Indigenous music of Canada includes many different types of music created by Aboriginal Canadians. Before European settlers arrived in what is now Canada, many First Nations groups lived in the area, such as the West Coast Salish and Haida, the Iroquois, Blackfoot, and Huron in the central part of Canada, the Dene in the North, and the Innu, Mi'kmaq, and Cree in the East and North. Each group had and still has its own special music traditions. Chanting, which is a type of singing, is very common. Many groups use different musical instruments.
History
Traditionally, Indigenous Canadians used natural materials to make their musical instruments for many years before Europeans arrived in Canada. First Nation bands created rattles from gourds and animal horns, often carving and painting them beautifully. In woodland areas, they made birchbark horns and used carved antlers and wood for drumsticks. Drums were typically made from carved wood and animal hides. Drums and rattles are percussion instruments used by First Nations people. These instruments provide the background for songs, and songs support dances. Many traditional First Nations people consider song and dance to be sacred. After Europeans came to Canada, First Nations people were often not allowed to practice their ceremonies. This is one reason why there is little information about First Nations music and instruments available today.
Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit, did not have a specific word for music as understood by Europeans or researchers. Studies suggest that the concept of music as a separate idea may not have existed in their culture. The closest term, "nipi," includes music, speech sounds, and noise. (Nattiez 1990:56)
Today, there is a growing pride in First Nations art and music, and many people are rediscovering the beauty of traditional instruments and songs. Drums are closely linked to First Nations people. Some say, "Drumming is the heartbeat of Mother Earth." First Nations made many types of drums, including small ones used by healers, tambourine-shaped hand drums, warrior drums, water drums, and large ceremonial drums. The size and shape of drums depend on the culture of the First Nation and the drummer's purpose. Many drums are decorated with art. In many First Nations cultures, the circle is important. It represents the sun and moon and their path across the sky. Many traditional homes, such as tipis and wigwams, are circular. Traditional villages were often arranged with homes placed in a circle. Today, many First Nations people still hold meetings in a circle. These meetings often begin with a prayer, with people standing in a circle and holding hands.
Hand-carved wooden flutes and whistles are less common than drums but are still part of First Nations music. Chippewa men played flutes to serenade loved ones and comfort others during difficult times. The Cree, Iroquois, and Maliseet made and used whistles. Archaeologists have found evidence that the Beothuk, an extinct group from Newfoundland, used wooden whistles and flutes before European settlers arrived. The human voice is the most important instrument in First Nations music. Singing is central to their traditions, just as it was in ancient music. Each song had an original owner, and songs belonged to a society, clan, ceremony, or individual. In some cultures, people could buy the right to sing a song owned by someone else. The original owner would then teach the buyer how to sing it. Many traditional songs are still sung by First Nations people who follow traditional ways.
Today, many artists blend First Nations and Inuit music with popular music styles like country, rock, hip hop, or electronic dance music. The Polaris Music Prize was awarded to Tanya Tagaq for Animism in 2014 and to Jeremy Dutcher for Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa in 2018 and Motewolonuwok in 2024. (The 2017 Polaris went to Lido Pimienta for La Papessa; Pimienta is of South American indigenous descent. The 2015 Polaris went to Buffy Sainte-Marie for Power in the Blood. Sainte-Marie claimed First Nations heritage at the time, though reports in 2023 questioned this claim.)
The compilation album Native North America, Vol. 1, released by Light in the Attic Records in 2014, includes many rare and previously unavailable songs by First Nations and Inuit musicians from the time when rock, country, and folk music began to influence Indigenous music.
Music areas
Native groups in the Eastern Woodlands lived in parts of the United States and Canada, including Maritime Canada, New England, the U.S. Mid-Atlantic, the Great Lakes, and the Southeast. According to Nettl, these groups used a singing style called antiphony, where one person sings and another responds. This style is not found in other areas. Their music has complex rhythms with frequent changes in timing and is closely connected to ritual dances. Solo instruments like flutes and whistles were used, while drums, rattles, and striking sticks were played in groups. Nettl described the Eastern music area as the region between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. The most complex musical styles were found among the Southeastern Creek, Yuchi, Cherokee, Choctaw, Iroquois, and their language group, while the simpler style was found among the Algonquian language group, including the Delaware and Penobscot. The Algonquian-speaking Shawnee had a style that was somewhat complex, influenced by nearby southeastern tribes.
Music in this area often used short, repeated phrases, shouts before, during, and after singing, anhematonic pentatonic scales, simple rhythms, and antiphonal or responsorial techniques, including "rudimentary imitative polyphony." Melodies generally moved downward gradually, and vocals included some tension and pulsation.
Plains-area music, found across the American Midwest and Canadian Prairies, had nasal tones, high pitches, and frequent use of falsetto. Melodies often had a step-by-step drop in pitch (terraced descent) and were sung in unblended, single-line melodies (monophony). Songs were divided into two parts, with the second part repeated before returning to the start. Large double-sided skin drums were common, as were solo end-blown flutes (flageolet).
Nettl described the central Plains tribes, from Canada to Texas, including the Blackfoot, Crow, Dakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche, as the most typical and simple sub-area of the Plains-Pueblo music region. This area’s music had extreme vocal tension, pulsation, a preference for perfect fourths, a range of about a tenth, complex rhythms, and frequent use of tetratonic scales. The Arapaho and Cheyenne music had the most intense features, while the northern tribes, like the Blackfoot, had simpler melodies with smaller ranges and fewer scale tones.
Arapaho music included ceremonial songs, such as the Sun Dance, performed in summer when different groups gathered. Traditional Arapaho songs had two sections with a terraced descent, a range greater than an octave, and scales with four to six tones. Other ceremonial songs were received in visions or taught during men’s initiation into age groups. Secular songs included social dances, such as triple-meter round dances, and songs to honor warriors or recent events. Some songs were said to be taught by guardian spirits and were only sung when the recipient was near death.
In the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, open vocals with single-line melodies (monophony) were common, though polyphony (multiple independent melodies) also occurred. This was the only area in North America with native polyphony. Long melodies often included chromatic intervals, and rhythms were complex and speech-like. Instruments were diverse, including whistles, flutes, horns, and percussion.
Nettl described the music of the Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Tsimshian, Makah, and Quileute as some of the most complex in the continent. The Salish nations (Nlaka'pamux, Nuxálk, Sliammon, and others) had music that was between the Northwest Coast tribes and Inuit music. Salish and Northwest Coast music shared features with Inuit music, such as pendulum-like melodies that leaped between the highest and lowest notes. Northwest Coast music had intricate rhythms and rigid percussion, with some unrecorded use of early polyphony, such as drones or parallel intervals. Vocals were tense, with dynamic contrast, ornamentation, and sudden accents.
Nettl described Inuit music as recitative-like singing, with complex rhythms, small melodic ranges averaging about a sixth, and frequent use of major thirds and minor seconds. Inuit music is well known for throat singing (katajjaq), a unique vocal style used in only a few cultures worldwide. Narrow melodies and speech-like effects were common, with repeated notes marking the end of phrases.
Box drums, similar to tambourine-like hand drums, were used in other regions. Much Cree song had repeated sections separated by rests and patterns, though not all repetitions were exact.
Contributions of First Nations music to Canadian culture
Edward Gamblin was a country rock singer and songwriter. He is widely credited as one of the most influential artists in the history of First Nations music. He is known for being one of the first artists to build a successful career by focusing mainly on First Nations audiences instead of trying to appeal to a wider audience.
Donald Harvey Francks, also known as Iron Buffalo, was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was a drummer, poet, champion for Native Nations, motorcyclist, author, and peace activist. He was interested in Tibet and supported Greenpeace. He often performed at George's Spaghetti House, a Toronto jazz club that was similar to New York's Birdland. He also played drums at the Colonial Tavern and other Toronto clubs and jazz venues.
Robbie Robertson was a Canadian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for being a member of The Band. He was ranked 78th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Robertson was born to a Jewish father and a Mohawk mother. He took his stepfather's last name after his mother remarried. He first learned about music at Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, where he spent summers with his mother's family. He studied guitar as a young person and began writing songs and performing when he was a teenager. From 1987 onward, Robertson released four solo albums. His first was named after himself, followed by Storyville, Music for the Native Americans, and Contact from the Underworld of Redboy.
Jerry Alfred is a First Nations singer and storyteller who helps preserve First Nations language and traditions. He is the Northern Tutchone "Keeper of the Songs." He lives in Pelly Crossing, a village in central Yukon, 300 kilometers north of Whitehorse. He was born in the nearby community of Mayo. Jerry learned to speak his Tutchone language despite spending many years in a residential school. Like his father before him, Jerry was named a Song Keeper at birth. A Song Keeper collects songs and sings them at potlatches and other First Nations ceremonies. Jerry is a self-taught guitarist who combines modern guitar techniques with traditional music from his people. His 1994 recording, "Etsi Shon" or "Grandfather Song," helps keep his language and the spirit of his people alive.
Don Ross is a guitarist and composer. He is the son of a Mi'kmaq mother and a Scottish immigrant father. He is a member of the Mi'kmaq community at Millbrook, Nova Scotia. Don was born and raised in Montreal and speaks both French and English. He earned an honors degree in fine arts (music) at York University in Toronto. He is one of the most respected musicians in Canada and is known as one of the top guitarists in the world. In September 1996, Don won the prestigious U.S. National Fingerstyle Championship for the second time. He is the only guitarist to have done so. In 1988, Don was the first Canadian and first Indigenous person to win this prize.
Don is a master of "fingerstyle" technique, which is similar to the technique used for classical guitar. His music is influenced by jazz, folk, rock, and classical music, creating a personal style. Don calls his style "heavy wood!"
Buffy Sainte-Marie is an Italian American who was adopted into the Piapot First Nation as an adult. She received a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a songwriter, performer, and artist who wrote hit songs performed by other famous artists, including Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, and Neil Diamond. Her song "Up Where We Belong" won an Academy Award. She has earned many awards, including an Academy Award and the United States award for Lifetime Musical Achievement in the Arts. She also received a medal of recognition from Queen Elizabeth II. France named her "Best International Artist of 1993." She has performed in front of large crowds, including 100,000 people in Denmark. She regularly performs in small First Nations communities. In 1993, she helped create a special award category in the Juno Awards to recognize the best recordings by Canadian Indigenous musicians. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Arts at the 1998 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards.
The duo quickly became popular in Quebec. In 1988, they were featured in a documentary about the Innu for a Quebec television station. They were brought to Montreal to record and released their self-titled debut album in 1989. Although the album was recorded in their native Innu-aimun language, spoken by only 12,000 people worldwide, it became a major hit in Quebec and later in English Canada. It was eventually certified double platinum. The singles "E Uassiuian" and "Tshinanu" were popular hits for the band.
Leela Gilday is a singer and songwriter born and raised in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She is one of the North's better-known performing artists. She was nominated for "Best Music of Aboriginal Canada" at the Juno Awards in 2003. She won three awards in 2002 from the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards: Best Female Artist, Best Folk Album, and Best Songwriter. She won the 2007 Juno for Aboriginal Recording of the Year for Sedzé, her second album.
Glen Meadmore is an actor and performance artist living in Los Angeles. He has been described as "the world's greatest exponent of the genre known as gay Christian punk." He is sometimes called "Cowpunk." He performed at the Anti-Club, a famous nightclub known for punk and avant-garde art. He became well-known for his bold performances there. During this time, he met Vaginal Davis, an African American queer political performance artist. Together, they formed the band Pedro, Muriel and Esther, also known as PME, one of the earliest queer punk bands.
Derek Miller was born in Six Nations on October 29, 1974. He is an Indigenous Canadian singer and songwriter. He has won the Juno Award for Indigenous Music Album of the Year twice, for his albums Lovesick Blues and The Dirty Looks. He has been noticed by respected musicians such as Daniel Lanois and Buffy Sainte-Marie.