOAD: Indigie Femme - "Am I Ready"

VIDEO: Aztlan Underground - Sacred Arrow Sun

The summer solstice is welcomed in the highest Indigenous regards by Aztlan Underground in this video for the instrumental track Sacred Arrow Sun.

We just passed the summer solstice recently, which has always been a special event for Indigenous cultures all over Turtle Island since time immemorial.

Legendary Indigenous music collective Aztlan Underground helps us to welcome the solstice and honor its gift of energy and sustenance with this instrumental composition and powerful artistic video production for their song Sacred Arrow Sun.

The video is described on their YouTube page as:

The tribal instrumentation of Sacred Arrow Sun serves to welcome the summer solstice in the Native way. Aztlan Underground marks the sacred event with rattles, huehuetl drum, pow wow drum, raspers, wooden and clay flutes.

This also gives a sneak peek into their upcoming album project Unearthed which is due to be released upon the next winter solstice in 2012.

Don't forget to check out our interview with Yaotl Mazahua from Aztlan Underground in: RPM Podcast #014: “Mesoamerica”

VIDEO: Pamyua - "Tundra Chant"

The music of Pamyua showcases the drumsongs from the Inuit cultures of Greenland and Alaska and this song, Tundra Chant, that serenades the northern landscape is as beautiful as the land it sings to.

A handful of Pamyua songs are featured on the new soundtrack for Discovery's Flying Wild Alaska (get the soundtrack here) and this video features stunning footage from the series. Enjoy.

Watch: Pamyua - "Tundra Chant"