Lawrence Martin (born January 1956 in Moose Factory, Ontario) [1] is a Canadian musician and politician. He has used the name Wapistan, derived from the Cree language word for the marten, [1] in his musical work.
Lawrence Martin (born January 1956 in Moose Factory, Ontario) [1] is a Canadian musician and politician. He has used the name Wapistan, derived from the Cree language word for the marten, [1] in his musical work.
A member of the Moose Cree First Nation, [2] he grew up in a small community called Moose River Crossing. As in the Cree traditional communities, the whole hamlet became his family. One of his aunts, Abba, recognized his talent for music at an early age. She bought him an acoustic guitar and taught him to play. Once he learned how to strum three chords, he began to write songs. He was around twelve years old at that time. From the age of fourteen, he attended secondary school in North Bay.
In the 1980s, Martin was executive director of the Wawatay Native Communications Society, a First Nations broadcaster in Northern Ontario. [1] In this role, in 1989 he produced the first-ever television broadcast of a First Nations pow-wow. [1]
He became mayor of Sioux Lookout, Ontario, in 1991, [3] becoming the first aboriginal person in the province ever elected to the mayoralty of a municipality that was not a First Nations reserve. [4] He served in that position until 1994, and then took a job with the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service. [5]
In 1998, he was elected to his first term as grand chief of the Mushkegowuk Council, [5] serving until 2001. [5] During this time he ran as a candidate for the leadership of the Assembly of First Nations in its 2000 leadership election, but was not elected. [6]
He later moved to Cochrane, Ontario, becoming executive director of the local Native Friendship Centre. [7] He was elected mayor of that town in 2003, [7] becoming one of the few Canadian politicians ever to have held the mayoralty of two different municipalities. He served as mayor of Cochrane until 2010.
He was elected to a second term as grand chief of the Mushkegowuk Council in 2014, in a by-election following the death of incumbent chief Stan Louttit. [8]
At the Juno Awards of 1994, he became the first winner of the Juno Award for Best Music of Aboriginal Canada Recording for his album Wapistan Is Lawrence Martin. [1] He was nominated two more times in the same category, at the Juno Awards of 1996 for his album Message [9] and at the Juno Awards of 2003 for The Right Combination, an album he recorded as a duo with Vern Cheechoo. [10]
Martin and Andrea Menard cohosted the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards in 2006. [2]
His song "I Got My Music" is featured on the 2014 compilation album Native North America, Vol. 1 . [11]
The Cree or nehinaw are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. More than 350,000 Canadians are Cree or have Cree ancestry. The major proportion of Cree in Canada live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories. About 27,000 live in Quebec.
Tomson Highway is an Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist, children's author and musician. He is best known for his plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both of which won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award.
Moose Factory is a community in the Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River, which is at the southern end of James Bay. It was the first English-speaking settlement in lands now making up Ontario and the second Hudson's Bay Company post to be set up in North America after Fort Rupert. On the mainland, across the Moose River, is the nearby community of Moosonee, which is accessible by water taxi in the summer, ice road in the winter, and chartered helicopter in the off-season.
Fort Albany First Nation is a Cree First Nation in Cochrane District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, within the territory covered by Treaty 9. Situated on the southern shore of the Albany River on the west coast of James Bay, Fort Albany First Nation is accessible only by air, water, or by winter road.
Jonathan Cheechoo is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL).
The Kashechewan First Nation is a Cree First Nation band government located near James Bay in Northern Ontario, Canada. The community is located on the northern shore of the Albany River. Kashechewan First Nation is one of two communities that were established from Old Fort Albany in the 1950s. The other community is Fort Albany First Nation, which is now located on the southern bank of the Albany River. The community is connected to other towns along the shore of James Bay by the seasonal ice road/winter road, linking it to the towns of Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, and Moosonee.
Treaty No. 9 is a numbered treaty first signed in 1905–1906 between Anishinaabe and Omushkegowuk Cree communities and the Canadian Crown, which includes both the government of Canada and the government of the province of Ontario. It is commonly known as the "James Bay Treaty," since the eastern edge of the treaty territory is the shore of James Bay in Northern Ontario.
Wawatay Native Communications Society was formed in 1974 by the people of Canada's Nishnawbe Aski Nation in the Kenora and Cochrane Districts of Northern Ontario, as a source of communications technology, namely radio, television, and print media services for the Oji-Cree communities. Its mandate is to preserve the indigenous language and culture in its service area. Wawatay's general office is located in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, with bureaus in Timmins and Thunder Bay.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation is a political organization representing 51 First Nation communities across Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 areas of Northern Ontario, Canada. Re-organized to its present form in 1981, NAN's original objective was "to represent the social and economic aspirations of our people at all levels of government in Canada and Ontario until such time as real effective action is taken to remedy our problems."
Derek Miller is an Aboriginal Canadian singer-songwriter. He has received two Juno Awards. He performed at the Closing Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics with Eva Avila and Nikki Yanofsky.
Mushkegowuk Council, or officially as the Mushkegowuk Tribal Council, is a non-profit regional chiefs' council representing Cree First Nations in northern Ontario, Canada. The council, located in Moose Factory, Ontario provides advisory services and program delivery to its eight member nations.
Shirley Cheechoo is a Canadian Cree actress, writer, producer, director, and visual artist, best known for her solo-voice or monodrama play Path With No Moccasins, as well as her work with De-Ba-Jeh-Mu-Jig theatre group. Her first break came in 1985 when she was cast on the CBC's first nations TV series Spirit Bay, and later, in 1997, she found a role on the CBC's TV series The Rez.
Over the course of centuries, many Indigenous Canadians have played a critical role in shaping the history of Canada. From art and music, to law and government, to sports and war; Indigenous customs and culture have had a strong influences on defining Canadian culture. The Indspire Awards are the annual awards presented by Indspire, formerly the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. The awards were first established in 1993 in conjunction with the United Nations declaring the 1990s "International Decade of the World's Indigenous peoples". June 21 is Canada's National Aboriginal Day, in recognition of the cultural contributions made by Canada's indigenous population. The day was first celebrated in 1996 following Governor General of Canada Roméo LeBlanc's proclamation.
The Moose Cree First Nation is a Cree First Nation band government in northern Ontario, Canada. Their traditional territory is on the west side of James Bay. The nation has two reserves: Factory Island 1 ; and Moose Factory 68, a tract of land about 15 km upstream on the Moose River covering 168.82 square kilometres (65.18 sq mi).
Chapleau Cree First Nation is a Mushkegowuk Cree First Nation located by Chapleau Township, Sudbury District, Ontario, Canada. The First Nation have reserved for themselves the 108.1 hectares Chapleau 75 Indian Reserve and the 1,016.8 hectares Chapleau Cree Fox Lake Indian Reserve. As of 2019, their on-reserve population was 57 compared to 2011 with 79 and 2006 with 92.
Joseph Laplante, stage name Joey Stylez, is a First Nations-Métis Canadian singer and rapper/pop artist.
Taykwa Tagamou Nation (Cree: ᑕᐟᑾ ᑕᑲᒪᐤ ᐃᓂᓂᐗᐠ tatkwa takamaw ininiwak, formerly known as New Post First Nation, is a Cree First Nations band government whose reserve community is located in the Cochrane District in Ontario, Canada, along the Abitibi River. As of March, 2012, they had a total registered population of 440 people, of which 123 people lived on their own reserves.
Morley Loon (1948–1986) was a Canadian First Nations musician, from Mistissini, Quebec. Loon played in several groups, including Red Cedar and Kashtin, but was mostly known for his solo work. He mostly wrote and performed in the Cree language, and was a prominent activist for First Nations issues.
Midnight Shine is a Canadian roots-rock band from Northern Ontario and Manitoba, consisting of lead vocalist/guitarist Adrian Sutherland, bassist/vocalist Stan Louttit, guitarist/vocalist Zach Tomatuk and drummer Charnelle Menow. They have released three studio albums and three music videos and have been actively touring across Canada since 2016.
Vern Cheechoo is a Cree folk and country singer-songwriter from Canada. He is most noted as a two-time Juno Award nominee for Best Aboriginal Recording, receiving nods at the Juno Awards of 2000 for his solo album Touch the Earth and Sky, and at the Juno Awards of 2003 for The Right Combination, an album recorded as a duo with Lawrence Martin.
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