Biography
Although principally celebrated as a documentary filmmaker, the American-Canadian Abenaki artist Alanis Obomsawin launched a parallel music career in 1960. She entered the world in New Hampshire on Abenaki Territory and, while still a child, relocated with her mother to the Odanak reserve northeast of Montreal, remaining there until age nine. During that period her mother’s cousin introduced her to the history of the Abenaki Nation, its legends, and its songs.
In the 1950s she settled in Montreal and began performing as a singer and storyteller in schools, prisons, and on reservations. Her debut film, Christmas at Moose Factory, appeared in 1971 and inaugurated an extended body of work devoted to First Nation concerns. Parallel to these cinematic endeavors, she made her professional debut as a singer-songwriter in New York in 1960 and subsequently toured across America, Canada, and Europe. In 1988 she released the album Bush Lady, which combined traditional Abenaki material with her own compositions.
Long out of print and therefore scarce, the recording resurfaced in 2017 when Obomsawin presented it in full at the Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht, Netherlands. The next year the independent Canadian label Constellation issued a remastered edition that retained the original artwork and liner notes while also supplying fresh artwork and updated notes.
In the 1950s she settled in Montreal and began performing as a singer and storyteller in schools, prisons, and on reservations. Her debut film, Christmas at Moose Factory, appeared in 1971 and inaugurated an extended body of work devoted to First Nation concerns. Parallel to these cinematic endeavors, she made her professional debut as a singer-songwriter in New York in 1960 and subsequently toured across America, Canada, and Europe. In 1988 she released the album Bush Lady, which combined traditional Abenaki material with her own compositions.
Long out of print and therefore scarce, the recording resurfaced in 2017 when Obomsawin presented it in full at the Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht, Netherlands. The next year the independent Canadian label Constellation issued a remastered edition that retained the original artwork and liner notes while also supplying fresh artwork and updated notes.
Albums
Singles
