The Spiritual Warriors are up once more for the Native American Music Awards (NAMA) in two categories: Best Folk and Best Live Performance.
Lead singer and songwriter Leroy Joe can't remember exactly how many times his band has been in the NAMA running, but figures it's been at least 12 or 13 nominations. They've clinched a pair of accolades to date: Best Historical Linguistic Album in 2013 and Best World Recording in 2019. This time the group is nominated in the Best Folk Recording category.
Joining Leroy in the Spiritual Warriors are his daughter Daisy on vocals, percussionist Rich Doucet, keyboard player Quentin De Lorenzis, Cuyler Biller on guitar and bassist Sheldon Powell.
They've collaborated with Norm Fisher, a bass maestro who has toured with multi-platinum rocker Bryan Adams and eight-time Juno recipient Colin James, as well as drummer Richard Brown from Vancouver. The group is also known for partnering with other First Nations artists to write music and perform live.
"I'm so happy," said Leroy. "This gives us more credibility, and not only that: I'm thinking about our Nation, our culture and our language. [This nomination] puts Lil'wat Nation more on the map, and it gets people to recognize that world music is happening right here in our territory—in British Columbia. A lot of times we think about world music, we think about Africa or South America or whatever … I'm almost at a loss for words."
Indigenize is the name of the group's latest album. Four of its eight tracks are sung entirely in the Lil'wat language of Ucwalmicwts, with English interspersed throughout the rest of the offering.
"That idea came to me years ago when I was at a music school in Nelson, B.C.," Leroy explains. "I was primarily a rock and blues musician and had slowly gotten into reggae and bluegrass, but I transposed one of our traditional songs—the berry-picking song—onto the guitar. Then I just started writing lyrics around it and using our chant.
"I'm a language keeper as well. I want to share and teach about our language to our people to keep it alive."
A musical family
If you haven't heard the Spiritual Warriors perform before, they make for an eclectic listening experience. Their stuff can be described as contemporary Indigenous music: a fusion of reggae, hip hop, rock and pop with the ancient Lil'wat language and chanting styles.
The band first coalesced approximately 17 years ago beneath another name (Kalan Wi), with Leroy and Doucet part of that original core. Things changed and some people moved on, but the moniker "Spiritual Warriors" has stuck since 2014. Leroy chose that name to honour his great-grandfather (who was a medicine man) and other First Nations folks from past generations who served their communities by being rooted within spirituality.
Familial connections among the group are also represented by Daisy's presence. She volunteered to be their main female singer when she was 14 years old, and is still on board at age 26.
"That's a pretty amazing thing," remarks Leroy. "We're keeping on. I've always wanted to make music, like recordings, but [then I had] a family and needed to work. I thought the dream was over, but then it kind of just started happening. We grew up in a musical family. Uncles, grandparents, cousins … we all played music."
NAMA winners are chosen by popular vote, and an organization spokesperson revealed in an email to Pique that ballots will remain open until at least January 2025 in order to "keep the momentum going and [raise] awareness for all our artists." With hundreds of nominees involved, Leroy encourages his fellow community members to cast their vote early and often.
Visit nativeamericanmusicawards.com/official-voting-ballot to have your say.
