Cool Stuff 1: Native American and African Music
- Jan 13, 2020
- 3 min read
Image credit note: The cover image is of Val Shadowhawk and is currently his Twitter profile picture.
When it comes to music of other cultures, I am infinitely fascinated by all of the things I learn. As such, it was very difficult for me to just choose three topics to focus on for this blog, but I was excited to learn more about each of them.
With my love for African music – inspired by Graceland, as I now know, and The Lion King – I couldn’t help but look more into the West African griot tradition. Much like the bards of medieval Britain and Ireland, griots were charged with keeping history and tradition alive through song and storytelling. They may recount stories of epic battles, or the lineage of a ruler. Their most popular instrument, a harp-lute called a kora, has been around since the 13th century. Modern griots may blend contemporary aspects of music with their traditions. One particular example I found was Sirata by Khassonké griot Habib Koité, written “in praise of first-born daughters. Though Koité’s website lists him as a pop star, he comes from a long line of griots, and in a way, continues that tradition in his music, blending the styles and traditions of different cultures around him. He also tunes his guitar to mimic the kamale n'goni (an instrument similar to the kora) and only plays on open strings, which I find fascinating. I’ll be looking into more of his music for sure!
My great grandparents were both part Cherokee, so I wanted to learn more about powwows – specifically the jingle dress dance. This dance is performed solely by women, who attach metal cones to their dresses. It originated in the Ojibewea tribe in the early 1900s. The story tells that when a medicine man’s daughter fell ill, he had a dream in which spirits came to him and told him to make the dress for her; if she danced in it, she would become well again. So, the jingle dress dance has come to be associated with healing. The steps are done in a zigzag pattern which is supposed to represent the journey of life: since they are meant to be performed by a sick person, so are traditionally soft and low to the ground. The jingling of the dress is said to sound like rainfall, which has long been associated with purification and healing.
I was talking to a good friend of mind about native dances and he recommended I look up Val Shadowhawk and Nahko Bear. He had personally spoken to Shadowhawk more than once, and said that the way he spoke about dances was very informative. It was difficult to find much information on him, unfortunately, but I did find a quote by him which reflects most of our class discussion perfectly: “Without doing the drums, without doing the things that our ancestors did for thousands of years — without this, (the children) would just not have… The drums are the heartbeat of our culture.” According to his Linked-In profile, he is the Educational Consultant for the Pnaci American InterTribal Cultural Heritage Council and helped organize Californian powwows. Thankfully, I found an interview he did on a radio station where he discusses his involvement with native music and drumming; he also worked with a children’s drumming group in Stockton. I just wish I could find more about this man that my friend spoke so fondly of.
This post is already getting long, so I won’t speak too long about Nahko and Medicine for the People. This is unfortunate, because they are absolutely fantastic! Nahko has Native American, Filipino, and Puerto Rican bloodlines and his music displays a lot of traditional native beliefs. The band's name is the perfect example of this: music in native cultures (and many other cultures) has often been seen as a way to heal both physically and spiritually. I see several of their works also speaking from Hawaiian and Latin cultures. I will also be delving more deeply into this artist!
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