Growing up, Sister Ray’s Ella Coyes never spoke Michif, the language of their Métis heritage. Through colonization and devaluation, the language and many Métis traditions are endangered now. But what Coyes did have to link them to their culture was music. The Métis fiddle tradition and its accompanying jigs, passed down through generations, were the earliest musical expressions that Coyes ever felt connected to. In a 2018 interview, they said it taught them to value music as a communal celebration rather than a place of authority. In writing their own music, a style of indie folk more comparable to Big Thief than to traditional fiddle music, they explained, “That I didn’t feel silenced [is a celebration]. It gave me a lot of power that I had lost.”
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