Lullabies in Cree, English and French inspired by multicultural family

A new album of lullabies is sure to have your little one dreaming big.

Winnipeg-based, musical duo Jason Burnstick and Nadia Gaudet have just released a new CD with a multicultural twist.

The nine lullabies that make up Dream Big, Little One / Fais de beaux rêves, petit ange / Misti pami apistiwasis are performed in English, French and Cree.

Gaudet, who is Francophone-Métis, said the project began with a song she wrote with her nine-year-old niece Jayva last Christmas. Her niece is bilingual so it was natural for her to sing in both languages. 

"Then, she very sassily came up to me and said, 'now we have to record it and put it on an album,'" Gaudet laughed. 

So nine songs later we recorded all these songs and it just naturally came about that they were in these different languages that we speak or are a part of our lives.- Nadia Gaudet

Burnstick said he spoke some Cree as a child, but his language was lost after being apprehended by Manitoba Child and Family Services as a child.

Now, as an adult, he's learning Cree again.

"[I] still have a long way to go, but [I'm] definitely taking the road there."

Burnstick said the album was also written for their dog Little Diamond who, at 14, passed away that same year.

It was a healing project for the couple, said Burnstick. "We started writing the music, we started writing these songs, I guess, for her in a sense, inspired by people and even by pets in our lives."