Next at the Kennedy Center

(chanting).

MARTHA: Do not erase us.

There's enough people out there erasing us.

TIM: I was like "Oh, I can just be me, fully".

TY: The hoops, when I have them in my hands it's like exploding into the galaxy.

BEAR: The urban indigenous community was ready to say, "Okay, we're here.

We're not gonna be invisible anymore.

This is music for us, this is our night, we're gonna be seen, we're gonna be heard."

(theme music plays).

MARTHA: I was born in New York City, but my early childhood years I was raised by my grandparents in Harlan County, Kentucky.

It was a beautiful time.

In our peaceful Little world of Appalachia Way up high High high Upon the hills above the clouds My people dwell How sweet the silence In the still of our hollows We hear The calling of our lord Black coal is running through my veins Bloody Harlan Kentucky!

40 wheels up high, on our mountainside Covered wagons coming and my people ride Walking... walking Walking... walking Walking... walking Walking... walking It was way up high my great Mamaw cried When the cavalry took a thousand lives Walking... walking Walking... walking 900 miles walking 900 miles walking Heya heya haaa weya heya haa Wey hey na ha na heya haaaa hey Heya heya haaa weya heya haa Wey hey na ha na heya haaaa hey Woo 40 wheels up high, on our mountainside T'was the cold trucks loading up a thousand miners Walking... walking Walking... walking Walking... walking Walking... walking Heya heya haaa weya heya haa Wey hey na ha na heya haaaa hey Heya heya haaa weya heya haa Wey hey na ha na heya haaaa hey Ooooh From whence we came, we shall return For the Old Ways are lessons learned From whence all darkness comes the light And I'll defend my rights to rest my soul Where our fathers dwell Heya heya haaa weya heya haa Wey hey na ha na heya haaaa hey Heya heya haaa weya heya haa Wey hey na ha na heya haaaa hey Walking... walking Walking... walking Walking... walking Walking... walking Walking... walking Walking... walking 900 miles walking 900 miles walking Walking, and walking, and walking And walking, and walking, and walking Walking MARTHA: I really feel that I was pretty blessed being a child in the hills of, of Kentucky and being in that small town we have our, our kind of small town ways, you know.

And, and my grandpa was a coal miner, you know my uncles and cousins were coal miners.

TY: A typical day for me would have been running on the trails, uh, the great lakes of northern Wisconsin.

BEAR: Well I never went to school in my neighborhood really, so I was jumping on the subway to get to school.

TIM: Growing up on Six Nations, if I had a day off, uh, me and my sister would ride bikes and outrace the rez dogs to go uh, to the local uh video store down the street from us.

TY: I have memories of going to the roundhouse and it being very cold outside cuz northern Wisconsin winters are so cold, it would be inside.

And there'd be a fire going and we'd sing social songs all weekend long.

MARTHA: And then to come to New York City you know as a, as a preteen, you know in middle school and to have everything at your fingertips.

You know, arts, culture, museums.

TIM: Our family like lived on a laneway.

It was easy to get together and hang out.

BEAR: You can hear that we couldn't have grown up more different.

TIM: Yeah.

MARTHA: My music vocabulary went from, you know, the songs of Conway Twitty and Dolly Parton, all the way to Parliament Funkadelic.

BEAR: I've always had a really deep connection to music.

Like, for as long as I can remember, being a little kid with my little tape deck.

And, picking apart music from a really young age.

Hip hop was definitely a huge thing in my life, like, you know, listening to Eric B & Rakim, and Fat Boys and Run DMC.

But my interest and my love for music continued, and it turned into collecting music.

Until I was in like high school uh, my friends were just like, "you need to DJ".

TIM: My uncle was like a very charismatic guy, um, he introduced me to a lot of like funk music.

He's the one that introduced me to like, um... Michael Jackson and Prince, but also like Funkadelic, uh, George Clinton, like all those dudes.

I remember doing dishes and having the, the, the local radio called CKRZ turned on, and then all of a sudden a hip hop beat came on.

And I was like, 'what is this cool thing being on this radio station that doesn't play this stuff'.

So I spent like two summers, at least, like, two years of like, making horrible beats in my bedroom, and then by the third year I think that I was getting some place that I really liked, and then I, and this whole time I wasn't telling my parents what I was doing.

BEAR: Um, when I started DJ'ing and like playing in clubs and stuff, it was really, you know, just as part of the local DJ rave scene, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't really anybody, you know.

There was, there were all like the stars of the scene, and I knew those guys, but I played at 10:00 or I played at, at 6AM.

I had a reputation for being the, the sunrise DJ, cause I played all this like spacey dubby music and was doing really experimental things.

TIM: I just kind of followed this thing that I knew that I really wanted to do.

I had no reason for it, like, there was, like, I didn't know why I loved it so much.

But I just kept going towards the thing that made me feel good, and made sense for me.

I started driving up from Six Nations to Toronto to work with other Toronto artists.

That's when the Toronto scene really just put their arm around me and was like, 'you're hanging out with us now'.

I started making the music I've always wanted to make.

And uh, that led to um... me meeting this guy.

(laughing).

BEAR: One of my best friends, another DJ named B-Mol uh, he had Monday and Friday nights at this club.

And every once in a while he'd let me play music.

You know, if he wanted to go have a smoke, I'd take over for a half hour here and there.

And that's, that's how the other guys in Tribe had, knew who I was just as the, again the anomaly who hung out at this tiki bar playing really cool music, like for no reason.

(laughing) But we all kinda came together just as, you know, four working native DJs in the city, who kind of vaguely knew each other through passing.

I guess it was the, acknowledging that our community was large.

That there was enough indigenous people in the city of Ottawa who weren't being serviced by any other club night or event happening in the city.

And it worked, you know, the first night that we ever did an electric powwow, it sold out.

Uh, and it was like just a really magic night.

TIM: The first time I ever heard A Tribe Called Red, I was in a studio, um, working on a really different project, and we played it over the studio speakers.

And I was like "whoa this is..." I heard "Electric Powwow".

It just kinda stuck with me.

It's one of those things once you hear it once, it stays with you for a little bit, you know, or forever.

We are the Halluci Nation (drumming).

(clapping).

And his minister adds That Canada will not be able to accommodate All Indigenous concerns What that means is that They have decided To willfully violate Their constitutional duties and obligations Mr. Speaker, sounds like a most important relationship Doesn't it?

Why doesn't the Prime Minister Just say the truth And tell the Indigenous peoples That he doesn't give a (bleep) About their rights (cheering).

(electronic beat and chanting).

(electronic beat and chanting).

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(drumming).

(electronic beat) (beat drops).

(electronic beat and scatting).

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Fresh and clean, fresh and clean Fresh and clean, fresh and clean, yea, yea-yea Say when mi step 'pon di scene Oh-oh, I'm so blessed and free Rebel when mi step 'pon di scene Oh-oh, I'm so fresh and clean (beat changes).

(electronic beat).

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(clapping).

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(beat slowing).

(alarm sound).

(cheering).

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(alarm sound).

(bells jingling) (electronic beat and scatting).

We give love for the offering That's what we're a mastering We stand firm that our life's a dream We give love for the offering We give love for the offering That's what we're a mastering We stand firm that our life's a dream We give love for the offering Listen to me this is a serious thing What happens when you awake in your dream And all you see is impermanency Well, you're a real true wizard Better walk with me You're a creator And this is your house We make magic in large amounts Any word just shout it out Creation that's what it's all about And now I cast my spell on you It doesn't matter if you want me to I give you conscious gratitude And I big up your vibe And I uplift your mood I'm healed And I'll heal you too That's what I'm born to do And when you see me on your avenue You know that your wildest love come true We give love for the offering That's what we're a mastering We stand firm that our life's a dream We give love for the offering We give love for the offering That's what we're a mastering We stand firm that our life's a dream We give love for the offering So when we living we do the best that we can We love ourselves and we know It all goes with the most high plan The most high plan!

TIM: This whole time I wasn't telling my parents what I was doing.

No one knew what I was doing, I, just me.

One day my dad just happened to just come up to my room, saw what I was doing, looked at, looked at it.

Looked at me.

Then he just walked out.

And I was like I think I've made my commitment now, you know.

I felt like that was the thing that I needed to, to, to push through.

And although my parents weren't initially uh, into what I was doing at the time.

Now like I was just hanging out with like a, in Akwesasne, with our, uh with a Mohawk chief out there, his name is Richard Mitchell, me and my dad were there, and he just, just kept bragging to him about what I was doing.

It's so, it's so crazy how everything kind of changes.

MARTHA: You know, my parents lived in New York City.

And they were kind of, they were very young when they, when they married and very young when they had me, and so they were working out their relationship as young people, trying to figure things out.

And so, you know, breaking up and getting back together, breaking up and getting back together.

And so, by the time I went back to New York City it was middle school, and I came back to New York City to a single parent household, and my father was not there.

And the only thing that was left that um, was from my father, was a piano, and a bunch of vinyl LPs and a big stereo console.

The music to me was like uh, maintaining a connection with my dad, even though he wasn't there.

I remember playing, you know, "Say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud!"

You know "Say it loud" playing that James Brown album, you know and making up all these funny dances, to make her laugh.

And um, I remember her saying, "Is that all you are, you're just proud, you're just proud to be Black?

You're also..." well she would say, well back then we would say Indian.

"You're also Indian, you should be proud, just as proud, you know, to celebrate all the things that you are".

And she said, "Do not participate in the genocide of your own people.

Do not erase us.

There's enough people out there erasing us."

TY: Thinking about my grandma, um, she definitely has changed my life.

I feel very grateful to understand and know the Anishinaabe language.

I got to have conversations with her about, what does language revitalization mean, like, why is it important we speak this language.

And I feel really um, blessed actually that she was someone, despite being a survivor of boarding school, that she said "hey, the language is the heartbeat of all things of our culture and our community."

So make sure that you always remember it, make sure you always pass it on, make sure that you speak it with Anishinaabe people, and also non-Anishinaabe people.

That the language is a perspective, it's a way of life, a way of being in the world.

TIM: But yeah, I was going into academia.

I wanted to be a teacher and bring back, or give back to the thing that, that gave me the language.

But I have that life, and then I have this music life, and at one point like they, they just never worked together, right?

But until we, we started making music together.

And I was like "Oh, I can just be me, fully".

TY: So duality, I think is all around me, it's like a big giant hoop.

Because of existing today, like in this present moment, um, when I think about duality I think about the paradox.

I am a paradox, um, because of many things, one being that um, I'm from two different tribal nations which have two totally different language-speaking groups, like two totally different songs, two totally different ways of being and art making and ceremony.

I also hold very proudly being 'Niizh Manidoog' which in Anishinaabe that means 'two spirit'.

And people are like "oh two spirit, what is that?"

And now I also think about it being Indigiqueer, which also means being in relationship to the land, and my personhood.

When I'm thinking about being a youth, starting to hoop dance, I started with uh, an iron hoop and I started with a red willow hoop.

I was one of these youths that were sort of bouncing around, I had so much energy, and it was really important to my uncle.

He gave me these hoops and he was trying to teach me about balance.

One hoop was so heavy, I would try to move it so fast that I would whip that iron hoop around and bam I would just hit myself, and you know, there'd be like a scar or something and I'm like 'okay, I must slow down'.

So then I would take this red willow hoop and it was so, um, light that I would need to slow down so I could understand movement between how I was animating it, and making it come to life, that I needed to slow my breath down, and breathe a type of life into that kind of object, so that it could move just so, and that it could be in relationship to song, relationship to rhythm, and relationship to the earth and to the sky above.

So dancing for me feels, it feels really special.

And precious.

And at the same time to me inside it feels very ritualistic, with this idea that I get to celebrate all of these teachings, um, all of the, the hoops when I have them in my hands it's like "wow!"

I feel like I'm just like exploding into the galaxy or something.

That I'm a supernova just swirling around.

Sometimes when I'm dancing from the inside of this, this globe, the inside I can see people's faces light up.

I literally can feel people's heart open wider.

(drumming).

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(chanting and drumming end).

TY: The hoop for me represents the circle of life, but that everything's in the shape of a circle.

So it's um, it could be something that's coming from the earth, like a flower, or it could also be something that is very contemporary, like a building.

But I'm thinking about things also that are both seen and unseen that are in the shape of a circle, and how to create that kind of inertia when I'm spinning.

It's also helping me to understand that the dance also is a revolution, it's also um, an act of resistance as well, because there were times that folks weren't able to do this dance in public.

It was, it would be unprecedented to have people witness this dance on the street, or at the Kennedy Center, or other places.

MARTHA: And, we've been dictated by the people in power, of what we're allowed to have back.

You know, what we're kind of rationed back.

BEAR: The whole, um, vision of who indigenous people are has never been in our own control, you know?

And I think that, what that creates is a community that doesn't want to be seen in a way.

Um, at least that's what I grew up in, and what the shift was starting to happen at that time uh, in the late 2000s was the urban indigenous community was solidifying in a way that it hadn't in the past, and was ready to say, "Okay, we're here.

We're not gonna be invisible anymore."

You know, and we came at that moment, with something very visible.

And it, and to watch the community take up that space and say, "No, no, no, this is music for us, this is our night, we're gonna be seen, we're gonna be heard, and we're not gonna be quiet."

TY: Our indigenous communities, can exist, and not even just exist anymore.

I feel like we've like gone past the existing, which I'm really thrilled about.

Um, not even that we can thrive and like fight for our piece of the land or our, our piece of the art that's here, but so that we can feel what flourishing is.

BEAR: We were talking about how, uh, the auten, authenticity of what we do, being part of the, the attraction to people, especially I think people from outside of our community, as well as people inside the indigenous community, but when we're talking about outside of the indigenous community, it also becomes a, a double-edged sword.

One of the things that we ran into early on in our career was people showing up in red-face, showing up in war paint, showing up in, wearing war bonnets.

And when they would show up to our shows like that, we were very quickly put in a position of, you know, what, what do we do about this?

And you know, through interactions, through talking to people, the one thing that the people who would show up like that would always say is, "I love what you're doing, I love your culture, I just want to be a part of it".

And that was something that we really internalized and took to heart, was that we can't just react to these things with malice, with venom, be angry.

I mean, it totally makes sense to be angry, and anybody who is angry, I don't, I'm not coming down on them and saying they're wrong, like the anger is there, it's real, it's, it's justified.

But we decided to take the stance, because of listening to these people, to say "Okay, how can we do this without it being appropriative?

How can we do this without you taking things from my culture that you don't understand."

We came around to working with John Trudell on the We Are The Halluci Nation album.

He started off as an activist, as a very politically-driven person.

But later in life discovered that the way that he could get his message out into the world worked better in music.

TIM: John was, was part of the morning every, you know put the radio on in the morning, get ready for school or hanging out at home that would be our, my soundtrack growing up.

BEAR: We were playing a show and we got there at soundcheck and they said, "oh, uh, John Trudell is in town, he wants to introduce you tonight, and he's gonna come by after soundcheck to, to meet you".

So I'm just hanging out in the green room and John walks in, I jump up to shake his hand and you know, instantly just, you know, when you're meeting somebody who's such an icon, who's such a part of your life, you instantly wanna tell them everything that, that you've ever felt about them, you know.

And I started doing that, and, and before I could even get you know, more than two or three words out, he stopped me.

And he already knew my name, and he, the first thing he wanted to tell me was that uh, "it took me half my lifetime to figure out what you guys did intuitively".

And that was just this, like this stamp of 'you guys are moving in the right direction' you know.

And right after that he was just, started pulling out notebooks, and was just like "if I gave you this poem, could you do something with it?"

And was just like throwing stuff at us.

And really quickly we ran with the idea that, okay, the Halluci Nation is going to be the theme of the album now, it's going to be the, the central part of the album, let's make uh, a seal, of, of the Halluci Nation, you know.

Like, like so many actual nations have like their seal.

You don't need to wear red-face, you don't need to wear a war bonnet, and wearing this patch is for everybody.

If you're willing to interact with the ideas that we're putting forward, the ideas that John Trudell instilled in us in, in, what it means to be a human being, and remembering who we are as human beings, and, and all of that, that this patch is for you.

You're already part of the Halluci Nation.

(cheering, applause).

We are the Halluci Nation (beat drops).

The Halluci Nation The human beings The people We see the spirit the natural Through sense and feel Everything is related All things of Earth And in the sky Have spirit (chanting).

(beat drops).

(electronic beat and chanting).

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We are the tribe that they cannot see We live on an industrial reservation We are the Halluci Nation We have been called the Indians We have been called Native American We have been called hostile We have been called pagan We have been called militant We have been called many names We are the Halluci Nation We are the human beings (drumming, chanting).

The callers of names cannot see us But we can see them (electronic beat and chanting).

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TIM: Everything that we do is on purpose.

Which is pretty incredible because like we, if we don't have purpose for what we're doing, it doesn't get done.

The moment that we, we put purpose to it and a reason for it, for it to exist, it usually manifests itself or we manifest it and it comes.

And um, I don't want to say it's like, spiritual but it probably is.

MARTHA: I'm only a small part in this, this has been happening long before me, you know.

All the way through, you know, the great-greats and all that, all the way down to my mom, all the way down to me, now I'm a mom, and it's carrying on.

There are many people who have, who have fought and have struggled and have died, and were murdered, and all of this in the name of freedom, so that I can sit here as a Black, indigenous person saying, "yes, this is where I came from".

TY: My grandmother and I would come together to have these flourishing conversations about future existence, about imagining forward.

And I would get these nuggets of wisdom that I'm still thinking about and continuing to use in the art that I do and dialog with people about.

Um, this idea of re-remembrance I think becomes really important.

And so that's something I feel like that she handed down to me.

(flute solo) (flute solo) (flute solo) (flute solo) (flute solo) (flute solo) (flute solo) (flute solo) (flute solo) (flute solo) (flute solo) TY: I think about dreaming seven generations into the future.

I also think about the, a code of ethics to create by.

So I think about what are the ways that I'm contributing bravery, courage, love, truthfulness, um, humility in all the things that I'm doing.

And those kinds of philosophies are Anishinaabe philosophies, those are things that I learned when I was, you know, a youth.

These are, there are almost like maps that are here for us to try to understand how to live to our highest human potential, our Pimatisiwin, right?

Living life to the fullest.

TIM: We're community people.

We, we love our community, and we do everything for our community.

BEAR: I think staying responsible to community is a big part of it.

Continuing to listen, not thinking we have all the answers.

TIM: Yep.

BEAR: Um, also I think the, the positivity in the group that you see now is something that we've worked really hard at.

You uh, back when we were A Tribe Called Red, again, part of the reason why, why we've changed the name is because we've changed, Tim and I have changed so much.

We're not the young guys on the scene anymore.

We're not, we're not the elders either, but we're, we're running into solid 'uncle' territory at this point.

TIM: Mmm.

BEAR: You know, and I think that's the latest responsibility that we've found in our group.

MARTHA: I feel a, a human responsibility to have compassion, and compassion for people who don't know certain things.

And you know we're, we're living in a time where we're not being taught certain things anymore, they're hiding things.

And what has been taught about um, us has been a lie.

And so, I feel like it's, I feel a sense of human responsibility to share what I have learned, and share the things that I know, and to pass them on to younger generations.

BEAR: The best thing we can do for you know, other artists coming up after us in the scene is, is to show a way of doing it that is respectful that is responsible.

MARTHA: I want everyone to understand and appreciate who they are and their family story.

And to own it, you know, not everybody has, you know you have... we live in a country where you have to... there's the good the bad and the ugly.

And we can't just erase the ugly, we have to understand and accept the ugliness so that we can heal from it.

TY: What does that mean being a contemporary um, individuals living in the world today, sense-making from things that were forgotten, stolen, or annihilated from a community.

And I do feel like art is the answer for that.

And when I say art, I think about uh, cultural expression, I think about language revitalization, I think about deepening democracy.

Um, these kinds of ways of civically engaging I think are all gifts, are all forms of expression that my grandmother really wanted me to um, give back to the world.

MARTHA: Every single person who comes here is a contributor to this land.

And there is, there are the first peoples that have, first and foremost, the original caretakers, who put certain things in place, and everyone who has come here is a contributor has a responsibility to honor the ground that we're all standing on.

BEAR: One of the breakthrough things was indigenous people being able to say "this is us today, how we live, how we want to be seen, and how we want to tell our stories in our own way".

MARTHA: It's really important to be a voice in the community.

And I felt that the only way for me to do it in the beginning was to be, you know, get in the van and, and, and drive and do that, and you know, one audience at a time.

(chanting).

(shaking maraca, drumming).

I laid me down Upon a bank Where Love Lay sleeping And I heard Among the rushes dank A Weeping Weeping Then I went to the heath and the wild To the thistles and thorns of the waste And they told me how they were beguiled Driven out, and compelled to be chaste I went to the Garden of Love And saw what I never had seen A chapel was built in the midst Where I used to play on the green And the gates of this chapel were shut And "Thou shalt not," writ on the door So I turned to the Garden of Love That so many sweet flowers bore Heya heya haaa weya heya haa Wey hey na ha na heya haaaa hey Woo Heya heya haaa weya heya haa Wey hey na ha na heya haaaa Woo And I saw it was filled with graves And tombstones where flowers should be And priests in the black gowns Were walking their rou-ou-ou-ounds And binding With briars My Joys and desires I went to the Garden of Love I went to the Garden of Love I went to the Garden of Love I went to the Garden of Love Woo!

Woo!

Woo!

Doo Doo-doo-doo Doo-doo-doo Woo!

I went to the Garden of Love I went to the Garden of Love I went to the Garden of Love I went to the Garden of Love Woo!

Woo!