Piapot First Nation students combine traditional Indigenous singing with a Christmas classic

A group of eight students from the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan have given a classic Christmas song a cultural facelift.

The students fused traditional Indigenous singing with You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, while making a couple adjustments to the lyrics. 

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It's a fun take on the classic Christmas song, but it's also meant to expose people to Indigenous culture and empower the students.

"The song is so much more than just a song," said Everet Sayer, the educational assistant at Payepot School who wrote the song. His duties include teaching Indigenous culture and traditional practices.

Piapot First Nation kids perform Mr. Grinch in the style of traditional Indigenous singing

6 years ago

Duration 1:08

A class from Piapot First Nation sang the well known Christmas song You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch, with an Indigenous spin for their concert this week.

"A lot of these kids come from dysfunctional homes, some of them there's drugs, some of them there's alcohol. Singing is their gateway," he said.

Sayer came up with the idea after the students' teacher gave him a challenge — create a song for the school's Christmas concert with a Grinch theme. 

It didn't come easy for him or the students. Sayer said he almost gave up after a few days, but it became a personal challenge to come up with a famous Christmas song told from an Indigenous perspective.

He said the students were hesitant to perform it after hearing the final product.

"They thought that they couldn't do it," he said.

Sayer said he realized it was more than just a song for a Christmas concert — it was an opportunity to help local kids build their confidence.

Sayer shared a video on Facebook of the students performing a portion of the song. It has been viewed more than 130,000 times as of Friday afternoon.

He said the students' eyes lit up when they saw how much attention it received.

"Now that they're getting this exposure, this is going to help their self-esteem," said Sayer.

"There's so much more tied to this that people don't see."

Since then, he said people from other schools have since approached him for permission to sing the song, including a school in Georgia.

'Humour to us, that's healing'

Sayer said the song is also a way to show the fun and humorous side of Indigenous culture.

"Humour for us, that's healing," he said. 

"If you can't take a joke then you wouldn't want to come to Piapot."

Sayer said traditional Indigenous ceremonies and cultural aspects are considered sacred, but there's often a lot of laughter involved and he wants to share that side of Indigenous culture with the world.

He said showing the fun side helps eliminate stereotypes of the stoic Indigenous person made famous by Hollywood movies and other forms of media.

Christmas concert

The students performed the song at Payepot School's Christmas concert on Thursday. 

Sayer says the song didn't reach its full potential due to the school's sound system, but it had an empowering effect on the community.

"I've never seen so much people in our school," he said.

Sayer commended the students non-Indigenous teacher for giving Indigenous students a chance to add a part of their culture to a well known Christmas song.

He said he hopes other schools perform the song as well in hopes of bringing Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together.