Piapot First Nation father and daughters trio invited to perform around North America
Trio bring joy to TikTok followers with Cree songs and dance
Everet "Chase" Sayer says singing has always been a part of his life.
He says the songs he heard as a child are keeping his family history alive by carrying stories through the generations, and helping people understand their culture and language.
Now, along with his own daughters, he's carrying on the tradition of storytelling through song and dance.
"My second child … her first language was singing," Chase said. "She started to sing before she spoke."
Chase lives on Piapot First Nation with his wife, Kristen, and his daughters, Dinaye, 14, and Cree, 13.
He works as a cultural advisor at a correctional centre, performing ceremonies, drumming, running grief and loss groups, and holding talking circles with the inmates.
He was already a veteran performer before the girls came along. Notable gigs included singing at a Chicago Blackhawks game and appearing on the Netflix TV show Longmire.
Now they travel together as a family to compete at powwows, participate in round dances, and sing and dance at conferences and special events.
Kristen is also a dancer. Originally from New Mexico, she is Navajo, from the Diné Nation. She and Chase met at a powwow, so their kids have been born into the lifestyle.
She said that when her girls perform, she prefers to help behind the scenes by braiding their hair and sewing their dresses and skirts. Other family members do the beadwork for their powwow regalia.
"They are a product of their environment and you know, they now represent our home fire, our family, when they leave every morning," Chase said. "So they're expected to walk and be proud, be confident."
The confidence shows. Cree said she loves performing in front of an audience or a camera.
She said it helps her express her emotions, and it's also a lot of fun when she gets to be with her dad.
"I look at the crowd and they're smiling and laughing, and it makes me smile, because it makes me happy that I'm bringing joy to somebody else," Cree said.
Her older sister, Dinaye, agreed, saying it feels good to be out in the community performing.
More recently, they have been posting videos to TikTok and received a lot of attention online. Dinaye said it's neat to think that people all over the world are watching and commenting on their videos.
"They're always saying like 'keep it going, sing more songs, you guys sound amazing,'" Dinaye said.
One particular video went viral. In it, they sing a mash-up of a traditional Cree song and You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.
For Chase, performing and spending time with his daughters is also breaking cycles from previous generations.
"I grew up without parents and without a lot of what, I guess, would be functional and normalized in the home," he said. "So having my children here with me, it gives me a chance to show them everything I wanted to maybe have in my life growing up."
He's also proud of how his daughters are bringing a new perspective to some of the older members of his community.
"People want to see this in our young First Nations women, right?" Chase said. "And it inspires the older ones, showing that our ways of life are still alive, dealing with everything that we went through in the past history."
The family continues to be asked to perform at various events across North America — as far as Oregon and New Mexico.
The teenage sisters are also both athletes. Dinaye loves basketball and hopes to play at the university level one day. Her current team just won first place at the Tony Cote Winter Games.
Cree plays basketball, but said she may pursue flag football and golf as she gets older. She wants to keep posting singing videos online, and hopes one day those videos will get her onto America's Got Talent.
Their dad said they can do whatever they want, as long as they graduate. He believes they are on the right path.
"Now they also have the tools of knowing who they are through identity, through song, through dance, through the medicines we use, the protocols that we live with daily, that will help them be great in life," he said.
"Whatever it is they want to do, like, to be the best at it, or try. If not, inspire others to be better, right? That's really all I ask for."
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