COVER: Massive Aboriginal attack

DJ collective A Tribe Called Red hope to create a new Native identity with “badd azz” parties, remixes of traditional songs and no hipster headdresses

ORIGINAL ABORIGINALS: Bear Witness, Shub and NDN
Photo by PAT BOLDUC

“Wearing headdresses isn’t ‘cool,’” says DJ and video artist Bear Witness of the three-man powerhouse all-Aboriginal DJ collective that is A Tribe Called Red. Alongside two-time DMC scratch DJ champion Dan General, aka DJ Shub, and Ian Campeau, aka DJ NDN, who initially got into music through punk rock—he once was the drummer for Montreal’s Ripcordz— ATCR are willing to calmly explain exactly why it ain’t okay.

They make their point clear by merging popular representations of “Indian” culture with the real thing—in music and video, and through the monthly event Electric Pow Wow, which showcases Aboriginal DJs and Native urban culture. These guys put together some of the most unique, inspired and intense bass music out there. Using huge, heavy, drum-driven chunks of dancehall, dubstep, moombahton and traditional singing, they bring multiple influences together to produce tunes that make it difficult not to pay attention and impossible not to dance. This is big music that expresses and expands upon the notion of urban Aboriginal culture. Don’t forget to play it really loud.

NDN is Ojibway from Nipissing First Nation, while Bear and Shub are both Cayuga from Six Nations, but they all classify themselves as urban Aboriginals. As NDN describes, this is some­one who is Aboriginal but “has never lived on a reservation, which makes it hard to find roots and any form of culture.” Each member of ATCR identifies with this situation. Yes, they all spent time on a reserve but felt somewhat outside of the culture. “I would hang out with my cousins, but I wasn’t from there,” explains NDN. “I was always accepted, but I was different. But at the same time, growing up, I was called ‘Chief,’ or ‘No Tax’ through high school. That’s the other side of being made fun of, because you are an Aboriginal, but you don’t really have a strong sense of identi­ty and right now, we are trying to give ourselves an identity. That’s what our party is about anyway.”

PARTY NATION

This party, the Electric Pow Wow, is meant to be a gathering—bringing Native and non-Native people together to celebrate Aboriginal culture. It takes place in Ottawa and has made Canada’s capital attractive to tastemakers like the globetrotting Diplo, who drew attention to ATCR on his blog, calling them, quite simply, “badd azz.” The party lives up to this description and then some.

ATCR don’t just DJ, but also perform live remixes of tunes like “Red Skin Girl,” a relentless yet melodic track that samples from traditional pow wow drum group Northern Cree. This is accompanied by the video art of Bear, whose pastiche productions use Aboriginal imagery layered over other, more commercial depictions of Native North Americans, putting cultural appro­priation on display.

ATCR have hosted unplugged pow wow musicians at their electrified version, though they were nervous when Northern Cree showed: “We were on our toes as to the way they would react when they heard their track all cut up and remixed the way we do it,” says Shub. But Northern Cree loved it. “Their jaws dropped,” he says, “and they asked to hear it over again.”

Using traditional sounds but bucking tradition, ATCR are charting their own course. Yes, there is a range of music produced by Aboriginal people in Canada, and some music does come from urban areas. But as an Aboriginal, “you are either a gangsta rapper, blues singer, traditional singer or country singer,” states NDN. ATCR want to expand the definition.

“We don’t really fit yet being aboriginal club producers or electronic producers. It hasn’t necessarily been done yet,” continues NDN. “As we are going along, we are creating this aboriginal urban identity in everything that we are doing,” explains Bear.

AUTOCHTUNES

And they would like to bring what they are doing to the more remote communities as well. Inspired by Montreal’s A-Trak, who worked on music production with aboriginal youth in Australia, ATCR see music as an incredibly empowering force. “Can you imagine if these kids in these remote communities who are killing themselves at higher rates than ever—if we gave them a com­puter with something like Garage Band to make some music—how amazing some of that music would be?” asks NDN.

ATCR wants to continue expanding their collaborative work with Aboriginal musicians and artists. After all, as Bear says, “There’s automatically a different kind of collaboration that is going to happen then when you are working with someone from the settler nation.” And, given the interest in indigenous music—specifically indigenous electronic music from Africa to South America and beyond—there are so many opportunities for working together. “It’s happening all over right now,” explains Bear, “And I think all of the really, really exciting things that are happening in electronic music are coming from indigenous people all over the world.”

In the fall, not only are they on tour with Ojibway/Metis comedian Ryan “Clarence Two Toes” McMahon, but they’ll be working with drum group Midnite Express on some original compositions to be performed at Aboriginal Music Week in Winnipeg this November. Shub explains just how big of a deal this is. “At the Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque there are competitions. We’ll call it like the DMC of pow wow,” says Shub, to laughter and agreement from his group mates. “It came down to Northern Cree and Midnite Express this year. They tied. They had one more song. Northern Cree edged it, but it was a great competition. And we get to work with them. These guys are the best of the best. They are the two giant names in pow wow right now.”

APPROPRIATE THIS

ATCR make incredibly exciting music that defies genre, and they realize that their increasing notoriety has allowed them to be in the position to draw attention to Aboriginal issues, a role they take very seriously, as witnessed by the haunting video and song “Woodcarver.” Made in response to the acquittal of a Seattle police officer in the daytime shooting of John T. Williams, a 50-year-old woodcarver of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations, it was something that ATCR felt that they had to do. “We had a platform where people were going to listen to what we were going to say, and we should probably use that properly right now and just bring some sort of awareness. Because we can’t necessarily change what the judge said, but we can definitely make more people aware of the situation,” says NDN.

Awareness raising extends to educating audiences about the numerous instances of appropriation, from the aforementioned headdresses to Indians as sports mascots to the fact that they once had to deal with some patrons whooping “Indian-style” at a show: “This last party we had, we dropped this song that is a remix of the Atlanta Braves track, the ‘Tomahawk Chop,’” says Shub. “So we kind of expected it and, sure enough, there were people in the crowd doing the ‘Indian calls.’ We got on the microphone right away and said, ‘That’s not cool.’ They seemed to listen to us.” Bear jumps in and further explains how ATCR can take appropriation and use it to work towards a wider understanding of what it means to be aboriginal.

“It blows my mind that it’s suddenly become okay again in the 2000s to wear red face. This whole Pocahontas and headdresses and war paint and all of this stuff is kind of like, what happened to the last 30 years of work that’s been put into working against that kind of imagery? But what is interesting with what we and other artists are doing right now is that Indian is cool. Right now wearing headdresses is cool, but what’s cool is really fake, one dimensional, Hollywood. Partially, due to that coolness, we’ve gained some popularity. In this insidious way we are starting to affect these people. The door is cracked open. And we’re going to stick our foot in it and say: ‘You want to wear a fake headdress? This is what the real deal is.’ That’s an amazing opportunity we have right now.”  ■

WITH POIRIER AND THE ONE TASH AT LE BELMONT (4483 ST-LAURENT) ON FRIDAY, AUG. 26, 10 P.M., $10

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