''nipiy'' is the debut album by Edmonton-based band
nêhiyawak,
released on October 24, 2019, on
Arts & Crafts Productions.
It was nominated for
Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the
2020 Juno Awards, and shortlisted for the
2020 Polaris Music Prize
The 2020 edition of the Canada, Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on October 19, 2020. The longlist was announced on June 15, 2020, with the shortlist following on July 15, 2020 and the winner announced on October 19, 2020. Due to the CO ...
.
Background and themes
The album was produced by
Colin Stewart,
who also produced their 2018 EP s''tarlight''. It was recorded at Stewart's ''Hive Studios'', located on
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...
.
''
nipiy'' is a
Cree
The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...
word for water. Many tracks contain references to issues affecting Indigenous Canadians; the album was largely inspired by the
Idle No More movement.
The track ''disappear'' references the
disappearance of Indigenous people in Canada and
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
, and was inspired by a 2013 lecture by
Bertha Oliva,
while ''Perch'' was written about addiction.
''open window'' is about the
Residential School System and the
Sixties Scoop,
and features Cree-language spoken-word poetry from band member Kris Harper's parents.
The Cree language can also be seen in song titles: the opening and closing tracks are named after ''
kisiskâciwanisîpiy'', the Cree word for the
North Saskatchewan River
The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows event ...
,
while the track ''ôtênaw'', which discusses
urbanization
Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from Rural area, rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. ...
,
is named after the Cree word for ''city''.
The album also features elements of Indigenous music, including the use of traditional instrumentation. Marek Tyler plays an
elk-hide
frame drum
A frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. It is one of the most ancient musical instruments, and perhaps the first drum to be invented. It has a single drumhead that is usually made of rawhide, but man-made mat ...
, a carved cedar log drum, and a
pow-wow drum, gifted to him by Carey Newman, a
Kwakwakaʼwakw and
Coast Salish
The Coast Salish peoples are a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak on ...
artist.
Critical reception
The album received positive reviews from critics. Andrea Warner called ''nipiy'' "one of the best rock albums of the year" in a
CBC piece highlighting ''nêhiyawak'' as one of 7 Canadian artists who broke out in 2019. Jake Cardinal, writing for Edmonton Scene, said that ''nêhiyawak'' "created an album without any bad songs, which is a feat nowadays, but they have also managed to find a style that is fully their own."
''nipiy'' was listed by
BeatRoute as one of the 10 Best Alberta Releases of 2019.
References
2019 debut albums
Indie rock albums by Canadian artists
Albums by First Nations artists
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