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Mali Obomsawin

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2022
Views: 579

Tracks

Odana; Lineage; Wawasint8da; Pedegwajois; Fractions; Blood Quantum (Nəwewəčəskawikαpáwihtawα).

Personnel

Album Description

Movement One: Odana: “The Village,” Learned from the singing of Alanis Obomsawin, arranged by Mali Obomsawin. This ballad, likely as old as the early 1700s, is an homage to the Abenaki reservation in Quebec, Odanak, which was founded by our Sokoki and Abenaki ancestors in 1660. Lineage: Composed by Mali Obomsawin. Movement Two: Wawasint8da: “Religious Song,” Arranged by Mali Obomsawin. Wawasint8da is a Catholic hymn translated from Latin into the Abenaki language by one of the early French Jesuit priests who lived among the Abenaki. It tells the story of Jesus’ Descent into Hell or Hades (also known as ‘The Harrowing of Hell’) to liberate souls who had died outside of the Catholic faith. Ethnologist Gordon Day documented Odanak’s Ambroise O’Bomsawin singing the hymn in the mid-1900s. Folded into this arrangement is also an ancient Wabanaki mourning song called “Sami’metwehu,” which Mali learned from Dwayne Tomah of the Passamaquoddy Tribe. Pedegwajois: “Little Round Mountain,” Told by Theophile Panadis, composed by Mali Obomsawin. This story is from ancient times before colonization. In the field recording (by Gordon Day), Theophile Panadis of Odanak recounts the tale of a young man receiving a teaching from a metawelinno, which brings him to the middle of Betobagw (“Lake Champlain”) during a thunderstorm. Movement Three: Fractions: Composed by Mali Obomsawin. Blood Quantum (Nəwewəčəskawikαpáwihtawα): Composed and arranged by Mali Obomsawin, additional arr. by Lancelot Knight of Muskoday First Nation. Nəwewəčəskawikαpáwihtawα This contemporary chant, folded into the Blood Quantum arrangement, is co-written by Mali Obomsawin, Lokotah Sanborn and Carol Dana of the Penobscot Nation. Dana, a grandmother and language keeper for her community, aided in the chant’s translation: “I stand to face him, I face him defiantly, unflinchingly, I confront him. We remember our matriarchs We remember our grandmothers.” Thank you / kci wliwni: to Taylor for all your help and encouragement in making this record; Savannah, Miriam, Allison and Noah for bringing yourselves to the music; to my family for teaching the stories; to Alanis, Dwayne, Carol, Conor, and Lokotah who helped directly and indirectly with this material. Thank you to the Hopkins Center & Real Art Ways for your support in workshopping the music, and New England Foundation for the Arts for supporting its release.