I Am YEG Arts: Cikwes

Cikwes (Connie LeGrande) is a nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ singer-songwriter whose captivating music takes listeners on an emotional journey. With a tender voice that exudes hope, love, nurturing and wisdom; her unique blend of soul and R&B music is a powerful expression of her language nêhiyawêwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ and nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ music methods. While she has sung since childhood, it’s hard to believe that it’s only within the past five years that she’s begun writing and performing her own material. Originally from Bigstone Cree Nation and currently residing in Amiskwaciy Waskahikan, this week’s I Am YEG Arts story put the spotlight on Cikwes.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your unique style. 

My name is Connie Legrande and my artist name is Cikwes. I am now a professional full-time artist, singer-songwriter. I call myself a nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ soul singer. Nehiyaw is a Cree person, in our language and prior to this album I’ve always been dabbling in R&B and soul. When I was talking to a Cree language speaker and I was trying to coin my genre because I wasn’t quite, you know, a soul singer or an R&B singer because I was also singing in my language as well. He came up with the term nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ soul, which is kind of like a play on neo soul. 

When I was nominated for the Junos this year, I was nominated with other traditional singers that sing mostly in the style of powwow, and I don’t necessarily fit into that category. I sing in my language, and when I write music, I just write it as it comes to me organically. With this album [Kâkîsimo ᑳᑮᓯᒧᐤ, released in 2022] I use Cree Syllabics, I chanted the melodies as they came, and then I put the Cree language over on top of that. An ancient musical methodology of Nehiyawak that involves praying and singing to manito through chanting a feeling without using English or Cree words

What drew you to singing and songwriting? How did you get your start?

Well because of colonization, I didn’t grow up hearing traditional singing. That only came back just recently in our community. We now have powwows and there is a resurgence back into our musical methods, our singing. I didn’t grow up with my father but when I visited him on the weekends, he had this ritual of after supper he would pick up a guitar and start singing. That was the first time that I heard singing in an intimate setting, and it really drew me in. And I was inspired from that point on to want to be a singer. As a child, I thought if he can sing, then I can too. But I didn’t actually learn how to sing through him; I was inspired by him. 

My father’s grandfather was a preacher of a Pentecostal church on the reserve, and there I was exposed to music in a very heartfelt, spiritual way, where they were singing out to God, you know, with everything inside of them. 

I married into a Pentecostal church and that carried that on. When we moved to Edmonton we actually were part of a Bethel Apostolic Church, which is a black, predominantly Jamaican church. They took us under their wing. It was the first time I was recognized and appreciated as a singer. 

As the years went on and after my marriage ended, I started karaōke-ing and then I started singing for different bands. It was at that point when I was singing and surrounded by men that were dictating what I would sing and when I would sing that I felt I needed to empower myself and I had this desire to then write my own music – which I did. 

This is my second album, my first album and as a nêhiyaw-iskwêw (Cree woman) wanting to empower myself as a singer, and as a musician. And so that was my first stab at it, and I pretty much threw in the whole kitchen sink with my first album Isko. I actually started writing my own music only like four or five years ago.

Tell us about how you passed on your love of music and the arts to your children. 

Yeah, I am not just a singer-songwriter, I’m also a visual artist. And I mean it was everywhere, it was in the way that I decorated our home, the way that I dressed them and just the way that I was as an artist, this completely different being, you know, following my own path. And also, being very spiritual towards it as well being an open vessel all the time. I’ve always told them, it’s like a fountain that’s just ever flowing. Because wherever that came from, that inspiration or that art, that song, whatever it may be, it’s always going to be flowing, so like, we’re not at a deficit here. They’re all very artistic and I feel so blessed to be their mom because now they inspire me because they’re way more fierce and they also know the business side of it, which I never did. 

As a singer and songwriter what themes and narratives are you most drawn to? 

With these two albums, especially with this last one, it’s always like a moment in time. I’m really excited to see what else comes out because it seems like I’m forever evolving in my style as a singer. One thing that does stay consistent is including my language in my songwriting. Also, my true lived experience as an Indigenous woman and how I move, feel, experienced things and how I need to heal from the trauma that I’ve experienced. Both of my parents attended residential school. As an adult the older that I get, the more that I realize how much of that trauma has been passed down to me where I’ve had many moments of feeling unworthy: not good enough, not feeling deserving. And even when I was nominated for the Junos and these most recent awards, I couldn’t get excited. 

But I was recently approved for an EAC Individuals & Collectives grant, I felt super excited about what I was going to be creating. I get to create this music video that’s gonna go with one of my songs that’s so dear to me, ninohkôm ᓄᐦᑰᒼ pawataw ᐸᐊᐧᑕᐤ, which means I dream of my Grandmother. The song came to me in my 20s. It was actually the first song that I’ve ever written and the first song that I’ve ever chanted on as well. I didn’t include it on my first album but when I was creating this set of more spiritually based songs, it now had a home. When I wrote the song it was actually about a dream that I had of my grandmother. I never met my grandmother because she passed away from TB when my mother was two years old. And so my mom also never knew her mother, so she never got that emotional nurturing that you would naturally get from your mother. When I talk about traumas, those are some of the things that I carry where, you know, I wasn’t nurtured in that way as a child because of the residential school system and because my mother didn’t have her mother. 

When I was in my 20s I had this dream, I was in the residential school, and I remember I wanted to escape. And in this dream, I was just a little child. That dream has been with me my whole life, and I have been able to draw comfort from it and also to meet my grandmother. You know, the only time I’ve ever actually seen her and the only time I’ve ever been held by her was in that dream. 

I’m so excited to bring the visuals and the stories about my grandmother. When she passed away at the Charles Camsell Hospital here in Edmonton, her body was never brought back home. We don’t know where she’s buried or if she was ever given that honour. And so, in this music video, it’s going to be her burial. It’s going to be honoring her in that song. As if it was like her funeral. And I’m going to bring her back home.

What was the writing process like for your most recent album Kâkîsimo ᑳᑮᓯᒧᐤ?

Kâkîsimo ᑳᑮᓯᒧᐤ is a prayer song to ᒪᓂᑐ Manito. It doesn’t always use Cree words or English words, it’s just chanting the Cree syllables and in that Cree syllable, you are bringing that feeling and that emotion through that syllable to ᒪᓂᑐ Manito. Sometimes when you’re going through something, you don’t have the words to be able to express what you’re feeling, and that’s where chanting comes in. You’re just singing out that feeling. So that’s what Kâkîsimo means, I’m encouraging other people to chant Kâkîsimo. This album has everything to do with prayer. Prayer is such an important element that we’re taught as Indigenous people like pray, pray, pray, pray for what you want, pray for what you need. Probably prior to colonization, we’ve always been prayerful people. But definitely, from colonization and everything that we’ve been through, we’ve had to pray to get through it.

The other element that was really important for me to bring into this album, was the tone of being felt like you were in a wepisowin, which is a traditional baby swing. You swing the baby in it, and they feel that nurturing and love. I wanted this album to have that tone because I wanted everybody listening to feel that comfort and love. Nurturing and comforting people is a really big part of where I’m at with myself to bring myself that nurturing and healing. But also, to my children, family, to all Indigenous people and anybody else. I wanted them to feel love and nurturing and comfort because I feel like that’s something that’s really missing in this world is loving yourself in such a beautiful way. I know I lack feeling that love, and it’s important to me for others to feel that love. Because if we don’t have love for ourselves, what do we have?

I didn’t use a musical instrument in writing these songs, not even the drum. As the songs came to me, I would hum them out and then I would chant them out. And then as I’m humming and chanting, you know exactly what that song is. You know what you’re feeling. And then you go and put the Cree words over on top of it. And that’s how I wrote this album. 

Tell us about the recording of Kâkîsimo ᑳᑮᓯᒧᐤ.

My daughter really encouraged me to submit for the Junos, so all of a sudden there’s this big rush on these songs. I got the team together, travelled up north and sat with my brother and he kind of drummed it out. And I’m like, ​“OK, you got a week, you’ll be coming in a week.” And he comes into the studio. He’s never been in the studio. He’s never drummed solo by himself. So, my brother all of a sudden, he’s being thrown in the studio, and he did such a great job. 

It was a small team. So, it was basically just me writing the music and then singing it out, bringing my brother in to drum, and then having my daughter Cheyenne do some of the back vocals and then Enoch Attey recording and mixing it. That was the team, you know, it was just the four of us that actually put this together – in a week! And we submitted it to the Junos and lo and behold, it actually got nominated. 

What has the reception to your album been like so far?

I learned that with the first album that music takes on a life of its own. What you put into that music spiritually ends up having its own life and ends up doing its own thing, and it’s almost like its own entity now. It got nominated for the Junos, shortlisted for the Edmonton Music Prize and then just recently got nominated for the Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards. I was also nominated for the Polaris Music Prize. Somebody within the music industry has to nominate you, which is one of my professors at York University while I was doing my Masters [in Music]. He nominated Kâkîsimo ᑳᑮᓯᒧᐤ because he thought it was brilliant with what I’d done and where I’d come from. I mean, he watched me in the last two years, right until I finished. So, this album is getting the recognition that it deserves. I just relistened to the songs and I’m like, ​“this music is actually really beautiful!”

Tell us about why it’s important to have a platform to talk about your music. 

Anytime I can have an interview and talk about this music is so important because it’s about language revitalization. There are not a lot of us that are writing music in our languages and using those musical methods. I was just sitting with an Elder over the weekend and oh my goodness, this Elder has a library of I don’t know how many hundreds of songs – but they have a song for everything. And these are songs that have been passed down. 

And I think the other reason why it’s important is not just the language revitalization, but also this is the first music of Canada. You know, these are the first languages, but also the first music and that’s not recognized in Canada or in North America. I did a dive on music history. And all of what we know as popular music today is accredited to African American music. It has its roots there. But who was there during that time too? The Indigenous people were also there. So you know how much of like today’s popular music did we actually really influence, you know, with our rhythms, with our drumming, with our singing, our syncopations. It’s got to be in there and but like, even if it’s never recognized in that way, we know that this is the first music of Canada. And I think it’s time that we start talking about that not only was there First People here, you know, we’re not only just like First People of Canada, but the first music the first – even fashion – it goes on and on like that. It all comes from Indigenous people and it’s important to recognize that. And I think that is definitely also, you know, when we talk about reconciliation, it’s the recognition of all those things. My contribution to the recognition and the revitalization of the Cree language is this album Kâkîsimo ᑳᑮᓯᒧᐤ.

What’s a question you like to be asked about your music practice?

I was asked a question at the Junos that was my favorite: ​“What would you say to young aspiring musicians?” And I just went back to the body. You don’t need a musical instrument and you don’t have to be educated in western or classical music. You can take your own body and you can start to express what you’re feeling and turn that into music through your breath and through syllables. And so that is something that’s really important to me and I want to be able to teach youth their language through this musical method that I’m talking about because it’s healing because it’s an outlet of expressing feelings without using those words, but yet your body is getting that vibration to be able to heal itself. So that is my goal. 

My long-term goal is to have some type of lesson or something to be able to share with youth; that’s why I also wrote that Cree ABC song. I have what I call the syllabic song. When I went through all the syllabics, I went through like each consonant with each vowel. There are seven vowels and then the syllables that I, you can say that I chant them, there’s 47 of them. 

I noticed when I was going to university and I was taking Cree courses, there were a lot of students that actually can write it way better than I could and read it, but then when they would say certain words, they were still using the European sounding vowels. And it would sometimes completely change the word, and so I wanted to, develop a song where kids or anybody that wanted to hear, learn the Cree language, get the sounds of our vowels, and just repeat them. And eventually, that would become natural to them. 

What is a Cikwes performance like? 

It’s like I turn into a comedian. And there’s a lot of laughter and laughing at myself. I think that’s my way of handling the pressure. I’ve had so many people come up to me after a performance and say, ​“oh, you have such a beautiful voice and you’re so funny!” When performing my intentions always are connecting spiritually and I know people feel it and witness it. I’ll explain each song, especially because it’s in the Cree language and the majority of my audiences cannot speak the language. But then I really connect spiritually in that moment and I don’t even know what the word for is for that, but that is definitely a gift that I do recognize in myself that when I sing that feeling comes across the people and they feel the love that I’m talking about, that nurturing. I just sang at ceremony on Sunday, there was a giveaway and everybody had to bring something for everybody. And I decided that I was gonna sing them a song – that was my gift to them. And when I got up I told the story, and then I sang the song and when I looked around when I was done the majority of the people were actually crying, so I have the ability to really move people. I don’t know if you would say my performances are healing, but they’re very moving. And you do feel that feeling in there and I’m very thankful that is a gift I do have besides singing is to bring that feeling.

About Cikwes

Cikwes, Connie LeGrande is a nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ soul singer and songwriter from Bigstone Cree Nation. She currently resides in Amiskwaciy Waskahikan, also known as Edmonton, Alberta. In 2019, her album ISKO was nominated for the Indigenous Music Awards for the Best Folk Album of the Year. Cikwes graduated from York University with her Masters in Music in 2022. Her music explores her language, nêhiyawêwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ and nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ music methods that include chanting cahkasinahikanak ᒐᐦᑲᓯᓇᐦᐃᑲᐣ also known as spirit markers or syllabics. Her most recent work, kâkîsimow ᑳᑮᓯᒧᐤ is a full length Cree album, written for the Elders from her home community. The nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤspirituals were composed by chanting the Cree syllabary giving the listener a feeling of being held in a wepisowin, a traditional baby swing that was denied of many children that were forced to attend residential schools in Canada. Her voice is tender and her nehiyaw ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ song writing is an emblem of hope and beauty for the continuation of nêhiyawêwin ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐁᐧᐃᐧᐣ.

Want more YEG Arts Stories? We’ll be sharing them here and on social media using the hashtag #IamYegArts. Follow along! You can keep up with Cikwes on Instagram and her website. See Cikwes perform live this summer, she’ll be at the Skirtsafire AGM on July 10, 2023; on July 17 she’ll perform at the Native Friendship Centre AGM and Youth Conference Gala at River Cree Resort; and on July 21 and 24, she’ll be at K‑days Indigenous Experience.