Indigenous Music & Dance

This Research Guide provides strategies and information for researchers searching for Indigenous artists, dance and music performances. It provides resources like books to begin research from, search terms, music and dance videos, current news, ways to find Indigenous artists on websites like YouTube, and a list of local BC artists to add to your music playlists.  

Because music & dance is varied throughout Indigenous Nations, these featured resources illustrate different forms of resources we have included in this guide, rather than featuring specific artists over others. There are videos of musicians, dancers, films, books, theses, and articles from both scholarly sources and news media included throughout this guide. 

Skoden ft. Beau Dick is a "fight song" that has political connections in the lyrics as the group looks at Indigenous Peoples' connection to the land, issues with the RCMP, and finishes with Beau Dick's speaking of the demonstrations at the BC Legislature & on Parliament Hill to remind American & Canadian citizens that they are guests on Indigenous land. It has scenes that were shot at UBC's Museum of Anthropology.

DJ Shub's music video for "Indomitable" was shot at the Grand River Champion of Champions Pow Wow in Haudenosaunee territory. It features fancy dancer and techno music producer Classic Roots. The song includes the drums and vocals of the Northern Cree Singers. This video won the 2017 Native American Music Award for Best Music Video. 

This is a cover of Heart of Glass, translated to Inuktitut by Inuk singer songwriter Elisapie. It was a single for the 2023 album Inuktitut, Elisapie's fourth solo album. 

Inuktitut is a covers album that sprouted in the artist's mind in the winter of 2021, when songs by artists such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Blondie, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, Queen, and Cyndi Lauper, whose music once took over the community radio airwaves throughout Nunavik, Northern Quebec, triggered a flood of tears. Many of these songs were an escape as the community and cultural references were being challenged by colonization. Elisapie began a mental archaeological process: finding songs associated with emotional memories and people from her past. She followed that with a second, more prosaic quest. She sought the permission of the original artists to translate and adapt the songs that are now on this album. (Bonsound).