June 6th, 2023
LIVE @ The National Arts Centre, Ottawa
Tickets on Sale NOW!
Awards Show: $20
VIP Tickets: $75
(includes best seats in the house and pre-show reception with an Indigenous-inspired menu by NAC Chef Chris Commandant)
2 International Categories – 13 Self-Nomination Categories – 1 Legacy Award
Open for Submissions
DEADLINE
APRIL 10, 2023
Twin Flames, 2021 SSIMAs Multi-Award Winners
JOIN IN THE CELEBRATION
2023 WINNERS & NOMINEES
RECORDING ARTIST(S) OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Snotty Nose Rez Kids
Snotty Nose Rez Kids tore into the music scene with an unforgettable name and something to prove. Showing off their lyrical prowess and natural storytelling ability, Yung Trybez and Young D, jumpstarted the band with two back-to-back albums in 2017. Their second album, The Average Savage, grabbed national media attention and accolades, including a JUNO nomination and a Western Canadian Music Award. Since then, the band has gone on to dominate in hip-hop music, pushing past any pigeonholing
labels like “Indigenous Rapper” to become acknowledged within the general hip-hop landscape.
SNRK are blazing their own path, weaving together a musical fabric of hard-hitting lyricism, revealing stories about the struggles they and their people have encountered, empowering protest songs for the front lines, and a humor that makes even the heaviest of topics something you can vibe to.
SNRK’s other-worldly live show has built this duo into a touring force. In 2019 alone, the band clocked in at 100 performances. Recently coming off their first North American headline tour of 40 shows, the band enjoyed a game-changing 2022, with their recent album Life After (2021) landing them Album of the Year at the Indie Awards, a JUNO nomination and a performance slot at the 2022 JUNOS, three nominations for the Western Canadian Music Awards, and a spot on the Polaris Prize long-list.
Five albums deep with no signs of slowing down, SNRK are steadily building themselves into the global phenomenon they wish had been present for them when they were kids. With the youth of tomorrow always in mind, they are opening doors for Indigenous youth to see themselves represented in the mainstream music industry.
Aysanabee
Nominated for a 2023 JUNO Award for Contemporary Indigenous Group or Artist of the Year and the first Indigenous artist to reach No. 1 on the Mediabase Canada Alternative Rock chart for Nomads, Aysanabee is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter currently based in Toronto. He is Oji-Cree, Sucker Clan of the Sandy Lake First Nation, a remote fly-in community in Northwestern Ontario.
He began creating music under his mother’s maiden name during the pandemic when the stillness
allowed him to slow down and create music that, he says, more directly represents himself as an artist. Solemn and soaring, backed by a swirling blend of indie, soul and electronic soundscapes, mournful saxophone and pulse-quickening fingerpicking, Aysanabee’s striking sound is equal parts hypnotic and melodic and has been compared to Bon Iver, Matt Corby and Don Ross among others.
His debut album, Watin (2022), named after his grandfather, includes 10 tracks and nine interludes featuring the voice of his grandfather. It is part music, journalism, artistry and expression. “Watin actually started out as a series of conversations between myself and my grandfather,” says Aysanabee. “We spent the first year of the pandemic talking about things we’ve never spoke about, his life on the trapline on Sandy Lake First Nation, falling in love, his life in residential school and then leaving everything behind.” Three singles were quickly released: Ego Death, Nomads, which charted on Billboard Canada, became No. 1 on CBC Music and No. 1 on the Alternative Radio Chart, and We Were Here, which was featured in an episode of Station 19.
In a whirlwind year, Aysanabee performed nearly 100 shows across the country and abroad including Ottawa Bluesfest, Montreal Jazzfest, Alianait, Wake the Giant, and many more. Watin was released through Ishkode Records, founded by Amanda Rheaume and Shoshona Kish, one of the first Indigenous and women-owned labels in the country.
Digging Roots
Winner of the 2023 JUNO for Contemporary Indigenous Group of the Year and nominated for three 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards, Digging Roots breathe life into songs from their land, Turtle Island, to raise their voices in solidarity with a global chorus of Indigenous artists, activists and change-makers. For over
a decade, the two-time JUNO Award winners have travelled the world with a joyful message of
resistance, celebrating Anishinaabe and Onkwehón:we traditions of round dance and
interconnectedness.
Digging Roots takes you on a journey through tall grass, sweet waters and unconditional love in a joyous and powerful celebration on their fourth album Zhawenim (2022). Led by the electrifying current of husband-and-wife team, ShoShona Kish and Raven Kanatakta, the six-piece band responds to a majestic
and spiritual call from ShoShona’s earthy vocals and Raven’s exhilarating guitar mastery through a fusion of blues, soul and rock ‘n’ roll. For long-time fans and new audiences, their constantly evolving live show opens a space wherever they may be in the world for healing, compassion, unconditional love and
Baamaadziwin (the good life).
Raven and ShoShona were raised in cultural families that have continued to resist oppression and colonialism. More than a band, Digging Roots have taken their place at the frontline of the fight for equity and representation in the arts, with involvement in industry advocacy and organization to empower arts
communities worldwide.
ShoShona is the founder of the International Indigenous Music Summit and the music label Ishkōdé Records. Raven, who studied at Berklee College of Music, says he “grew up in a small Anishinabe Rez called Winneway in north-western Quebec. It’s formally called Long Point First Nation. It’s where my grandfather and father taught me to hunt, trap and fish. ShoShona’s “family is from Batchewana and a part of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge.”
Lacey Hill
An Oneida/Mohawk, Wolf Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Reservation, Lacey is a singer-songwriter and inspirational speaker. Her debut solo album 528 was independently produced and released in 2013, putting her on the indie-music radar and kickstarting her career as a stage musician performing original songs.
528 Volume II M, released in 2017, took Lacey across Canada and to international stages in New Zealand, Australia and the UK over the next couple of years. Lacey also wrote original compositions for Tara Beagan’s stage play Deer Woman and stage managed the production.
Lacey’ single The Shiner premiered on APTN’s Amplify series in 2020, and she was one of Rogers TV’s Highlight artists. Adapting quickly when Covid hit in 2020, Lacey performed for online gigs while finishing her third album, The Moon: 528 Volume III, released in the fall of 2022 and available on all platforms.
Kicking off 2023 with The Conduit, which charted in the top 10 on Indigenous Music Countdown, she also hit the road with The National Arts Center’s Indigenous Theatre as stage manager apprentice for Kevin
Loring’s touring play Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer. Lacey then headed to Sydney, Australia for WORLDPRIDE and an Arts/Theatre residency with Moogalin Performing Arts before finishing off the tour back at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in May.
Laura Niquay
Laura Niquay is an Atikamekw artist from Wemotaci in Mauricie, Que. who sings in in her native language Atikamekw. She is the winner of the Félix for Indigenous Artist of the Year and Album of the Year – Indigenous Language at the ADISQ Gala as well as the Teweikan in the Folk category, Best Performance and Jury’s Favourite Award at the Teweikan Gala. She also captured the TD Indigenous Songwriter Award from the SOCAN Foundation and was on the Polaris Long List in 2021.
Her new album Waska Matisiwin was among the best albums of the year according to CBC Music,
Exclaim!, Journal Métro and La Presse. On stage with six musicians, her show is festive and takes audiences on a roller coaster of emotions guided by the calm and authentic speech of Laura, who takes the time to transmit the values of her culture. A nomad well-anchored in her time, she is a quiet force who is forging a place for herself at the heart of the contemporary Quebec musical landscape.
INUIT ARTIST / GROUP OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Beatrice Deer
Acclaimed “Inuindie” pop star Beatrice Deer is a singer-songwriter based in Montreal. Half Inuk and half Mohawk, Beatrice was born and raised in Nunavik, Que. in the small village of Quaqtaq. She has released six studio albums, including her newest Shifting. Her award-winning songs are crafted upon
deeply personal lyrics and blend indie rock and modern folk with traditional Inuit stories and throat singing. The recipient of a 2021 Prism Prize and an Apple Music Ambassador, Beatrice sings in Inuktitut, English, and French. A beloved figure in Arctic Canada, she has performed worldwide, from the Venice Biennale to Norway’s Førde Traditional and World Music Festival to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz.
Beatrice’s previous full-length album, My All to You, won the 2018 Canadian Folk Music Award in the Pushing the Boundaries category and Best Folk Album at the 2019 Indigenous Music Awards. In 2022, the award-winning TV short Angakuksajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice, for which Beatrice composed the musical score, was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film.
Shifting, Beatrice’s sixth studio album, explores the process of getting closer to the place where we’re meant to be in life. “Emotionally, spiritually, and physically, the transition toward our authentic selves continues,” she says. “As I shift into the position where I’m meant to be, I want to keep using what I’ve
learned to help others.” A role model to her community and a stalwart advocate for mental health, Beatrice feels strongly that each of us, no matter what we’ve been through, has the ability to transform our personal outlook.
Shauna Seeteenak
Shauna Seeteenak is an Inuk hip-hop artist and political rapper originally from Baker Lake, Nunavut. From the age of ten, she discovered that through song there was a way to express her emotions beyond
talking and create a shared experience with her music.
Currently based in Iqaluit, Shauna has made a name for herself in the industry and has collaborated with Inuit and international artists. She is a genuine storyteller and centers her music on the truths and challenges facing Inuit, including mental health, sobriety, breaking stereotypes, overcoming barriers, surviving the north, and trying to heal. Shauna teamed up with the Iqaluit-based record label Hitmakerz to produce her debut album Therapy Sessions, which was released in August of 2021.
She was nominated for four 2023 Arctic Music Awards: Artist of the Year, Indigenous Artist/Group of the Year, Single of the Year and Album of the Year.
Angela Amarualik
Born and raised in Igloolik, Nunavut, Angela Amarualik grew up in a small Indigenous community which, like many others, had numerous social problems. She worked hard to retain a good attitude, improve her circumstances and lead younger kids by example.
Starting with the ukulele, Angela began writing Inuktitut songs in her bedroom closet. Her musical style evolved into a mix of Inuit melodies, throat-singing and the music of her childhood heroes Beatrice Deer and Hilary Duff. In 2018, Angela released her self-titled debut album which won an Indigenous Music Award and was nominated for three others. Next, Angela began touring and teaching musical workshops
to Inuit youth, where she was mentored by the late Kelly Fraser.
As a child, Angela was extremely shy but through music she has become brave, strong and independent. Her dream is to share her culture, inspire other Inuit and create music that people around the world can enjoy.
Joey Nowyuk
Joey Nowyuk is a chart-topping, award-winning singer and songwriter from Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Raised by a community that instilled in him the value of culture and language, the roots and indie-rock musician
started writing songs as a child and first picked up the guitar as a teenager when a travelling music
workshop came to his hometown. Today, Joey’s beat-heavy, guitar-driven songs — some in Inuktitut,
some in English — tell stories of life, love and growing up in the North, always shining a ray of optimism and hope throughout.
With the release of his debut album Tumitit and his upcoming covers album Inuugama, Joey continues to rise in the music scene. His songs Nalligigakku (Because I Love Her) and Pray (Tussiaq) have both reached No. 1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown. He is also an Indigenous Music Award winner and a three-time winner of the Qilaut songwriting contest. His ongoing successes put him in the ranks of celebrated Inuit artists, strengthening their language and culture through music. With Tumitit behind him and Inuugama on the horizon, Nowyuk continues to make music, now experimenting with new styles,
techniques and genres.
“Even today, I’m still getting a lot more comfortable with writing music,” he says. “I’m using different ways to write music, rather than what I used to do before.” With several planned concerts in the next year, the future is bright for this Nunavummiut artist.
Brenda Montana
With a personality as bubbly and uplifting as her music, Brenda hails from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. She is a pop singer-songwriter, TikTok influencer and a proud Inuk who often pays homage to her culture through her work.
She grew up learning to sing, including throat singing, and playing piano, guitar and ukelele. Brenda took her first steps as a singer-songwriter in 2018, inspired by years of watching her late Uncle Ken sing and play guitar at family events. In 2020, she joined the generation of internet music influencers by posting singing and comedy videos on TikTok under the username @inuksuk. Today, she has made a name for herself on the app, currently boasting over 120K followers and over 2M likes across videos.
Despite extreme adversity at a young age, Brenda has always moved forward, continuously promoting a message of hope and love in her music. Her debut album Qaujimagit is a collection of songs — some in Inuktitut and some in English — that she wrote for the loved ones in her life. Her music sends a message to her friends, family and community at large: “There are people who care for you, and you are not alone.”
She continues to connect with her growing fan base, creating a friendly, welcoming place to share her music and stories. She hopes to one day go on tour, travelling the world and making people smile.
POP / ALTERNATIVE/ ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Aysanabee
Watin
Nominated for a 2023 JUNO Award for Contemporary Indigenous Group or Artist of the Year and the first Indigenous artist to reach No. 1 on the Mediabase Canada Alternative Rock chart for Nomads, Aysanabee is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter currently based in Toronto. He is Oji-Cree, Sucker Clan of the Sandy Lake First Nation, a remote fly-in community in Northwestern Ontario.
He began creating music under his mother’s maiden name during the pandemic when the stillness
allowed him to slow down and create music that, he says, more directly represents himself as an artist. Solemn and soaring, backed by a swirling blend of indie, soul and electronic soundscapes, mournful saxophone and pulse-quickening fingerpicking, Aysanabee’s striking sound is equal parts hypnotic and melodic and has been compared to Bon Iver, Matt Corby and Don Ross among others.
His debut album, Watin (2022), named after his grandfather, includes 10 tracks and nine interludes featuring the voice of his grandfather. It is part music, journalism, artistry and expression. “Watin actually started out as a series of conversations between myself and my grandfather,” says Aysanabee. “We spent the first year of the pandemic talking about things we’ve never spoke about, his life on the trapline on Sandy Lake First Nation, falling in love, his life in residential school and then leaving everything behind.” Three singles were quickly released: Ego Death, Nomads, which charted on Billboard Canada, became No. 1 on CBC Music and No. 1 on the Alternative Radio Chart, and We Were Here, which was featured in an episode of Station 19.
In a whirlwind year, Aysanabee performed nearly 100 shows across the country and abroad including Ottawa Bluesfest, Montreal Jazzfest, Alianait, Wake the Giant, and many more. Watin was released through Ishkode Records, founded by Amanda Rheaume and Shoshona Kish, one of the first Indigenous and women-owned labels in the country.
Indian City
Code Red
Indian City is a JUNO-nominated, award-winning pop/folk/rock music collective based in Winnipeg. The group was founded in 2012 by the late Vince Fontaine. Indian City has had many guest artists throughout
the years, including Don Amero, William Prince, Sandra Sutter and Jeremy Koz. Current members of the band include Neewa Mason (Anishininew), Gabrielle Fontaine (Anishinaabe), Pamela Davis (Anishinaabe), Rich Reid (Indigenous), Jay Bodner, and Lawrence “Spatch” Mulhull.
Indian City’s unique live fusion of lyrics, music and personality expresses the modern conscience of today’s Indigenous Peoples. Indian City has been recognized nationally and internationally, winning several awards, including Western Canadian Music Awards, Indian Summer Music Awards, Native
American Music Awards and Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards.
The band’s 2022 JUNO nomination for Contemporary Indigenous Group of the Year acknowledges late founder Vince Fontaine’s final project with the band: the album Code Red, the fourth record made by this
supergroup. In the spirit of Call to Action #83 from the Truth and Reconciliation report, they invited non-Indigenous artists — including Canadian legends Jim Cuddy, Chantal Kreviazuk and Chris Burke-Gaffney — to collaborate on featured songs on Code Red.
In the spring of 2022, Warner Music Canada signed Indian City and re-released Code Red on September 30th, 2022 to coincide with National Truth & Reconciliation Day. Indian City also pre-released 3 songs –
Star People, Wannabe and The Path – from the album along with three official music videos garnering over 209,000 views to date and still climbing.
Indian City remains one of the most respected Indigenous groups on the planet, having built and sustained the highest level of artistic excellence for over a decade. Their roster is always evolving, bringing together Indigenous superstars and guests to create not only exceptional albums but also deliver energy-infused live performances.
Melody McArthur
Kizmet
Melody McArthur (AKA Kristen McArthur) is a multi-award-winning, pop-inspired R&B vocalist and songwriter based in Edmonton whose artistic expression equates with a Lizzo-colliding-with-Rihanna vibe. Melody has had more then 10 singles chart the national Indigenous Music Countdown (IMC). In May 2021, she hit the No. 1 spot on the Jukasa Radio Top 40 alongside the likes of Justin Bieber, 24KGoldn and Britney Spears for her single Breathe off the Rising Waters album. Later that same year, she hit No. 1 on the IMC for her single Unceded from the album Kizmet.
Melody recently won at the 2022 International Indigenous Hip-Hop Awards for R&B Single of the Year for her track Wilding Ft. Jah’Kota. She is also the recipient of the 2022 Indigenous Superstars Award for Best Pop Recording and the Jacquie Black Rising Star Award. She also took home the 2022 Native American Music Award for Best Pop Album Recording.
She set out on her first tour in the spring of 2022 following the release of her fourth album Kizmet. The Western Canada tour sold out multiple shows.
Recently, Melody has branched out into acting as a lead in the travelling musical theatre show Bear Grease and will be touring across North American for all of 2023.
Digging Roots
Zhawenim
Winner of the 2023 JUNO for Contemporary Indigenous Group of the Year and nominated for three 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards, Digging Roots breathe life into songs from their land, Turtle Island, to raise their voices in solidarity with a global chorus of Indigenous artists, activists and change-makers. For over
a decade, the two-time JUNO Award winners have travelled the world with a joyful message of
resistance, celebrating Anishinaabe and Onkwehón:we traditions of round dance and
interconnectedness.
Digging Roots takes you on a journey through tall grass, sweet waters and unconditional love in a joyous and powerful celebration on their fourth album Zhawenim (2022). Led by the electrifying current of husband-and-wife team, ShoShona Kish and Raven Kanatakta, the six-piece band responds to a majestic
and spiritual call from ShoShona’s earthy vocals and Raven’s exhilarating guitar mastery through a fusion of blues, soul and rock ‘n’ roll. For long-time fans and new audiences, their constantly evolving live show opens a space wherever they may be in the world for healing, compassion, unconditional love and
Baamaadziwin (the good life).
Raven and ShoShona were raised in cultural families that have continued to resist oppression and colonialism. More than a band, Digging Roots have taken their place at the frontline of the fight for equity and representation in the arts, with involvement in industry advocacy and organization to empower arts
communities worldwide.
ShoShona is the founder of the International Indigenous Music Summit and the music label Ishkōdé Records. Raven, who studied at Berklee College of Music, says he “grew up in a small Anishinabe Rez called Winneway in north-western Quebec. It’s formally called Long Point First Nation. It’s where my grandfather and father taught me to hunt, trap and fish. ShoShona’s “family is from Batchewana and a part of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge.”
Nadjiwan
Star Nation
As Marc Meriläinen, the Toronto-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and all-around visionary better known as Nadjiwan, says, “Humans have always questioned and wondered about both our purpose and origins in the universe. There are numerous stories in Indigenous cultures of the ‘star people’ visiting us throughout history with the purpose of teaching us a greater understanding of not only the universe, but ourselves. In short, we ultimately come from the stars.”
Nadjiwan, of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, grew up hearing those stories of star people, instilling a lifelong fascination with science fiction that he’s frequently incorporated into his musical body of work that now numbers a dozen releases since 1994. His latest album, Star Nation, may be his most ambitious project yet. Although its 10 songs can be simply described as comprising a “space-rock opera,” the album as a whole is a mind-blowing sonic journey into the outer limits, powered by Nadjiwan’s
adventurous take on modern rock. Underpinning it are traditional musical elements, which adds up to a heady mix unlike any other rock ‘n’ roll being made at this moment.
Transforming the sound and image of Indigenous music has been one of Nadjiwan’s goals from the beginning, and his prodigious output has been recognized in many corners, including the Canadian
Aboriginal Music Awards, the Native American Music Awards, the Indigenous Music Awards, and Toronto’s Dora Mavor Moore Awards for the Performing Arts.
In 2010, he was invited to perform at the Vancouver Winter Olympics and in 2015, at the Pan-Am Games in Toronto. His 2020 album The Dog Lake Sessions was described by Exclaim! in its 9/10 review as “a vibrant narrative told through the movement of intense feelings.” His most recent release came later that year in the form of the “lockdown” EP Anomalous, featuring live versions of previously released tracks,
along with a new song written specifically for the project. Now with Star Nation, Nadjiwan has created what may be his masterpiece, an album that transcends any immediate categorization while appealing
directly to the sensibilities of even the most casual progressive rock fan.
METIS ARTIST/GROUP OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Andrea Menard
Andrea Menard is an accomplished Métis singer, songwriter and actress from Treaty 1 territory and the
homeland of the Métis. She is a 15-time music award winner, a five-time Gemini-nominated actress and was named ACTRA National’s Woman of the Year in 2021. Andrea has recorded four critically acclaimed albums, Lift, Sparkle, Simple Steps and The Velvet Devil, and released her new Michif language album
Anskoonmakew lii Shansoon last fall. She also debuted two symphony pops shows with the Regina Symphony Orchestra and has shared the stage with everyone from Buffy Sainte Marie and Tom Jackson to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Funk Brothers.
Nothing if not energetic, Andrea has written and starred in two made-for-television programs: The Velvet Devil, which was adapted from her hit one-woman musical stage play, and Sparkle, which aired on APTN for six consecutive holiday seasons. Always highlighting her Métis culture and her people’s resilience, Andrea created a theatrical cabaret called Rubaboo, which debuted this spring on two of Canada’s largest theatre stages.
Her single Silent No More was written as a companion piece for her TEDx talk to end the cycle of violence against Indigenous women and girls. Where is God in This Place is Andrea’s single meant to raise awareness about Canada’s history of residential schools. In 2013, Andrea released the single Return of the Bell of Batoche to commemorate the “Return of the Bell” ceremony that finally saw the bell of Batoche come home to the Métis people after 135 years of exile.
Born in Manitoba, Andrea is a proud member of the Métis Nation of Canada. Her Métis roots originate in St. Laurent, Man., which is in Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis. She lived in Treaty 6 Saskatchewan for over 35 years, and now makes Vancouver, the traditional territory of the Squamish, Tsleil Waututh, and Musqueam peoples, her home.
Amanda Rheaume
Winner of the 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards for Indigenous Songwriter of the Year, Amanda Rheaume introduces crucial dimensions to the world of heartland rock with her rootsy, guitar-driven ballads. In a genre characterized by anthems of underdogs, assumptions and unfair advantages, Amanda’s sound and story radically expand the boundaries, geographic and cultural, to make space for new perspectives on resistance and resilience. She is a citizen of the Métis Nation and an active and
proud member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, creating music that is indeed from the heart and the land.
First a songwriter, she comes from a long line of tireless, transformational organizers and activists, carrying this lineage forward in her ever-growing role as a builder of Indigenous music infrastructure and community. From the International Indigenous Music Summit to newly-founded Ishkode Records and the National Indigenous Music Office, the goal of raising Indigenous sovereignty in the music industry drives all of her work.
Amanda (she/her) has released five full-length albums over a period of 15 years, a self-managed career that has included countless tours and milestones. 2013’s Keep a Fire was nominated for a JUNO Award
and won a Canadian Folk Music Award for Indigenous Songwriter of the Year. With her new single “100 Years,” a driving, surging Copperhead Road-esque journey through a wilfully, harmfully misrepresented chapter in a violent colonial timeline, Amanda makes a powerful statement about history and identity.
Kaeley Jade
Kaeley Jade is a Métis singer/songwriter, actor and multidisciplinary artist based in Edmonton (amiskwaciwâskahikan). Blending lush imagery and hooky melodic lines to create her own brand of pop-forward indie folk music, Kaeley has performed at venues and festivals across Canada including BreakOut West, Coldsnap, JUNOfest and the Tkaronto Music Festival and has shared the stage with Digging Roots, Preston Pablo, Grammy-winner Bill “Birdsong” Miller and many others.
She moves between ballads and bops with ease and brings an electricity to the stage whether she is playing an intimate acoustic set or working alongside her full five-piece band. Since dropping her debut
EP Years Ago in 2020, Kaeley has been making waves in the Canadian music scene. Her music has received radio play across the globe, been reviewed by publications worldwide, added to major editorial playlists across digital streaming platforms, and been featured in several film and television productions, including Hockey Night in Canada.
Her artistry has been recognized on a national level with an Honourable Mention in the 2023 SOCAN Indigenous Songwriter Awards.
Alongside her career as a singer/songwriter, Kaeley works as a professional actor in theatre and film. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Acting from the University of Alberta and is the current festival
director of the Ukrainian Village Music Fest.
Kaeley’s involvement in the music, theatre and film ecosystems has sparked opportunities to weave her
disciplines together. She has composed music for several theatre and film projects, designed the concepts behind her albums and music videos, and designed her merchandise. Kaeley recently joined with award-winning playwright Trevor Schmidt to create the critically acclaimed musical Two Headed/Half-Hearted, a country-folk musical described as a “prairie-gothic song cycle about mythology and mermaids for conjoined twins” with Kaeley in the role of Venus.
Her innate talent for working in multiple disciplines lends depth and fullness to her debut full-length album Turpentine. The album explores the multifaceted experience of falling in love, inviting us to love fiercely, strip away the armour we wear and find strength in our vulnerability.
G.R. Gritt
JUNO Award-winning G.R. Gritt (Greyson Gritt) pulls effortlessly from the past to create soulful futurisms. Elegantly weaving melodies using vocals, guitar and electronic elements, they create both intimate and anthemic music that would fit in a folk club, a dance club and anywhere in between.
G.R. Gritt is a Two-Spirit, transgender, Francophone, Anishinaabe and Métis artist whose music serves as a beacon of connection for all who come near it. Welcoming yet truthful, they reclaim space through songs that show that intersectional identity is expansive and not to be divided into parts. By exploring the
emotional and cultural core of their heritage as a non-binary, queer, Indigenous artist they create new space and encourage others to do the same.
They won the JUNO for Indigenous Album of the Year in 2017 for their band Quantum Tangle’s album Tiny Hands and a Northern Ontario Music and Film Award for Outstanding Album by an Indigenous Artist for the album Shelter as we Go… In 2021, they were nominated for two Summer Solstice Indigenous
Music Awards: Métis Artist of the Year and Social Voice for their single Quiet Years. The single also won the Folk Music Ontario Songs from the Heart Political Category Award.
G.R. Gritt released their full-length album Ancestors on Coax Records in 2021, and their song Ancestors ft. Kimmortal was No. 6 on Sirius XM Indigiverse’s Top 20 countdown the same year.
Brandi Vezina
Brandi Vezina is a Winnipeg singer-songwriter whose outlaw roots are intertwined with classic country and rock. A born performer from a musical Métis family, she puts on a lively show. Her biggest inspirations include Johnny Cash, The Rolling Stones and Miranda Lambert.
“I don’t fit into a little package of being a country pop artist,” says Vezina on the latest episode of Face to Face with host Dennis Ward. “I’m going more outlaw because my roots are more classic country and rock. I grew up on Loretta Lynn, I grew up on Patsy Cline. I can sing you lots of Hank Williams, that’s in my blood. You hear it in my voice; you hear it in my twang.”
Her music has netted her several nominations from prestigious organizations, including the Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards and the Manitoba Country Music Association.
Brandi is also a natural on stage, an act you want to catch live. Vezina says “I think it’s really important to connect to your audience and have fun on stage; people feel your energy and want to have a good time when they come out. No matter the size of the venue, I always want my audience leaving my show having had a great experience.”
RAP / HIP HOP / ELECTRONICA ALBUM OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Snotty Nose Rez Kids
I'M GOOD, HBU?
Snotty Nose Rez Kids tore into the music scene with an unforgettable name and something to prove. Showing off their lyrical prowess and natural storytelling ability, Yung Trybez and Young D, jumpstarted the band with two back-to-back albums in 2017. Their second album, The Average Savage, grabbed national media attention and accolades, including a JUNO nomination and a Western Canadian Music Award. Since then, the band has gone on to dominate in hip-hop music, pushing past any pigeonholing
labels like “Indigenous Rapper” to become acknowledged within the general hip-hop landscape.
SNRK are blazing their own path, weaving together a musical fabric of hard-hitting lyricism, revealing stories about the struggles they and their people have encountered, empowering protest songs for the front lines, and a humor that makes even the heaviest of topics something you can vibe to.
SNRK’s other-worldly live show has built this duo into a touring force. In 2019 alone, the band clocked in at 100 performances. Recently coming off their first North American headline tour of 40 shows, the band enjoyed a game-changing 2022, with their recent album Life After (2021) landing them Album of the Year at the Indie Awards, a JUNO nomination and a performance slot at the 2022 JUNOS, three nominations for the Western Canadian Music Awards, and a spot on the Polaris Prize long-list.
Five albums deep with no signs of slowing down, SNRK are steadily building themselves into the global phenomenon they wish had been present for them when they were kids. With the youth of tomorrow always in mind, they are opening doors for Indigenous youth to see themselves represented in the mainstream music industry.
Plex
Who Am I To Judge
An artistic visionary and a major player in the music industry for almost 30 years, Plex consistently releases hard-hitting hip-hop anthems reminiscent of old school hip-hop that progress the civil rights
agenda. His latest release, Who Am I To Judge, carries this banner proudly. Following the release of Great Ones (E’s Up), a track that topped the Indigenous Music Countdown this year, the critically acclaimed rapper has released the new song Red Flags featuring Aleah Belle.
Who Am I To Judge is curt: corporate greed and manufactured hate are a toxin in the veins of society. The uncompromising production features 12 blunt tracks condemning corrupt governments, cultural appropriation, wealth, and the toxic remnants of fake news and sinister intentions. For every bone-rattling 808/kick drum combo, there is a borderline soul-crushing revelation delivered in a verse. Plex dissects his newest album, saying, “The album speaks directly about Plex’s struggles with drugs and alcohol, the evolution of hip-hop, cultural appropriation, and the state of the planet — all while pondering what it may take to fix it.” Who Am I To Judge features collaborations with artists from both the hip-hop and Indigenous communities, including Lady Luck, Kryple, Drezus, Touch, and Rellik. In addition, Plex worked
with acclaimed artist and producer 2oolman and Cashmere Brown, known for his work on Kanye West’s Donda.
Based out of Barrie, Ont., the award-winning hip-hop artist and producer has raised the bar amongst his Indigenous peers since releasing his debut solo album in 2009. Plex has toured across the US and Canada performing, teaching workshops to Indigenous youth and running his independent record label
New Leaf Entertainment. Plex’s music video The Way It Should Be, featured on his first album
Brainstorm, has received international critical acclaim and has been screened at 30 film festivals, receiving seven awards. Plex is hailed as a master at his craft who has dedicated his work to his
community through artistic expression.
Cody Coyote
Passage
Ottawa’s Cody Coyote is of Ojibwe/Irish descent with ancestry from Matachewan First Nation. With his fusion of strong, profound lyricism accompanied by corresponding influential sounds such as his song Debwe, this multi-award-nominated and award-winning hip hop/electronic artist commands his listeners’ attention by delivering mesmerizing performances.
Cody’s newest album Passage, in the works for two years and released in 2022, shares a story of overcoming the challenges faced in Indigenous communities and persevering through them and healing from intergenerational trauma. “My hope is to showcase that Indigenous people are still here, that we are always going to be here and that it is also possible to heal, move forward and find passage through either direct or intergenerational trauma,” says Cody.
Recognized for creating positive change in the world, this dedicated artist reached No. 1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown in August 2022 with his song There Tonight, No. 7 with Helpless in February of the same year and No. 1 with his Manidoo Dewe’igan in January 2020.
Outside of music, Cody Coyote is a motivational speaker, workshop facilitator and host of The Beat on elmnt fm owned and operated by First People’s Radio Inc. (Ottawa/Toronto). “The community work I do is really what drives me and has allowed me to become passionate about initiating positive change in the
world today.” says Cody. “I want the future generations of this world to ultimately feel empowered and seen.”
MR. SAUGA
Unidentified
As an emerging artist singer-songwriter, Jordan Jamieson/MR. SAUGA’s passion for music is grounded in traditional and cultural influences of the Michi Saagiig peoples. Jordan showcases his identity, activist work and passions by infusing Indigenous culture and storytelling into his lyrics, themes, and rhythms.
Patrick Moon Bird
Going Through the Motions
Patrick Moon Bird is a self-taught Indigenous lo-fi bedroom pop artist from Prince Albert, Sask. Patrick has played a lot of genres over the 20 years that he’s been making music but has been excelling in lo-fi hip hop and bedroom pop. Patrick has released seven albums and multiple singles. He is currently
working with other producers to craft his next album.
COUNTRY ALBUM OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Jim Jacobs
That’s The Way It Goes
Jim Jacobs was born in the small town of Hagersville, Ont. and raised in Smoothtown on the Six Nations of The Grand River. He grew up on his grandparents’ beef cattle/ cash crop farm working with his family and listening to country legends like George Jones, Merle Haggard, Waylon, Willie and learning their
songs on the guitar.
Jim was also heavily into sports, playing lacrosse, hockey and football, earning a football scholarship to Missouri Valley College, and playing a little semi-pro. After injuries restricted him from playing further, he returned home and took up his love of writing and performing country music in the styles of the legends
he’d always looked up to. He moved to Nashville, where he worked in construction and transportation while learning some hard life lessons and performing occasionally at open mics and playing guitar for
another artist.
In 2011, Jim got the worst news of his life: his mother had been diagnosed with cancer. Without
hesitation, he left Music City and moved home to help his mom. She won a few battles, but the disease took over and sadly Mrs. Isabel Jacobs passed. Having been raised to never give up, he decided it was time to start his own project and put all his time and energy into writing about the life lessons he’d learned, making many trips back to Nashville over the years to record with his friend Robby Turner on the
Turner-Up Recording Label.
Jim has always believed things happen for a reason, and that things happen when they are supposed to happen, and it is NOW! His new album, That’s the Way it Goes, is finally ready for the world’s country music fans that still appreciate a good ole hurtin’, beer drinkin’, storytelling song!
Jerry Sereda
Classic Country Couple
Jerry Sereda is a decorated country artist who can’t help but capture music fans everywhere he goes. With his gripping and energetic live performances, Jerry celebrates his Indigenous heritage by weaving personal stories and experiences into his delightfully catchy songs.
Beginning with his music career as the winner of a local music contest who earned the opportunity to record his first single, the 2010 Indigenous Music Awards Best New Artist has firmly established his roots
in the Canadian country music scene. Drawing comparisons to country legends Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw, Jerry has shared the stage with prominent country artists including four-time JUNO award winner Johnny Reid and Canadian Country Music Association award recipient Jason Blaine.
With four successful albums in his outstanding discography, Jerry has received numerous accolades, including a Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Award for Best Country Album, a North American Indigenous Image Award for Best Music Video, and five Manitoba Country Music Award nominations. The talented singer has also received recognition from the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards and Western Canadian Music Awards and has topped the Indigenous Music Countdown charts multiple times.
Showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon, Jerry has released his new upbeat and instantly catchy single My Favourite Sin. Co-written with Troy Kokol and Duane Steele, it follows Jerry’s last single Backroad Therapy, which charted in the Billboard Hot 100 as well as landing at No. 1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown and the Canadian Indie Country Countdown.
Holding a Master of Education, the singer considers himself a lifelong learner who strives to continue evolving as both a musician and an educator. As a proud member of the Indigenous community, Jerry has maintained his interest and support in sharing his vast musical knowledge with local and remote Indigenous artists who are hoping to launch their own careers.
Trent Agecoutay
A Place To Call Home
With a sound that’s pure Alberta country, Trent Agecoutay learned to craft his skill as a musician’s
musician by playing dancehalls as a teen.
From a young age, Trent also watched his dad sit at the kitchen table writing songs. His father always had a pot of coffee, a lit cigarette and an old tape recorder. Trent would hide in the next room and listen to the
stories his dad would create. His love of music and storytelling would eventually inspire Trent to start composing his own songs.
His album Now and…Then was nominated for Best Country Recording at the 2019 Indigenous Music Awards and the single Kokum’s Stories was a Best Indigenous Recording nominee the same year in the
Edmonton Music Awards.
Trent continues to record and mentor new artists, sticking always to his mission of using his art to express the human experience in raw, witty and unwavering fashion.
Jarrid Lee, Chief & Council
It’s Time
Saskatchewan’s Jarrid Lee is an Indigenous Canadian country music artist, award-winning singer-songwriter and entrepreneur. All it took was a love for music and a creative spark that would inevitably catch fire when he decided to pursue music for a living, blazing a trail in eight years to open up shows for some of the biggest names in music.
Jarrid’s debut five-song EP, Up on Stage, got six SCMA nominations and one final ballot appearance for album of the year up against female artist of the year Tenille Arts. Although no awards were won for the 2021 season, the album’s title track went on to take the No. 1 spot on the Canadian Indie Country
Countdown as well as reaching No. 1 on Sirius XM channel 165.
Jarrid’s second album, Its Time, was released in 2021 with six nominations through the SCMA and two through SaskMusic. It was also a Country Album of the Year nominee for the Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards. Three songs from the record were featured on top 40 countdowns and in numerous countries around the world.
ROOTS ALBUM OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Blue Moon Marquee
Scream, Holler & Howl
Winner of the 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards for Indigenous Songwriter of the Year, Amanda Rheaume introduces crucial dimensions to the world of heartland rock with her rootsy, guitar-driven ballads. In a genre characterized by anthems of underdogs, assumptions and unfair advantages, Amanda’s sound and story radically expand the boundaries, geographic and cultural, to make space for new perspectives on resistance and resilience. She is a citizen of the Métis Nation and an active and
proud member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, creating music that is indeed from the heart and the land.
First a songwriter, she comes from a long line of tireless, transformational organizers and activists, carrying this lineage forward in her ever-growing role as a builder of Indigenous music infrastructure and community. From the International Indigenous Music Summit to newly-founded Ishkode Records and the National Indigenous Music Office, the goal of raising Indigenous sovereignty in the music industry drives all of her work.
Amanda (she/her) has released five full-length albums over a period of 15 years, a self-managed career that has included countless tours and milestones. 2013’s Keep a Fire was nominated for a JUNO Award
and won a Canadian Folk Music Award for Indigenous Songwriter of the Year. With her new single “100 Years,” a driving, surging Copperhead Road-esque journey through a wilfully, harmfully misrepresented chapter in a violent colonial timeline, Amanda makes a powerful statement about history and identity.
Amanda Rheaume
The Spaces In Between
Blue Moon Marquee “are poised for worldwide recognition in a brilliant and unique genre-bending ride through American blues and folk, Gypsy jazz, Native American themes, jump blues, swing and more,” says award-winning guitarist, singer and producer Duke Robillard.
That’s high praise from someone who knows, and the duo — A.W. Cardinal on vocals and guitar, Jasmine Colette a.k.a. Badlands Jass on vocals, bass and drums — lives up to it. With nine years of rigorous touring behind them, crisscrossing Europe and North America, the two showcase a distinct energy and style. They carve a path through blues, jazz, jump jive, folk, country, swing, and Indigenous soul with an
authentic spirit and a sound that does not idle easily in one category. Their gift is bringing all these elements together without anything sounding out of step.
Blue Moon Marquee’s fifth album Scream, co-produced by Duke Robillard, won the 2023 Blues
Foundation’s Blues Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year and swept the Maple Blues Awards (Canada’s highest honour in blues), marking the first time an Indigenous artist has won in the four coveted categories: Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Acoustic Act of the Year and Entertainer of
the Year. The album has also topped the charts in the US and Canada, including achieving No. 2 on the Indigenous Music Countdown and No. 1 on the !Earshot National Folk/Roots/Blues chart.
Unbound by genre or era, Blue Moon Marquee has an edge that demands you take notice. Their
authentic mixture of tempo, melody and imagery makes them timeless artists perfect for this time.
Digging Roots
Zhawenim
Winner of the 2023 JUNO for Contemporary Indigenous Group of the Year and nominated for three 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards, Digging Roots breathe life into songs from their land, Turtle Island, to raise their voices in solidarity with a global chorus of Indigenous artists, activists and change-makers. For over
a decade, the two-time JUNO Award winners have travelled the world with a joyful message of
resistance, celebrating Anishinaabe and Onkwehón:we traditions of round dance and
interconnectedness.
Digging Roots takes you on a journey through tall grass, sweet waters and unconditional love in a joyous and powerful celebration on their fourth album Zhawenim (2022). Led by the electrifying current of husband-and-wife team, ShoShona Kish and Raven Kanatakta, the six-piece band responds to a majestic
and spiritual call from ShoShona’s earthy vocals and Raven’s exhilarating guitar mastery through a fusion of blues, soul and rock ‘n’ roll. For long-time fans and new audiences, their constantly evolving live show opens a space wherever they may be in the world for healing, compassion, unconditional love and
Baamaadziwin (the good life).
Raven and ShoShona were raised in cultural families that have continued to resist oppression and colonialism. More than a band, Digging Roots have taken their place at the frontline of the fight for equity and representation in the arts, with involvement in industry advocacy and organization to empower arts
communities worldwide.
ShoShona is the founder of the International Indigenous Music Summit and the music label Ishkōdé Records. Raven, who studied at Berklee College of Music, says he “grew up in a small Anishinabe Rez called Winneway in north-western Quebec. It’s formally called Long Point First Nation. It’s where my grandfather and father taught me to hunt, trap and fish. ShoShona’s “family is from Batchewana and a part of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge.”
Joey Nowyuk
Inuugama
Joey Nowyuk is a chart-topping, award-winning singer and songwriter from Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Raised by a community that instilled in him the value of culture and language, the roots and indie-rock musician
started writing songs as a child and first picked up the guitar as a teenager when a travelling music
workshop came to his hometown. Today, Joey’s beat-heavy, guitar-driven songs — some in Inuktitut,
some in English — tell stories of life, love and growing up in the North, always shining a ray of optimism and hope throughout.
With the release of his debut album Tumitit and his upcoming covers album Inuugama, Joey continues to rise in the music scene. His songs Nalligigakku (Because I Love Her) and Pray (Tussiaq) have both reached No. 1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown. He is also an Indigenous Music Award winner and a three-time winner of the Qilaut songwriting contest. His ongoing successes put him in the ranks of celebrated Inuit artists, strengthening their language and culture through music. With Tumitit behind him and Inuugama on the horizon, Nowyuk continues to make music, now experimenting with new styles,
techniques and genres.
“Even today, I’m still getting a lot more comfortable with writing music,” he says. “I’m using different ways to write music, rather than what I used to do before.” With several planned concerts in the next year, the future is bright for this Nunavummiut artist.
Adrian Sutherland
When The Magic Hits
Adrian Sutherland is a roots-rock recording artist with heart from the Far North. He’s a singer, songwriter, speaker, author, advocate, entrepreneur, and the founder and frontman of all-Cree rockers Midnight Shine. He’s also a traditional knowledge keeper and respected cultural leader fluent in Mushkegowuk Cree.
After constructing his own recording studio inside a shipping container, Adrian worked remotely from Attawapiskat First Nation during the pandemic with producers in Nashville (Colin Linden) and Toronto (Tim Vesely) to record his debut solo album When the Magic Hits. It earned nominations at the 2022
JUNO Awards and 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards and won Best Music Video from the 47th American Indian Film Festival.
Adrian is currently working on his second album and writing a book for Penguin Random House Canada. He cares deeply about many causes, with a first-hand perspective on issues like contaminated water, housing shortages, food insecurity, and mental health and healthcare needs in the North. At this time of
growing awareness around reconciliation, Adrian is hopeful for Canadians to better understand one another and take further steps together.
RADIO SONG SINGLE OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Logan Staats
Deadman
In 2018, veracious Mohawk singer-songwriter Logan Staats was chosen from 10,000 hopeful contestants vying for a spot on the musical competition show The Launch. Before an audience of 1.4 million viewers, Logan won, making the breakthrough that would lead him to Nashville and Los Angeles and to his single
The Lucky Ones reaching No. 1 in Canada and winning the Indigenous Music Award for best radio single.
In the years between then and now, Logan has come home, making the intentional decision to re-root at Six Nations of the Grand River. “I wanted to bring my song writing back to the medicine inside of music, to
the medicine inside of reclamation,” he says following a phase of constant touring.
To Logan, music is a healing salve, contemplatively composed and offered to listeners in need of comfort.
Since returning home, he has been able to create music authentically again, reclaiming his sound through honest storytelling and unvarnished, sometimes painful reflection. “My nation and my community are in every chord I play and every note I sing,” he says. “They’ve saved me.”
Counting musical icon Buffy Sainte-Marie (whom he frequently opens for) among his mentors, Logan wants to pay forward the guidance he’s received by connecting with Indigenous youth through music. He frequently leads workshops and visits local schools. “I want them to know there’s a reason to keep going,” he says. “There is a way out of the dark.”
Aysanabee
Nomads
Nominated for a 2023 JUNO Award for Contemporary Indigenous Group or Artist of the Year and the first Indigenous artist to reach No. 1 on the Mediabase Canada Alternative Rock chart for Nomads, Aysanabee is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter currently based in Toronto. He is Oji-Cree, Sucker Clan of the Sandy Lake First Nation, a remote fly-in community in Northwestern Ontario.
He began creating music under his mother’s maiden name during the pandemic when the stillness
allowed him to slow down and create music that, he says, more directly represents himself as an artist. Solemn and soaring, backed by a swirling blend of indie, soul and electronic soundscapes, mournful saxophone and pulse-quickening fingerpicking, Aysanabee’s striking sound is equal parts hypnotic and melodic and has been compared to Bon Iver, Matt Corby and Don Ross among others.
His debut album, Watin (2022), named after his grandfather, includes 10 tracks and nine interludes featuring the voice of his grandfather. It is part music, journalism, artistry and expression. “Watin actually started out as a series of conversations between myself and my grandfather,” says Aysanabee. “We spent the first year of the pandemic talking about things we’ve never spoke about, his life on the trapline on Sandy Lake First Nation, falling in love, his life in residential school and then leaving everything behind.” Three singles were quickly released: Ego Death, Nomads, which charted on Billboard Canada, became No. 1 on CBC Music and No. 1 on the Alternative Radio Chart, and We Were Here, which was featured in an episode of Station 19.
In a whirlwind year, Aysanabee performed nearly 100 shows across the country and abroad including Ottawa Bluesfest, Montreal Jazzfest, Alianait, Wake the Giant, and many more. Watin was released through Ishkode Records, founded by Amanda Rheaume and Shoshona Kish, one of the first Indigenous and women-owned labels in the country.
Indian City
Wannabe
Indian City is a JUNO-nominated, award-winning pop/folk/rock music collective based in Winnipeg. The group was founded in 2012 by the late Vince Fontaine. Indian City has had many guest artists throughout
the years, including Don Amero, William Prince, Sandra Sutter and Jeremy Koz. Current members of the band include Neewa Mason (Anishininew), Gabrielle Fontaine (Anishinaabe), Pamela Davis (Anishinaabe), Rich Reid (Indigenous), Jay Bodner, and Lawrence “Spatch” Mulhull.
Indian City’s unique live fusion of lyrics, music and personality expresses the modern conscience of today’s Indigenous Peoples. Indian City has been recognized nationally and internationally, winning several awards, including Western Canadian Music Awards, Indian Summer Music Awards, Native
American Music Awards and Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards.
The band’s 2022 JUNO nomination for Contemporary Indigenous Group of the Year acknowledges late founder Vince Fontaine’s final project with the band: the album Code Red, the fourth record made by this
supergroup. In the spirit of Call to Action #83 from the Truth and Reconciliation report, they invited non-Indigenous artists — including Canadian legends Jim Cuddy, Chantal Kreviazuk and Chris Burke-Gaffney — to collaborate on featured songs on Code Red.
In the spring of 2022, Warner Music Canada signed Indian City and re-released Code Red on September 30th, 2022 to coincide with National Truth & Reconciliation Day. Indian City also pre-released 3 songs –
Star People, Wannabe and The Path – from the album along with three official music videos garnering over 209,000 views to date and still climbing.
Indian City remains one of the most respected Indigenous groups on the planet, having built and sustained the highest level of artistic excellence for over a decade. Their roster is always evolving, bringing together Indigenous superstars and guests to create not only exceptional albums but also deliver energy-infused live performances.
Snotty Nose Rez Kids
I'M GOOD
Snotty Nose Rez Kids tore into the music scene with an unforgettable name and something to prove. Showing off their lyrical prowess and natural storytelling ability, Yung Trybez and Young D, jumpstarted the band with two back-to-back albums in 2017. Their second album, The Average Savage, grabbed national media attention and accolades, including a JUNO nomination and a Western Canadian Music Award. Since then, the band has gone on to dominate in hip-hop music, pushing past any pigeonholing
labels like “Indigenous Rapper” to become acknowledged within the general hip-hop landscape.
SNRK are blazing their own path, weaving together a musical fabric of hard-hitting lyricism, revealing stories about the struggles they and their people have encountered, empowering protest songs for the front lines, and a humor that makes even the heaviest of topics something you can vibe to.
SNRK’s other-worldly live show has built this duo into a touring force. In 2019 alone, the band clocked in at 100 performances. Recently coming off their first North American headline tour of 40 shows, the band enjoyed a game-changing 2022, with their recent album Life After (2021) landing them Album of the Year at the Indie Awards, a JUNO nomination and a performance slot at the 2022 JUNOS, three nominations for the Western Canadian Music Awards, and a spot on the Polaris Prize long-list.
Five albums deep with no signs of slowing down, SNRK are steadily building themselves into the global phenomenon they wish had been present for them when they were kids. With the youth of tomorrow always in mind, they are opening doors for Indigenous youth to see themselves represented in the mainstream music industry.
Blue Moon Marquee
Thick As Thieves
Blue Moon Marquee “are poised for worldwide recognition in a brilliant and unique genre-bending ride through American blues and folk, Gypsy jazz, Native American themes, jump blues, swing and more,” says award-winning guitarist, singer and producer Duke Robillard.
That’s high praise from someone who knows, and the duo — A.W. Cardinal on vocals and guitar, Jasmine Colette a.k.a. Badlands Jass on vocals, bass and drums — lives up to it. With nine years of rigorous touring behind them, crisscrossing Europe and North America, the two showcase a distinct energy and style. They carve a path through blues, jazz, jump jive, folk, country, swing, and Indigenous soul with an
authentic spirit and a sound that does not idle easily in one category. Their gift is bringing all these elements together without anything sounding out of step.
Blue Moon Marquee’s fifth album Scream, co-produced by Duke Robillard, won the 2023 Blues
Foundation’s Blues Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year and swept the Maple Blues Awards (Canada’s highest honour in blues), marking the first time an Indigenous artist has won in the four coveted categories: Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Acoustic Act of the Year and Entertainer of
the Year. The album has also topped the charts in the US and Canada, including achieving No. 2 on the Indigenous Music Countdown and No. 1 on the !Earshot National Folk/Roots/Blues chart.
Unbound by genre or era, Blue Moon Marquee has an edge that demands you take notice. Their
authentic mixture of tempo, melody and imagery makes them timeless artists perfect for this time.
LIVE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Blue Moon Marquee
Long Black Train
Blue Moon Marquee “are poised for worldwide recognition in a brilliant and unique genre-bending ride through American blues and folk, Gypsy jazz, Native American themes, jump blues, swing and more,” says award-winning guitarist, singer and producer Duke Robillard.
That’s high praise from someone who knows, and the duo — A.W. Cardinal on vocals and guitar, Jasmine Colette a.k.a. Badlands Jass on vocals, bass and drums — lives up to it. With nine years of rigorous touring behind them, crisscrossing Europe and North America, the two showcase a distinct energy and style. They carve a path through blues, jazz, jump jive, folk, country, swing, and Indigenous soul with an
authentic spirit and a sound that does not idle easily in one category. Their gift is bringing all these elements together without anything sounding out of step.
Blue Moon Marquee’s fifth album Scream, co-produced by Duke Robillard, won the 2023 Blues
Foundation’s Blues Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year and swept the Maple Blues Awards (Canada’s highest honour in blues), marking the first time an Indigenous artist has won in the four coveted categories: Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Acoustic Act of the Year and Entertainer of
the Year. The album has also topped the charts in the US and Canada, including achieving No. 2 on the Indigenous Music Countdown and No. 1 on the !Earshot National Folk/Roots/Blues chart.
Unbound by genre or era, Blue Moon Marquee has an edge that demands you take notice. Their
authentic mixture of tempo, melody and imagery makes them timeless artists perfect for this time.
Snotty Nose Rez Kids
Grave Digger, Bully Mode, No Jesus Piece, Sink or Swim Medley
Snotty Nose Rez Kids tore into the music scene with an unforgettable name and something to prove. Showing off their lyrical prowess and natural storytelling ability, Yung Trybez and Young D, jumpstarted the band with two back-to-back albums in 2017. Their second album, The Average Savage, grabbed national media attention and accolades, including a JUNO nomination and a Western Canadian Music Award. Since then, the band has gone on to dominate in hip-hop music, pushing past any pigeonholing
labels like “Indigenous Rapper” to become acknowledged within the general hip-hop landscape.
SNRK are blazing their own path, weaving together a musical fabric of hard-hitting lyricism, revealing stories about the struggles they and their people have encountered, empowering protest songs for the front lines, and a humor that makes even the heaviest of topics something you can vibe to.
SNRK’s other-worldly live show has built this duo into a touring force. In 2019 alone, the band clocked in at 100 performances. Recently coming off their first North American headline tour of 40 shows, the band enjoyed a game-changing 2022, with their recent album Life After (2021) landing them Album of the Year at the Indie Awards, a JUNO nomination and a performance slot at the 2022 JUNOS, three nominations for the Western Canadian Music Awards, and a spot on the Polaris Prize long-list.
Five albums deep with no signs of slowing down, SNRK are steadily building themselves into the global phenomenon they wish had been present for them when they were kids. With the youth of tomorrow always in mind, they are opening doors for Indigenous youth to see themselves represented in the mainstream music industry.
DJ Shub
War Club
Considered to be the Godfather of PowWowStep, DJ Shub has undoubtedly pioneered a growing genre of electronic music. Born Dan General, he is a Mohawk, turtle clan of the Six Nations of the Grand River located in Ontario. His latest album War Club was released to critical acclaim during the pandemic, featuring collaborations with other Indigenous and BIPOC artists like Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Boogát,
Fawn Wood and Phoenix Pagliacci.
The album, which blends traditional Indigenous drums with modern-day electronic beats and hip-hop sensibility, sheds light on the many ways artists are fighting back in today’s political climate.
DJ Shub won the 2022 JUNO award for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year and previously won Breakthrough Group of the Year with A Tribe Called Red. He has also been a JUNO Indigenous Music Award nominee, won a Much Music Video Award for Best EDM/Dance Video in 2017, and was shortlisted for the esteemed Polaris Music Prize in 2013.
Before solidifying his seat at the top of the PowWowStep world, DJ Shub turned heads in DJ competitions like the prestigious DMC World DJ Championships, winning back-to-back Canadian titles and representing Canada at the world finals in 2007 and 2008. In 2012, DJ Shub competed in the Red Bull
Thre3style DJ Competition where he won the Canadian title and placed fifth in the world finals.
He has also found immense success in the world of film and TV synchronization licensing. Most notably, the infamous UK actor, comedian and producer Sacha Baron Cohen hand-picked the song Indomitable as the theme music to his critically acclaimed Showtime series, Who Is America?
DJ Shub also composed music for The Grizzlies starring Will Sasso. An emotional film based on a true story, it depicts a youth lacrosse team that was set up to help combat an epidemic of youth suicide in the community of Kugluktuk, Nunavut and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). He won Best Original Song at the Canadian Screen Awards for the title song Trials.
Aysanabee
Nomads
Nominated for a 2023 JUNO Award for Contemporary Indigenous Group or Artist of the Year and the first Indigenous artist to reach No. 1 on the Mediabase Canada Alternative Rock chart for Nomads, Aysanabee is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter currently based in Toronto. He is Oji-Cree, Sucker Clan of the Sandy Lake First Nation, a remote fly-in community in Northwestern Ontario.
He began creating music under his mother’s maiden name during the pandemic when the stillness
allowed him to slow down and create music that, he says, more directly represents himself as an artist. Solemn and soaring, backed by a swirling blend of indie, soul and electronic soundscapes, mournful saxophone and pulse-quickening fingerpicking, Aysanabee’s striking sound is equal parts hypnotic and melodic and has been compared to Bon Iver, Matt Corby and Don Ross among others.
His debut album, Watin (2022), named after his grandfather, includes 10 tracks and nine interludes featuring the voice of his grandfather. It is part music, journalism, artistry and expression. “Watin actually started out as a series of conversations between myself and my grandfather,” says Aysanabee. “We spent the first year of the pandemic talking about things we’ve never spoke about, his life on the trapline on Sandy Lake First Nation, falling in love, his life in residential school and then leaving everything behind.” Three singles were quickly released: Ego Death, Nomads, which charted on Billboard Canada, became No. 1 on CBC Music and No. 1 on the Alternative Radio Chart, and We Were Here, which was featured in an episode of Station 19.
In a whirlwind year, Aysanabee performed nearly 100 shows across the country and abroad including Ottawa Bluesfest, Montreal Jazzfest, Alianait, Wake the Giant, and many more. Watin was released through Ishkode Records, founded by Amanda Rheaume and Shoshona Kish, one of the first Indigenous and women-owned labels in the country.
Logan Staats
Codeine
In 2018, veracious Mohawk singer-songwriter Logan Staats was chosen from 10,000 hopeful contestants vying for a spot on the musical competition show The Launch. Before an audience of 1.4 million viewers, Logan won, making the breakthrough that would lead him to Nashville and Los Angeles and to his single
The Lucky Ones reaching No. 1 in Canada and winning the Indigenous Music Award for best radio single.
In the years between then and now, Logan has come home, making the intentional decision to re-root at Six Nations of the Grand River. “I wanted to bring my song writing back to the medicine inside of music, to
the medicine inside of reclamation,” he says following a phase of constant touring.
To Logan, music is a healing salve, contemplatively composed and offered to listeners in need of comfort.
Since returning home, he has been able to create music authentically again, reclaiming his sound through honest storytelling and unvarnished, sometimes painful reflection. “My nation and my community are in every chord I play and every note I sing,” he says. “They’ve saved me.”
Counting musical icon Buffy Sainte-Marie (whom he frequently opens for) among his mentors, Logan wants to pay forward the guidance he’s received by connecting with Indigenous youth through music. He frequently leads workshops and visits local schools. “I want them to know there’s a reason to keep going,” he says. “There is a way out of the dark.”
MUSIC IN THE ARTS
WINNER
Kaeley Jade
A Broken Heart (Remembers the Breaking)
Kaeley Jade is a Métis singer/songwriter, actor and multidisciplinary artist based in Edmonton (amiskwaciwâskahikan). Blending lush imagery and hooky melodic lines to create her own brand of pop-forward indie folk music, Kaeley has performed at venues and festivals across Canada including BreakOut West, Coldsnap, JUNOfest and the Tkaronto Music Festival and has shared the stage with Digging Roots, Preston Pablo, Grammy-winner Bill “Birdsong” Miller and many others.
She moves between ballads and bops with ease and brings an electricity to the stage whether she is playing an intimate acoustic set or working alongside her full five-piece band. Since dropping her debut
EP Years Ago in 2020, Kaeley has been making waves in the Canadian music scene. Her music has received radio play across the globe, been reviewed by publications worldwide, added to major editorial playlists across digital streaming platforms, and been featured in several film and television productions, including Hockey Night in Canada.
Her artistry has been recognized on a national level with an Honourable Mention in the 2023 SOCAN Indigenous Songwriter Awards.
Alongside her career as a singer/songwriter, Kaeley works as a professional actor in theatre and film. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Acting from the University of Alberta and is the current festival
director of the Ukrainian Village Music Fest.
Kaeley’s involvement in the music, theatre and film ecosystems has sparked opportunities to weave her
disciplines together. She has composed music for several theatre and film projects, designed the concepts behind her albums and music videos, and designed her merchandise. Kaeley recently joined with award-winning playwright Trevor Schmidt to create the critically acclaimed musical Two Headed/Half-Hearted, a country-folk musical described as a “prairie-gothic song cycle about mythology and mermaids for conjoined twins” with Kaeley in the role of Venus.
Her innate talent for working in multiple disciplines lends depth and fullness to her debut full-length album Turpentine. The album explores the multifaceted experience of falling in love, inviting us to love fiercely, strip away the armour we wear and find strength in our vulnerability.
Jessica McMann
Muskwa's Mountain Home
Jessica McMann is an Alberta-based Cree (Cowessess, SK) multi-disciplinary artist. She interweaves land, Indigenous identity, history and language throughout her dance and music creation/performance practice. A classically trained flutist, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Calgary
and an MFA in Contemporary Arts from Simon Fraser University.
Jessica’s work fuses traditional language and dance with her own contemporary experiences as an Indigenous woman and Two-Spirit person. She also is a powwow dancer and spends time travelling in the summer. Her first album of Indigenous-classical music, 2021’s Incandescent Tales, won Global Music Awards as well as Classical Album of the Year at Calgary’s 2022 YYC Music Awards. She was nominated for Indigenous Artist of the Year at the 2022 Western Canadian Music Awards.
She is currently working on her second album slated to be released later this year. Her musical compositions and soundscapes focus on land-based creation and ideas of connection, disconnection and
home.
Jessica has played and performed venues and festivals across Canada as well as touring in Sweden and with Laura Vinson in the Netherlands and Belgium. In 2017, Too Good; That MAY Be, an immersive soundscape performance, was shown at the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg as part of The 60’s
Scoop; A Place Between.
Jessica currently resides in Cochrane, Alta., where she works for the City of Calgary as Curator of Indigenous Art. She is also co-founder and co-director of Wild Mint Arts, an Indigenous arts company, and is a Laureate of the Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards (2017).
Lacey Hill
Love Wins
An Oneida/Mohawk, Wolf Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River Reservation, Lacey is a singer-songwriter and inspirational speaker. Her debut solo album 528 was independently produced and released in 2013, putting her on the indie-music radar and kickstarting her career as a stage musician performing original songs.
528 Volume II M, released in 2017, took Lacey across Canada and to international stages in New Zealand, Australia and the UK over the next couple of years. Lacey also wrote original compositions for Tara Beagan’s stage play Deer Woman and stage managed the production.
Lacey’ single The Shiner premiered on APTN’s Amplify series in 2020, and she was one of Rogers TV’s Highlight artists. Adapting quickly when Covid hit in 2020, Lacey performed for online gigs while finishing her third album, The Moon: 528 Volume III, released in the fall of 2022 and available on all platforms.
Kicking off 2023 with The Conduit, which charted in the top 10 on Indigenous Music Countdown, she also hit the road with The National Arts Center’s Indigenous Theatre as stage manager apprentice for Kevin
Loring’s touring play Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer. Lacey then headed to Sydney, Australia for WORLDPRIDE and an Arts/Theatre residency with Moogalin Performing Arts before finishing off the tour back at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in May.
ARTISTIC VIDEO
WINNER
Aysanabee
We Were Here
Nominated for a 2023 JUNO Award for Contemporary Indigenous Group or Artist of the Year and the first Indigenous artist to reach No. 1 on the Mediabase Canada Alternative Rock chart for Nomads, Aysanabee is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter currently based in Toronto. He is Oji-Cree, Sucker Clan of the Sandy Lake First Nation, a remote fly-in community in Northwestern Ontario.
He began creating music under his mother’s maiden name during the pandemic when the stillness
allowed him to slow down and create music that, he says, more directly represents himself as an artist. Solemn and soaring, backed by a swirling blend of indie, soul and electronic soundscapes, mournful saxophone and pulse-quickening fingerpicking, Aysanabee’s striking sound is equal parts hypnotic and melodic and has been compared to Bon Iver, Matt Corby and Don Ross among others.
His debut album, Watin (2022), named after his grandfather, includes 10 tracks and nine interludes featuring the voice of his grandfather. It is part music, journalism, artistry and expression. “Watin actually started out as a series of conversations between myself and my grandfather,” says Aysanabee. “We spent the first year of the pandemic talking about things we’ve never spoke about, his life on the trapline on Sandy Lake First Nation, falling in love, his life in residential school and then leaving everything behind.” Three singles were quickly released: Ego Death, Nomads, which charted on Billboard Canada, became No. 1 on CBC Music and No. 1 on the Alternative Radio Chart, and We Were Here, which was featured in an episode of Station 19.
In a whirlwind year, Aysanabee performed nearly 100 shows across the country and abroad including Ottawa Bluesfest, Montreal Jazzfest, Alianait, Wake the Giant, and many more. Watin was released through Ishkode Records, founded by Amanda Rheaume and Shoshona Kish, one of the first Indigenous and women-owned labels in the country.
Snotty Nose Rez Kids
DAMN RIGHT
Snotty Nose Rez Kids tore into the music scene with an unforgettable name and something to prove. Showing off their lyrical prowess and natural storytelling ability, Yung Trybez and Young D, jumpstarted the band with two back-to-back albums in 2017. Their second album, The Average Savage, grabbed national media attention and accolades, including a JUNO nomination and a Western Canadian Music Award. Since then, the band has gone on to dominate in hip-hop music, pushing past any pigeonholing
labels like “Indigenous Rapper” to become acknowledged within the general hip-hop landscape.
SNRK are blazing their own path, weaving together a musical fabric of hard-hitting lyricism, revealing stories about the struggles they and their people have encountered, empowering protest songs for the front lines, and a humor that makes even the heaviest of topics something you can vibe to.
SNRK’s other-worldly live show has built this duo into a touring force. In 2019 alone, the band clocked in at 100 performances. Recently coming off their first North American headline tour of 40 shows, the band enjoyed a game-changing 2022, with their recent album Life After (2021) landing them Album of the Year at the Indie Awards, a JUNO nomination and a performance slot at the 2022 JUNOS, three nominations for the Western Canadian Music Awards, and a spot on the Polaris Prize long-list.
Five albums deep with no signs of slowing down, SNRK are steadily building themselves into the global phenomenon they wish had been present for them when they were kids. With the youth of tomorrow always in mind, they are opening doors for Indigenous youth to see themselves represented in the mainstream music industry.
Plex
Red Flags
An artistic visionary and a major player in the music industry for almost 30 years, Plex consistently releases hard-hitting hip-hop anthems reminiscent of old school hip-hop that progress the civil rights
agenda. His latest release, Who Am I To Judge, carries this banner proudly. Following the release of Great Ones (E’s Up), a track that topped the Indigenous Music Countdown this year, the critically acclaimed rapper has released the new song Red Flags featuring Aleah Belle.
Who Am I To Judge is curt: corporate greed and manufactured hate are a toxin in the veins of society. The uncompromising production features 12 blunt tracks condemning corrupt governments, cultural appropriation, wealth, and the toxic remnants of fake news and sinister intentions. For every bone-rattling 808/kick drum combo, there is a borderline soul-crushing revelation delivered in a verse. Plex dissects his newest album, saying, “The album speaks directly about Plex’s struggles with drugs and alcohol, the evolution of hip-hop, cultural appropriation, and the state of the planet — all while pondering what it may take to fix it.” Who Am I To Judge features collaborations with artists from both the hip-hop and Indigenous communities, including Lady Luck, Kryple, Drezus, Touch, and Rellik. In addition, Plex worked
with acclaimed artist and producer 2oolman and Cashmere Brown, known for his work on Kanye West’s Donda.
Based out of Barrie, Ont., the award-winning hip-hop artist and producer has raised the bar amongst his Indigenous peers since releasing his debut solo album in 2009. Plex has toured across the US and Canada performing, teaching workshops to Indigenous youth and running his independent record label
New Leaf Entertainment. Plex’s music video The Way It Should Be, featured on his first album
Brainstorm, has received international critical acclaim and has been screened at 30 film festivals, receiving seven awards. Plex is hailed as a master at his craft who has dedicated his work to his
community through artistic expression.
Adrian Sutherland
Walk With Me
Adrian Sutherland is a roots-rock recording artist with heart from the Far North. He’s a singer, songwriter, speaker, author, advocate, entrepreneur, and the founder and frontman of all-Cree rockers Midnight Shine. He’s also a traditional knowledge keeper and respected cultural leader fluent in Mushkegowuk Cree.
After constructing his own recording studio inside a shipping container, Adrian worked remotely from Attawapiskat First Nation during the pandemic with producers in Nashville (Colin Linden) and Toronto (Tim Vesely) to record his debut solo album When the Magic Hits. It earned nominations at the 2022
JUNO Awards and 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards and won Best Music Video from the 47th American Indian Film Festival.
Adrian is currently working on his second album and writing a book for Penguin Random House Canada. He cares deeply about many causes, with a first-hand perspective on issues like contaminated water, housing shortages, food insecurity, and mental health and healthcare needs in the North. At this time of
growing awareness around reconciliation, Adrian is hopeful for Canadians to better understand one another and take further steps together.
Genevieve Salamone
The Unforgotten
Geneviève Gros-Louis Salamone is an internationally recognized violinist, producer, film composer and activist from the Huron-Wendat Nation in Wendake, Que. Having confronted PTSD because of childhood sexual abuse, she uses her platform and artwork to raise awareness on issues surrounding mental health, sexual violence against women and critical Indigenous issues.
“Violin is what saved my life, honestly,” she said in a media interview. “That became my outlet. That became my way of channeling through issues and what I was experiencing growing up.”
She holds a degree in Violin Performance and Indigenous Studies from McGill University and may currently be found composing Hollywood film, television and video game music with Hinge Music Publishing; performing on stages around the world as a violinist and interdisciplinary performance artist; and producing award-winning music in her recording studio Wendat Records.
Upcoming major performances include the Cannes Film Festival, Strawberry Moon Festival, Sante Fe Indian Market & the Wendake International Pow Wow.
RISING STAR
WINNER
Aysanabee
Nominated for a 2023 JUNO Award for Contemporary Indigenous Group or Artist of the Year and the first Indigenous artist to reach No. 1 on the Mediabase Canada Alternative Rock chart for Nomads, Aysanabee is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter currently based in Toronto. He is Oji-Cree, Sucker Clan of the Sandy Lake First Nation, a remote fly-in community in Northwestern Ontario.
He began creating music under his mother’s maiden name during the pandemic when the stillness
allowed him to slow down and create music that, he says, more directly represents himself as an artist. Solemn and soaring, backed by a swirling blend of indie, soul and electronic soundscapes, mournful saxophone and pulse-quickening fingerpicking, Aysanabee’s striking sound is equal parts hypnotic and melodic and has been compared to Bon Iver, Matt Corby and Don Ross among others.
His debut album, Watin (2022), named after his grandfather, includes 10 tracks and nine interludes featuring the voice of his grandfather. It is part music, journalism, artistry and expression. “Watin actually started out as a series of conversations between myself and my grandfather,” says Aysanabee. “We spent the first year of the pandemic talking about things we’ve never spoke about, his life on the trapline on Sandy Lake First Nation, falling in love, his life in residential school and then leaving everything behind.” Three singles were quickly released: Ego Death, Nomads, which charted on Billboard Canada, became No. 1 on CBC Music and No. 1 on the Alternative Radio Chart, and We Were Here, which was featured in an episode of Station 19.
In a whirlwind year, Aysanabee performed nearly 100 shows across the country and abroad including Ottawa Bluesfest, Montreal Jazzfest, Alianait, Wake the Giant, and many more. Watin was released through Ishkode Records, founded by Amanda Rheaume and Shoshona Kish, one of the first Indigenous and women-owned labels in the country.
Joel Wood
Joel Wood, “Mikwanak Kamohsakinat” (One Who Picks Up Feathers) is Plains Cree from Maskwacîs, Alta., Treaty 6 Territory). He is a member of the nine-time GRAMMY-nominated powwow/rounddance drum group, Northern Cree.
In 2020, Joel released Singing is Healing, his first solo album, which was nominated for a JUNO in 2022 and won Hand drum/Fiddle/Instrumental Album of the Year at the Summer Solstice Indigenous Music
Festival in 2021. In 2022, Joel released his second album, Mikwanak Kamôsakinat, recorded at the National Music Center in Calgary. The album focuses on language revitalization, being proud of who you are and who we are as Indigenous Peoples (Plains Cree). Joel also plays Native American flute and does the Grass Dance.
Joel is alcohol- & drug-free and an advocate for walking the red road. He is also a proud father of three beautiful girls and two dogs.
“If you believe in who you are, where you come from, your identity, your culture, your language… It will take you to places you’ve never even dreamed of!” says Joel’s father, Steve Wood.
MR. SAUGA
As an emerging artist singer-songwriter, Jordan Jamieson/MR. SAUGA’s passion for music is grounded in traditional and cultural influences of the Michi Saagiig peoples. Jordan showcases his identity, activist work and passions by infusing Indigenous culture and storytelling into his lyrics, themes, and rhythms.
Laura Niquay
Laura Niquay is an Atikamekw artist from Wemotaci in Mauricie, Que. who sings in in her native language Atikamekw. She is the winner of the Félix for Indigenous Artist of the Year and Album of the Year – Indigenous Language at the ADISQ Gala as well as the Teweikan in the Folk category, Best Performance and Jury’s Favourite Award at the Teweikan Gala. She also captured the TD Indigenous Songwriter Award from the SOCAN Foundation and was on the Polaris Long List in 2021.
Her new album Waska Matisiwin was among the best albums of the year according to CBC Music,
Exclaim!, Journal Métro and La Presse. On stage with six musicians, her show is festive and takes audiences on a roller coaster of emotions guided by the calm and authentic speech of Laura, who takes the time to transmit the values of her culture. A nomad well-anchored in her time, she is a quiet force who is forging a place for herself at the heart of the contemporary Quebec musical landscape.
Stun
An award winning Canadian indigenous hip-hop artist from Oxford House, Man., Stun has shared the stage with such artists as Crystal Shawanda, Hellnback, Leonard Sumner, Merkules and the one-time city
sensation Winnipeg’s Most. With his 2017 release The Influence, he applied his gift of lyricism in sharing stories of heartache and struggles.
In 2019, Stun dropped his sophomore album Braided Up, captured the attention of many music fans and garnered performances at events like Festival du Voyageur. The next year, Stun won the Best New Talent Award for his self-directed music video Play It Right at the first Annual Indigenous Screen Awards hosted by the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival. He was also nominated for Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the 2021 International Indigenous Hip Hop Awards.
He went on to win the Best Hip Hop award at the first annual Indigenous Super Stars Awards Show hosted virtually by Rhonda Head.
His third album, Lifestylez of the Fresh & Indigenous, is set to make waves across Turtle Island with its clever punchlines, wordplay and lyrical qualities.
Displaying his ethnicity and culture to the full potential while practising the general outlook of an Indigenous being, Stun is an inspirational role model for young Indigenous men and boys. He’s a husband, a father, a powwow dancer and, to say the least, a hip-hop artist/producer. With nothing but genuine kindness, Stun is here to spread the knowledge, from nation to nation.
POW WOW / HAND DRUM / FIDDLE / INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Joel Wood
Mikwanak Kamôsakinat
Joel Wood, “Mikwanak Kamohsakinat” (One Who Picks Up Feathers) is Plains Cree from Maskwacîs, Alta., Treaty 6 Territory). He is a member of the nine-time GRAMMY-nominated powwow/rounddance drum group, Northern Cree.
In 2020, Joel released Singing is Healing, his first solo album, which was nominated for a JUNO in 2022 and won Hand drum/Fiddle/Instrumental Album of the Year at the Summer Solstice Indigenous Music
Festival in 2021. In 2022, Joel released his second album, Mikwanak Kamôsakinat, recorded at the National Music Center in Calgary. The album focuses on language revitalization, being proud of who you are and who we are as Indigenous Peoples (Plains Cree). Joel also plays Native American flute and does the Grass Dance.
Joel is alcohol- & drug-free and an advocate for walking the red road. He is also a proud father of three beautiful girls and two dogs.
“If you believe in who you are, where you come from, your identity, your culture, your language… It will take you to places you’ve never even dreamed of!” says Joel’s father, Steve Wood.
Jessica McMann
Incandescent Tales
Jessica McMann is an Alberta-based Cree (Cowessess, SK) multi-disciplinary artist. She interweaves land, Indigenous identity, history and language throughout her dance and music creation/performance practice. A classically trained flutist, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Calgary
and an MFA in Contemporary Arts from Simon Fraser University.
Jessica’s work fuses traditional language and dance with her own contemporary experiences as an Indigenous woman and Two-Spirit person. She also is a powwow dancer and spends time travelling in the summer. Her first album of Indigenous-classical music, 2021’s Incandescent Tales, won Global Music Awards as well as Classical Album of the Year at Calgary’s 2022 YYC Music Awards. She was nominated for Indigenous Artist of the Year at the 2022 Western Canadian Music Awards.
She is currently working on her second album slated to be released later this year. Her musical compositions and soundscapes focus on land-based creation and ideas of connection, disconnection and
home.
Jessica has played and performed venues and festivals across Canada as well as touring in Sweden and with Laura Vinson in the Netherlands and Belgium. In 2017, Too Good; That MAY Be, an immersive soundscape performance, was shown at the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg as part of The 60’s
Scoop; A Place Between.
Jessica currently resides in Cochrane, Alta., where she works for the City of Calgary as Curator of Indigenous Art. She is also co-founder and co-director of Wild Mint Arts, an Indigenous arts company, and is a Laureate of the Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards (2017).
Northern Cree
Ôskimacîtahowin: A New Beginning
This powwow and round dance group from Treaty Six territory has not only been nominated for a GRAMMY nine times, it also has 50 albums to its credit. The group was formed in 1982 by Charles Wood Jr., Earl Wood, Randy Wood, and Steve Wood. Northern Cree performs at festivals and hosts powwows with eight to 20 singers. Since 1999, Northern Cree has earned a total of 44 nominations and 18 awards for their music.
Cikwes
kâkîsimo ᑳᑮᓯᒧᐤ
Cikwes (Connie LeGrande) is a nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ soul singer and songwriter from Bigstone Cree Nation. She currently resides in Amiskwaciy Waskahikan, also known as Edmonton. Her most recent album, kâkîsimo ᑳᑮᓯᒧᐤ, a full-length Cree language album, was nominated for the 2023 JUNO Award for Traditional Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year. In 2019, her debut album ISKO was nominated for the
Indigenous Music Award for the Best Folk Album of the Year.
Cikwes graduated from York University with her master’s degree in music in 2022. Her music explores her Cree language, nêhiyawêwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ and nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ musical methods that include chanting
cahkasinahikanakᒐᐦᑲᓯᓇᐦᐃᑲᐣ also known as spirit markers or syllabics. Her intimate performances are accompanied with stories, laughter and the meaning of her songs. Using her breath, the Cree language and the Cree syllabics, she invokes a feeling of comfort similar to that of a wepisowin, a traditional baby swing. Cikwes’s nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ songwriting is an emblem of hope and beauty for the continuation of
nêhiyawêwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ.
INTERNATIONAL INDIGENOUS ARTIST/GROUP RECORDING OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Solju
Solju (Ulla Pirttijärvi and her daughter Hildá Länsman) combine their heritage of northern Sámi language and traditional chant, known as yoik, with a desire for new and innovative music, providing a dialogue of traditional and modern Sámi culture.
They’re proud of their indigenous roots and want to show it to the world! Sámi culture and identity lie at the heart of the music, reflecting mythology and aspects of the traditional lifestyles of their homeland,
taking the listener to the far north of Europe: Sápmi. Their soundscape ranges from the expansive wilderness of the tundra to the most intimate lávvu fireplace. How does this duo describe themselves in
five words? Vivacious, colourful, earthy, ethereal, genuine.
Artistic recognition includes Best International Indigenous Release 2019 at the Indigenous Music Awards Canada for the album Solju: Ođđa Áigodat as well as Folk Music Creator of the Year, Finnish Ethnogala 2019.
G Precious
Brenda M. Atencio, who performs as G Precious, was born and raised on the Indian Reservation of Ohkay Owingeh — Village of the Strong (formerly San Juan Pueblo) by her grandmother Gregorita T. Atencio. The second of eight children, she began creative writing under the name BMA Chill at the young age of six and continued writing as a way of dealing with the dynamics of life: alcoholism, drugs, depression, suicide and loss.
At the age of 12, BMA Chill became G Precious. To date, G Precious has self-released eight albums, won the 2022 Native American Music Award for Best Song of the Year (Unforgettable) and is a multiple New Mexico Music Award Winner in the Native American hip-hop, pop and R&B categories.
G Precious was also nominated and was a finalist for the Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award in 2018 for her selfless contributions to her pueblo and surrounding communities. G Precious has proven that no matter the life you’ve lived, the struggles you’ve faced, with determination, perseverance and positive thoughts nothing can stop you. She truly has come from earthen roads to red carpets.
Secret Tween
Better known as Secret Tween, Juan C. Ysaguirre hails from Tempe, Ariz. He is a musician, filmmaker, photographer, editor, and producer. He launched himself onto the music scene as Secret Tween with his first album, C.M.Y.K. Boombox, which features the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Deer Eye on the album cover. To
date, the album has amassed over 100K streams on Spotify. The album introduced the world to his now-trademark eclectic hybrid of instrumental sounds, textures, loops and drums all ranging in different genres
except country.
SOCIAL VOICE
WINNER
Digging Roots
Winner of the 2023 JUNO for Contemporary Indigenous Group of the Year and nominated for three 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards, Digging Roots breathe life into songs from their land, Turtle Island, to raise their voices in solidarity with a global chorus of Indigenous artists, activists and change-makers. For over
a decade, the two-time JUNO Award winners have travelled the world with a joyful message of
resistance, celebrating Anishinaabe and Onkwehón:we traditions of round dance and
interconnectedness.
Digging Roots takes you on a journey through tall grass, sweet waters and unconditional love in a joyous and powerful celebration on their fourth album Zhawenim (2022). Led by the electrifying current of husband-and-wife team, ShoShona Kish and Raven Kanatakta, the six-piece band responds to a majestic
and spiritual call from ShoShona’s earthy vocals and Raven’s exhilarating guitar mastery through a fusion of blues, soul and rock ‘n’ roll. For long-time fans and new audiences, their constantly evolving live show opens a space wherever they may be in the world for healing, compassion, unconditional love and
Baamaadziwin (the good life).
Raven and ShoShona were raised in cultural families that have continued to resist oppression and colonialism. More than a band, Digging Roots have taken their place at the frontline of the fight for equity and representation in the arts, with involvement in industry advocacy and organization to empower arts
communities worldwide.
ShoShona is the founder of the International Indigenous Music Summit and the music label Ishkōdé Records. Raven, who studied at Berklee College of Music, says he “grew up in a small Anishinabe Rez called Winneway in north-western Quebec. It’s formally called Long Point First Nation. It’s where my grandfather and father taught me to hunt, trap and fish. ShoShona’s “family is from Batchewana and a part of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge.”
Adrian Sutherland
Adrian Sutherland is a roots-rock recording artist with heart from the Far North. He’s a singer, songwriter, speaker, author, advocate, entrepreneur, and the founder and frontman of all-Cree rockers Midnight Shine. He’s also a traditional knowledge keeper and respected cultural leader fluent in Mushkegowuk Cree.
After constructing his own recording studio inside a shipping container, Adrian worked remotely from Attawapiskat First Nation during the pandemic with producers in Nashville (Colin Linden) and Toronto (Tim Vesely) to record his debut solo album When the Magic Hits. It earned nominations at the 2022
JUNO Awards and 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards and won Best Music Video from the 47th American Indian Film Festival.
Adrian is currently working on his second album and writing a book for Penguin Random House Canada. He cares deeply about many causes, with a first-hand perspective on issues like contaminated water, housing shortages, food insecurity, and mental health and healthcare needs in the North. At this time of
growing awareness around reconciliation, Adrian is hopeful for Canadians to better understand one another and take further steps together.
Geneviève Salamone
Geneviève Gros-Louis Salamone is an internationally recognized violinist, producer, film composer and activist from the Huron-Wendat Nation in Wendake, Que. Having confronted PTSD because of childhood sexual abuse, she uses her platform and artwork to raise awareness on issues surrounding mental health, sexual violence against women and critical Indigenous issues.
“Violin is what saved my life, honestly,” she said in a media interview. “That became my outlet. That became my way of channeling through issues and what I was experiencing growing up.”
She holds a degree in Violin Performance and Indigenous Studies from McGill University and may currently be found composing Hollywood film, television and video game music with Hinge Music Publishing; performing on stages around the world as a violinist and interdisciplinary performance artist; and producing award-winning music in her recording studio Wendat Records.
Upcoming major performances include the Cannes Film Festival, Strawberry Moon Festival, Sante Fe Indian Market & the Wendake International Pow Wow.
Logan Staats
In 2018, veracious Mohawk singer-songwriter Logan Staats was chosen from 10,000 hopeful contestants vying for a spot on the musical competition show The Launch. Before an audience of 1.4 million viewers, Logan won, making the breakthrough that would lead him to Nashville and Los Angeles and to his single
The Lucky Ones reaching No. 1 in Canada and winning the Indigenous Music Award for best radio single.
In the years between then and now, Logan has come home, making the intentional decision to re-root at Six Nations of the Grand River. “I wanted to bring my song writing back to the medicine inside of music, to
the medicine inside of reclamation,” he says following a phase of constant touring.
To Logan, music is a healing salve, contemplatively composed and offered to listeners in need of comfort.
Since returning home, he has been able to create music authentically again, reclaiming his sound through honest storytelling and unvarnished, sometimes painful reflection. “My nation and my community are in every chord I play and every note I sing,” he says. “They’ve saved me.”
Counting musical icon Buffy Sainte-Marie (whom he frequently opens for) among his mentors, Logan wants to pay forward the guidance he’s received by connecting with Indigenous youth through music. He frequently leads workshops and visits local schools. “I want them to know there’s a reason to keep going,” he says. “There is a way out of the dark.”
Plex
An artistic visionary and a major player in the music industry for almost 30 years, Plex consistently releases hard-hitting hip-hop anthems reminiscent of old school hip-hop that progress the civil rights
agenda. His latest release, Who Am I To Judge, carries this banner proudly. Following the release of Great Ones (E’s Up), a track that topped the Indigenous Music Countdown this year, the critically acclaimed rapper has released the new song Red Flags featuring Aleah Belle.
Who Am I To Judge is curt: corporate greed and manufactured hate are a toxin in the veins of society. The uncompromising production features 12 blunt tracks condemning corrupt governments, cultural appropriation, wealth, and the toxic remnants of fake news and sinister intentions. For every bone-rattling 808/kick drum combo, there is a borderline soul-crushing revelation delivered in a verse. Plex dissects his newest album, saying, “The album speaks directly about Plex’s struggles with drugs and alcohol, the evolution of hip-hop, cultural appropriation, and the state of the planet — all while pondering what it may take to fix it.” Who Am I To Judge features collaborations with artists from both the hip-hop and Indigenous communities, including Lady Luck, Kryple, Drezus, Touch, and Rellik. In addition, Plex worked
with acclaimed artist and producer 2oolman and Cashmere Brown, known for his work on Kanye West’s Donda.
Based out of Barrie, Ont., the award-winning hip-hop artist and producer has raised the bar amongst his Indigenous peers since releasing his debut solo album in 2009. Plex has toured across the US and Canada performing, teaching workshops to Indigenous youth and running his independent record label
New Leaf Entertainment. Plex’s music video The Way It Should Be, featured on his first album
Brainstorm, has received international critical acclaim and has been screened at 30 film festivals, receiving seven awards. Plex is hailed as a master at his craft who has dedicated his work to his
community through artistic expression.
Categories & Submission Criteria
INTERNATIONAL CATEGORIES
“Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them.” Defining “Indigenous Peoples” – the United Nations.
INTERNATIONAL INDIGENOUS ARTIST/GROUP RECORDING OF THE YEAR
This category celebrates artists who identify as Indigenous, but not First Nations, Metis or Inuit, and may reside anywhere in the world, including Canada.
The artist/group needs to highlight their unique Indigenous culture within their music by means of language, instruments and/or lyrics about their culture. All genres of music accepted. It is important for the judges to understand what your music is about and the message within the lyrics. You have the opportunity to attach a copy of the lyrics, in English, for the judges to review.
POW WOW / HAND DRUM / FIDDLE / INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR
This category recognizes an album which captures the sounds and emotions of the Pow Wow and/or captures cultural heritage and the love of traditional and classical music and dance with the use of hand drums / fiddle / flute instruments.
SELF NOMINATION CATEGORIES
RISING STAR
This category recognizes and shares the talent and potential of a rising and emerging solo artist or group who has yet to reach a large audience with their art. This category is open to all age groups. Submission will include 1-3 songs or videos released within the eligibility period (April 1, 2021 – January 1, 2023).
SOCIAL VOICE
This category recognizes an artist who raises awareness of social and relevant issues for and/or environmental issues and inspires change through positive messages in music. For example – an artist whose message highlights MMIWG, Climate, Housing conditions, Languages, LBGTQ2S+. Please submit a copy of the lyrics with a song submission.1-3 songs from within the eligibility period (April 1 2021 – January 1 2023) must be submitted. The songs do not have to be from the same album.
ARTISTIC VIDEO
This category celebrates creative artistic values and expression through video. Both self-produced and professionally produced videos made available to the public will be eligible. You will need to submit your video along with an outline of the video’s production details, including the name(s) of the producers and details of where the video was produced. This award will go to the artists as well as the director, producer, or filmmaker of the video. The director/producer or film maker does not need to have Indigenous Heritage but the artist does.
MUSIC IN THE ARTS
LIVE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
RADIO SONG SINGLE OF THE YEAR
This category recognizes an original previously unreleased song single which has been released to commercial radio and celebrates music and artistic excellence. The song will have had recognition by industry, peers and the public with an exceptional impact in its release.
ROOTS ALBUM OF THE YEAR
This category recognizes artists in the folk, roots and blues genres, who are creating music in any of these genres with traditional or contemporary instruments.
COUNTRY ALBUM OF THE YEAR
RAP / HIP HOP / ELECTRONICA ALBUM OF THE YEAR
METIS ARTIST/GROUP OF THE YEAR
This category recognizes the success in capturing cultural heritage and the love of traditional music and dance with the use of lyrics and/or Métis music instruments such as the fiddle violin, mouth-organ, accordion, spoons, comb, and jaw harp, etc.
INUIT ARTIST / GROUP OF THE YEAR
POP/ALTERNATIVE/ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Celebrating pop, alternative and rock music in all genre styles; including a fusion of traditional and contemporary music expression.
RECORDING ARTIST(S) OF THE YEAR
MUSICAL LEGACY AND CONTRIBUTION CATEGORY
This award recognizes artists who have impacted artistic and cultural heritage on behalf of the Indigenous community. Their contributions helped to influence and grow continued development in the Indigenous music industry. The winner of this category will be selected this year by the artistic advisory circle.
SUBMISSION CRITERIA
- To be eligible for The SSIMAs the DATE OF RELEASE for live & virtual performances and recordings MUST be between April 1 2021 – January 1 2023
- The SSIMAs submissions are open to Indigenous ensembles, solo artists, duos or groups from across Canada. Any artist/group submitting a nomination who is not a Canadian citizen and identifies as Indigenous, MUST ONLY SUBMIT for the following two categories;
- INTERNATIONAL INDIGENOUS ARTIST/GROUP RECORDING OF THE YEAR
- POW WOW TRADITIONAL / CONTEMPORARY ALBUM OF THE YEAR
- To be eligible for the SSIMAs, at least 50 percent of group members and/or artistic driving force and ownership behind the brand must identify as Indigenous. Proof of ancestry is required*.
- *To protect the integrity of our organization and the events we host, it is our policy with SSIF/IE that we require all artists to provide some form of formal recognition to show their proof of Indigenous ancestry. We recognize that this can be a challenging process for some and we always hate being in this position to potentially prevent one of our Indigenous community members from participating in the event, but we also take the responsibility very seriously to ensure the authenticity and support of only Indigenous artists. As an arts and cultural organization, we recognize it is not our role to confirm or deny someone’s Indigenous identity and so rely on our provincial and national associations to play that role.
- In order to adjudicate a category, a minimum of 3 submissions must be received for that category.
- There is no limit as to the number of categories for which one artist/group may submit. Each nomination must be submitted separately, if applying for more than one category.
- An artist/group can submit more than once in the following categories; Artistic Video, Music in the Arts and Radio Song Single of the Year. The entries must be different songs and must be released within the eligibility dates.
- Albums must contain more than 50 percent original content and have a minimum run time of previously unreleased music of 25 minutes and/or 6 tracks.To be eligible for the best album categories, over 50 percent of the album must fit the genre of the category.
- ARTIST / GROUP OF THE YEAR categories must submit 3 songs for review which have been released during the eligible dates, but do not have to be from the same album. These can be three singles released within the eligibility period.
- Nomination forms and all supporting documentation must be submitted by April 10, 2023
- There is no fee to submit a nomination.
- Ineligibility and disqualification: recordings or submission will be deemed ineligible if they do not meet the eligibility criteria and / or due to breach of ethics / misconduct and / or cultural appropriation. Please refer to the Code of Conduct and Individual Responsibility and Cultural Protocols sections below for additional information.
- Voting procedure: Voting will be conducted by our invited panel of jurors which includes Indigenous and music industry professionals and peers. There will be no public voting.
CODE OF CONDUCT AND INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY
Artists, guests and their Industry representatives are required to be professional and respectful to The SSIMAs, The SSIMAs Advisory Committee, Judges and The SSIMAs guests, partners, sponsors and all associates.
The SSIMAs encourage an environment of inclusiveness and mindfulness of all social and political backgrounds/views, gender diversity and fairness that exists within our community. All participants, nominees and staff of The SSIMAs will be respectful, will uphold appropriate behaviour and not participate in lateral violence. Any violation of the code of conduct will result in immediate removal from the nomination process and/or live event.
CULTURAL PROTOCOLS
PARTNERS & SPONSORS
PRESENTED BY
with additional support from:
PARTNERS & SPONSORS
PRESENTED BY
with additional support from:
