Xwi7xwa Library Guide
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- Subject HeadingsOur vertical files cabinets are organized alphabetically and by subject.This document can help you begin your search.
Indigenous Music & Dance Research Guide QR Code
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Indigenous Music & Expression
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.
Featured Resources
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.
- Rumble: the Indians Who Rocked the World directed by Catherine BainbridgeThis revelatory documentary brings to light the profound and overlooked influence of Indigenous people on popular music in North America. Focusing on music icons like Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Taboo (The Black Eyed Peas), Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Jesse Ed Davis, Robbie Robertson, and Randy Castillo, RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World shows how these pioneering Native American musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives.
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.
- Manzo, J., & Potts, J. J. (2013). Rez Style: Themes of Resistance in Canadian Aboriginal Rap Music. Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 33(1), 169.This study concerns Aboriginal rap music and its performers in Alberta, Canada, and factors that inform their preference for and unique expression of this type of music by focusing on the artists' lyrical content and their narrative reflections on their music and its messages. Methodologically, this study deploys ethnographic content analysis of song lyrics as well as data gleaned from qualitative interviewing of Aboriginal rap artists. Of particular focus in this paper is how rap music expresses themes of political resistance and empowerment, themes that delineate many of the deleterious consequences of Aboriginal Canadian experiences following European colonization, and how expression of these themes is enabled by the artists' resolute insistence on maintaining the foundational "political" and consciousness-raising roots of rap music as an art form.