Image
Singer, songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie dedicated her Juno Award for Medicine Songs, won Sunday, March 25 at the Canadian music awards ceremony held in Vancouver, to Elaine Bomberry, acknowledging her role in creating the Indigenous Music Album of the Year category and lobbying for its addition to the Juno’s list of awards 25 years ago.
Bomberry (Ojibway and Cayuga from Six Nations) and Sainte-Marie were two of the co-creators of the category, as was Indigenous folk musician Curtis Johnnie Shingoose, who Sainte-Marie also acknowledged in her acceptance speech.
Sainte-Marie said they were the people responsible for “all of these (Junos) coming our way.”
“As for myself,” Sainte-Marie went on, “I really think that this Juno needs to live with Elaine Bomberry here in Vancouver. So, Elaine, this is for you, with many thanks from all of the Indigenous artists in Canada.”
In the 1990s, Bomberry was the radio host of her own show called Aboriginal Airways when she was asked to be a judge for the Juno’s catch-all World Beat category. Native music was thrown into the mix, it seemed to her, as an afterthought.
Elaine Bomberry from Twitter
She created a fuss, Bomberry told CBC in an interview last year. Bomberry told the president of CARAS [Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences] "Our music doesn't fit here. It doesn't fit in any of the categories.”
President Daisy Falle said "Well, why don't you start a category?"
And that’s when the hard work began, with the collaboration between Bomberry, Sainte-Marie, and Shingoose, and ultimately the legacy of Indigenous music as a stand-alone inclusion into the mainstream event.
In an interview with Dustin McGladrey of CFWE-FM March 26, Bomberry said she was at a house party with other musicians chilling out when she heard of Saint-Marie’s dedication.
Murrray Porter, her partner and a Juno Award winning musician himself in the Indigenous music category, was playing piano in another room. Bomberry had gone out on the patio by herself when her phone buzzed, telling her that she had a message.
“What?” she thought when she heard it. Then someone sent her a link to Sainte-Marie’s acceptance speech.
“Are you kidding me? I cried,” Bomberry said with a hearty laugh. “I totally cried. I was in this room by myself. I could see everyone through the window. Everyone was partying away having a great time, and I’m standing there like ‘Oh my God’. I was so glad though.”
She said the experience was quite overwhelming. She played the speech twice to absorb it before going back into the party.
It took Porter some time to learn what happened. Bomberry said nothing makes him happier than to play piano, so it was about an hour before Porter took a break from filling the party with live music.
But when he did, Porter gave his partner a tremendous hug, saying she deserved the acknowledgement.
And now, soon to have two Junos to grace their home, Bomberry joked she’s going to put Porter’s on the lower shelf and hers is going on top.
“We discussed this, and he doesn’t think that’s a good idea,” she laughed, “but I think it’s a great idea.”
Bomberry advised people to think about the entertainment industry as possible careers.
“We need more of our people behind the scenes… We’ve got great talent out there, but we also need people to run the sound, to turn on the lights. We need production people. We need engineers. We need set designers.
“There’s so much talent in our community that we can channel it and bring our stories to life.”