Indigenous artists are redefining country music

Country music runs deep in Indigenous communities — so deep that the connection dates back to the fur trade, when mandolins, fiddles, and guitars first arrived from overseas. Zach Moostoos-Willier, a Cree-Métis artist from Sucker Creek First Nation in Treaty 8, grew up in Edmonton listening to George Jones and Hank Williams Sr. With his grandparents. When he picked up the fiddle in Grade 3, it felt natural to blend traditional Métis fiddling with the country songs he loved. "Country music was invented and created for real life working hard people that have been through a lot, so I think Indigenous people really connect to that way of life, that way of meaning," he told CBC's Unreserved. The connection goes beyond shared themes of hardship. Country's narrative style — songs rooted in real life — mirrors Indigenous oral storytelling. Artists like Ernest Monias, the "Elvis of the North," sing in Cree. Others weave in Métis fiddle traditions. It's become its own genre within Indigenous communities. David McLeod, a member of Minegoziibe Anishinabe Nation and CEO of Native Communications Inc., traces the popularity surge to the mid-1950s when people began moving from reserves to urban centres — a shift that accelerated in the '70s and '80s. "It connects to the land. It connects to what was going on at the time," McLeod said. "It is an Indigenous voice it is an Indigenous story. It is connecting to grassroots people." For Moostoos-Willier, the appeal is straightforward. "I was raised that way, always knowing and being rooted in who I was. I want to write songs that I've lived or have seen happen in my day-to-day life, something that I understand fully." Desiree Dorion, who grew up in Dauphin, Man., reading country lyrics like stories, carries the same philosophy. What drew her in was clarity — she could understand the narratives in a way that spoke to her own experience. Country music, for Indigenous artists, became a language for telling their own stories.