iskwē |
with Alex Mak
A World in London, Borough, London, UK
11th June 2019
Powerful and
passionate singer songwriter iskwē was
on #AWorldInLondon at Resonance 104.4fm with
guitarist Alex Mak. Her soulful and revealing
lyrics offer deep insights into the present lives & history of
indigenous communities in Canada, telling stories that need to be
told and very much heard.
Alex Mak |
iskwē is an Indigenous pop and electronic music singer
from Canada, who received a Juno Award nomination
for Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the Juno
Awards of 2018 for her second album The Fight Within. The
name iskwē is one part of the artists' traditional Cree name, which
was gifted to her through ceremony in 1998 and she prefers this
moniker over the legal name she was given at birth, as it is a
connection to her spirit and culture. Further to this, iskwē has
adopted Standard Roman Orthography to write her name,
removing the use of capitalization, because this is a common practice
used by Cree academics to write the language.
Originally
from Winnipeg, Manitoba, iskwē has lived in Los Angeles,
New York City, and Toronto, and now calls Hamilton,
Ontario home. She released
her debut album Iskwé in 2013.
Bridging cross-cultural aesthetics while exploring her own struggle
to both fit into and break away from modern Western archetypes has
been an important part of iskwē's artistic vision since the release
of her WCMA nominated self-titled debut album. Her debut
single "Nobody Knows," produced by Juno Award nominees The
Darcys and featured in the Netflix series Between,
captivated audiences by turning a stark spotlight on the more than
1200 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.
iskwē garnered a win at the 2017 Western Canadian Music
Awards (WCMA) for Electronic/Dance Artist of the Year and her
2017 album The Fight Within recently received a JUNO
nomination for Indigenous Music Album Of The Year. She
followed up with a number of singles before releasing The Fight
Within in 2017. In 2018, she received a SOCAN
Songwriting Prize nomination for the song "Healers".
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