37 years, 37 albums: Northern Cree's Steve Wood on being 'ambassadors' for Treaty 6
'This music ... it's just starting to get out there to the rest of the world'
As Steve Wood drives around his adopted community of Maskwacis, he sees kids getting home from school, rez dogs trotting through the crosswalks and people heading home from work.
Thirty-seven years and 37 albums later, Wood is the only original member still with Northern Cree, the band he started right before moving to Maskwacis 37 years ago. Today, the band is made up of 15 members from all across Treaty 6 in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
As an educator and mentor, Wood understands the role he's taken as the last remaining original member of Northern Cree, whose powwow songs were recorded and released during a time where there wasn't a widespread appetite for it.
"I think we're ambassadors — and not just for the four nations here [in Maskwacis], but all of the Treaty 6 area," Wood said, taking a shortcut through a gas station parking lot in Ermineskin Cree Nation, heading towards the local school and hockey rink.
"This music has been here since time immemorial but it's just starting to get out there to the rest of the world."
Northern Cree is up for their third Juno this year for Indigenous Music Album of the Year. They've only won once — a 2017 Juno for their work with Tanya Tagaq and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra on Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation.
They've also been nominated for eight Grammys over their career. But Wood describes their 2017 performance there as a win in and of itself.
"Our music had never been performed on that big of a stage for the whole world to hear," Wood said. "I think we won just by being on that stage and getting to share our music."
The day after their performance, Wood said he woke up to countless messages and around four million hits on their website.
But Northern Cree has been on some massive artists' radars for some time. In 2008, M.I.A. and Santigold sampled their music in the single Get It Up.
In 2017, Pharrell Williams sat in on a drum circle while the two artists were in North Dakota. Wood says Williams was interested in collaborating. Though nothing has formulated yet, he says he's still in contact with Williams's camp.
Music is 'universal'
Musically, not much has changed over the near four decades. But the current generation of Indigenous artists have, incorporating their traditional roots within contemporary-sounding music.
There's space for all, Wood says, and it's a bit of a Renaissance.
"Any type of music is a vehicle that brings all kinds of people from different ethnicities, different nationalities together," he said. "They can all speak the same language — music. It's universal."
As Wood drives through Maskwacis, he's joined by one of the people Northern Cree has inspired. Gilbert Buffalo brought his drum to play while Wood drove, but refrained because his eight-year-old son, Reyez, fell asleep on him.
Buffalo, 30, is a newer member of Northern Cree, a band that's been around longer than he's been alive. Growing up in Maskwacis, listening to the band, is something he'll always cherish, he says.
"It means the world to me, honestly," Buffalo said. "That feeling you get when you sing and when you get people coming up to you and saying, 'You made me feel good, you lifted my spirit, you gave me good feelings.' That's why I sing."
He also sings for the next generation — for Reyez — who he hopes to inspire the way Wood and Northern Cree did when he was younger.
When he describes his home, Buffalo says it's the only home he's ever known. For many people in Maskwacis, staying or returning to their community is important — which is something Wood and Northern Cree do, despite their frequent touring and the award nominations they've had.
As the truck slows to a stop, Wood points out Bear Park, an area used for powwows in the summer and where members of Northern Cree sing in competitions.
It's at Bear Park and in Maskwacis where they had much of their start — and where they'll continue to sing and represent, all these years later.
"[We want to show] our young people that anything's possible, that we're just like them," Wood said. "Just [by] getting our music out there and letting the world know that we're very much still here."