NOLAN MATTHEWS
The Silhouette (McMaster University)

From left to right: DJ NDN, DJ Shub and Bear Witness of A Tribe Called Red.

HAMILTON (CUP) — Politics and music go way back.

In the 1980s, Public Enemy challenged the popular conception that music is only a form of entertainment. Instead, as writer Mark Fisher points out, they used music as a way to define a new revolutionary history. Even earlier, legendary folk musician Woody Guthrie gave a voice to the Great Depression as he travelled across America carrying a guitar that famously displayed the words, “This Machine Kills Fascists.”

Though music’s grand promise of provoking revolutions hasn’t come to fruition, now more than ever we need artists to shake up our assumptions about how we see the world. That’s what A Tribe Called Red’s music is all about — subversion.

And dancing.

Based in Ottawa, A Tribe Called Red is a Canadian group that combine traditional powwow and electronic dance music.

Everyone’s showing you what they think Indians are but nothing’s native about it. Until we took it and decolonized it.

In 2008 Ian Campeau, better known as DJ NDN, and DJ Bear Witness founded the Electric Pow Wow, which became a monthly club night in Ottawa. When the duo grabbed the attention of Dan General, or DJ Shrub, in 2010, A Tribe Called Red became the trio it is today.

“We played for the crowd,” Campeau said, “which was First Nations students, and people went crazy for one track that sampled powwow music so we thought we should try more of it.”

People in clubs were so ecstatic they cheered after the songs. Their first show in front of a mostly non-aboriginal Canadian crowd in Montreal even had people chanting the group’s name before they went onstage.

A Tribe Called Red didn’t start out with political aspirations, but they found it impossible to not get involved in politics. The group recently released a song called “The Road” in support of the Idle No More movement, and their music and live shows often feature clips of hilariously racist representations of indigenous people.

“A really good example is a video made by Bear of Super Cat, a Jamaican dude, singing about Indians from all directions and a clip from a 1960s British variety show,’ ” NDN said.

“You had these British white people dressed as what they thought Indians were supposed to be and a Jamaican singing about Indians — everyone’s showing you what they think Indians are but nothing’s native about it. Until we took it and decolonized it.”

The stories of indigenous Canadians are often told by people who are anything but. The “indigenizing,” as NDN calls it, of aboriginal representations is about trying to understand more than we already know.

“We see it as a very good way to subversively pass these messages on,” he said.

“It’s better than if we sat down and said, ‘This is racist,’ because it gives people a chance think about it on their own.”

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Photo: Supplied