When the One Net Studios team and KONELĪNE:our land beautiful filmmakers were searching for urban artists to interpret the northern stories in the film, we knew right away that we wanted to have a spoken word or hip hop artist involved.
FINDING A STRONG VOICE
KONELĪNE Producer Betsy Carson had heard about a young indigenous hip hop artist by the name of JB the First Lady. If you look her up, you’ll find out she’s had five Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award nominations for her music and album art, and that she took home an Indigenous Music Award in 2015. (She was most recently honoured in the Mayors Arts Awards for her community engaged art.)
Meet Jerilynn Webster, AKA JB the First Lady, a member of the Nuxalk and Onondaga Nations. An award-winning hip hop and spoken word artist now based in Vancouver BC, she’s also a beat-boxer, cultural dancer and a mother. Through her music and work as a youth educator, she spreads words of empowerment and the perspective of urban indigenous women in Canada. Awesome, right?
When JB agreed to work with North through South, both our wishes came true: we found a spoken word and hip hop artist in one lucky swoop.
COMMENTING ON A DILEMMA
North through South Director Nicole Sorochan wanted to pair JB with the diamond driller Kelly Quash, an indigenous man living and working around Telegraph Creek. JB got to work and watched several interviews of Kelly from KONELĪNE. Impacted by Kelly’s dilemma, JB admitted reflecting on his story with her music was a challenge—one that caused her to reflect. She was really impacted by his dilemma. She said that to reflect on his story with her music was challenging and that his situation made her stop and think.
“When you flip the coin, I’m a person who wants to defend the land, to protect the land. Whereas Kelly, that’s the only way he has to survive and to provide for his family. And he takes pride in that. He also understands that elders fought hard for the land, but he’s saying ‘there’s no other way’.”
THE FINAL RESULT
JB makes music to capture the contemporary oral history of what’s happening in indigenous communities on Turtle Island (North America). So naturally she was up to the challenge.
She took Kelly’s story and created a new song for North through South: “I See the Trees”. One Net Studios shot and produced the music video in Victoria.
Through music and words and poetry, JB’s song interprets Kelly’s life in the North. She sings about choice and challenge, and tells a story of struggle, burden and survival. “In the clips I saw a young person wanting to provide,” she says. “Why do indigenous people only have one choice?” she asked. “Why can’t there by more opportunities?”
See the music video, her interview and watch Kelly’s reaction to her song on NorthThroughSouth.com