The duo of ShoShona Kish and Raven Kanatakta Polson-Lahache are sharing their experiences and stirring things up through their music.
By Nick Krewen
Special to the Star
Canadian contemporary Indigenous music is enjoying an all-time high in visibility and much of that has to do with the band Digging Roots.
Formed in 2004 and led by the “life partner” duo of ShoShona Kish and Raven Kanatakta Polson-Lahache, the group is a cornerstone of the recent groundswell in the national Indigenous scene. It’s a scene that’s enjoying unprecedented success with acts ranging from rockers Crown Lands, Toronto singer/songwriter Aysanabee and West Coast rappers Snotty Nose Rez Kids, to Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq, Winnipeg folkie William Prince, Ontario siren Mimi O’Bonsawin, electronic duo the Halluci Nation and many others.
While Digging Roots’ climb has been slow and steady, 2023 has seen the performers achieve a couple of big milestones: their second Juno Award, for Contemporary Indigenous Group of the Year (they won their first in 2010 for Aboriginal Album of the Year for We Are) and the Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award, both accolades connected to their most recent album, 2022’s Zhawenim.
On Thursday, the Barrie, Ontario-based duo appears as a six-piece at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts with opener Lacey Hill.
Kish, along with Métis singer/songwriter Amanda Rheaume, has also done great things with the Ishkodé Records label, home to Digging Roots, Rheaume, Polaris Prize finalist Aysanabee, M’ikmaq fusion artist Morgan Toney and Manitoba artist Sebastian Gaskin.
“One of the things we realized early on when we were making our music: there were no Indigenous producers and it’s hard to find a full Indigenous band, for instance, but these are the resources that are in our community right now,” said Polson-Lahache over the phone.
“For the most part, there’s no Indigenous industry to support the backbone of Indigenous music. So we decided we’d better jump to it.”
Starting Ishkodé was Kish’s idea after the pandemic lockdown set in, he said.
“I’m more of a silent partner. ShoShona enlisted Amanda Rheaume for Ishkodé Records and it was great because they went into partnership with Universal Music Canada. ShoShona has so much knowledge from an Indigenous music perspective, and Universal was looking for someone with an authentic voice and know-how in terms of the culture. Things took off in the right direction.”
Digging Roots’ own output has been fiercely independent and relatively sporadic, but for all the right reasons.
“The reality of the Digging Roots story is that we would write and record this music, play it live and went where the music called us,” Polson-Lahache said. “Because we raised our kids on the road with us, we were learning to do all this music business stuff on our own. We were learning in real time and we toured a lot. There’s always been a lot of space in between albums consequently because we tend to live life, play music and write songs.”
They have created numerous Indigenous Music Summits held in Montreal, New Orleans and at Massey Hall, and have found a lot of common ground internationally.
“You travel to all these places and experience different Indigenous artists from different parts of the world,” said Polson-Lahache. “Like the Northern tip of Norway with the Sámi people, where there are reindeer herders, or in Northern Australia where it’s 40 degrees and it’s super hot, and people are playing traditional music mixed with reggae.
“Bringing all our Anishinaabe and Onkwehón:we music sensibilities to all these different places that we travel and bringing them together under the Indigenous Music Summit has been nothing short of amazing.”
Throughout their musical journey, Digging Roots has maintained their practice of writing topical and sometimes controversial songs, like 2022’s “AK-47,” in which vocalist Kish sings that she wants to load the weapon with love rather than bullets. Or the song “Skoden,” a saying that literally means “let’s go,” which is a call to action to fight for life and livelihood.
Both songs are among the nine on Zhawenim, which Polson-Lahache says wasn’t the album they intended to release.
They had another about half recorded when the pandemic hit, but “we were sitting on it for too long and the times were changing. Standing Rock was happening. Black Lives Matters was happening. The pandemic was happening. It seemed like the world was going to explode or something.
“That’s why we called the album Unconditional Love: Zhawenim in Anishinaabe means to love unconditionally. We felt it was a real time to focus on what’s important in this life.”
Unfortunately, much of the duo’s music is informed by Canadian colonialism, including the forced extraction of Indigenous children from their families through the residential school system, just one example of the injustices suffered by our First Nations people.
You would like to think things have changed, but Polson-Lahache, who studied music at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College, said he was recently manhandled off a stage when security refused to believe he was part of the headlining act. He also experienced racism-related violence earlier this year when a stranger hit him in the head with a rock while he walked down a street.
He feels that these incidents might not have occurred if people were more familiar with Indigenous history.
“We need to understand the framework of Canada and what it’s built upon,” Polson-Lahache said. “This is a colonial country with colonial histories and we need to understand how laws have been constructed to serve Canadians …
“For instance, I can’t send my kids to an Indigenous school in Regina or in the town of Barrie, that I’m in. We don’t have Indigenous hospitals. So many of these things are not made for Indigenous people and we all have to kind of understand that.
“This is Indigenous land and Indigenous territory. We’ve never given it up. Crown land is Indigenous land and that should be understood in the history books. There are some treaties, but most of those treaties have been ignored.
“There are a lot of interesting and exciting discussions that can happen and need to happen in order for the relationships to be healthy.”
Communication is the key, he said, and the core of the Digging Roots sound and message.
“We’re amazing human beings with powerful and amazing ways to communicate. But often we let our ego get in the way and we can’t converse properly, and it’s become a real big issue in terms of social construct all over the world. And that’s what we’re singing about.
“We’re sharing our lived experiences from our traditional knowledge and our teachings … We definitely have to stir things up and, when we stir things up, we have to be able to have a conversation about it.”
Polson-Lahache said Thursday’s show will be festive. He and Kish will be joined by their son, Skye Polson, on drums, Andre Blais on bass, Mike Celia on guitars and vocals, and powerhouse Alana Bridgewater on backing vocals.
“We’re going to be celebrating the winter equinox,” he said. “The equinox is on (Dec.) 21 and it’s an important time for us … It’s the beginning of winter but also the beginning of the sun: the light is coming back.
“We have all these ceremonies based around that and we’re going to talk a bit about it: a time of creation and probably procreation, too. It’s a time where everything is starting to sleep and rest, but we’re working and we’re dreaming up new things.
“That’s what this show is going to be about.”