Wow! Digging Roots’ new single is badass, empowering and hopeful all at the same time
Last week marked the official launch of Iskodé Records, the new Indigenous record label launched by Shoshona Kish of the Juno-winning duo Digging Roots and her fellow Juno nominee Amanda Rheaume.
On Friday, they threw down the gauntlet by releasing this mind-blowing new single from Digging Roots: “The Healer.”
“This single is our offering to community with all of our love,” the band wrote in a post on Facebook. “It really hits home with the unearthing in the news of the past months. We want to lift truth and kindness into song and send that out to the world like burning sweetgrass. This is our prayer and our resistance. Let’s listen to each other, stand for each other. We are powerful together. Kitchi meegwetch niwidjiwaganag.”
The song captures with both sadness and anger the legacies of colonialism and genocide that Indigenous people live with today – shame, addiction, oppression, the loss of loved ones – while emphasizing the healing power of storytelling and, ultimately, driving home a central message: one day the struggle will be over, and life will be beautiful again.
It manages to be uncompromising and uplifting, powerful and tender all at the same time. And the video is amazing.
Have a look!
