filled with hate it’s getting harder
nowadays to put food up on my plate so
I’m hungry steady on the grind to eat a
beat writing scripture for the future
taking kids right off the street the
time has arrived you in to find stand
together in the midst of all this chaos
we’ll survive another winter like we
always do because history repeats let it
echo through the valley what I write is
what I preach so unique my speech
designed to teach to reach the youth a
piece of you inside the minds of peeps
so they could keep it true steady on a
hustle with the bustle on the back to
the chicken dance is what up let’s bring
the culture back satisfactory scripture
for my faculty for family I got a team
to relist I would kill an anal fantasy
and sanity’s demanding me to be the man
I am at abandon me to telling me to be
the man I can voiceover pen to the paper
until the end dark souls find it alight
within what it said this is for the
people unification is needed stop the
infighting now is the time for us to
believe it hello Sean same humble
washday hola Bonjour those are the only
places that I’ve traveled to where I
could say hello um my name is Brad
bellegarde and I grew up here in Rajanna
and went to school here I grew up
actually just across the way from
Victoria so I didn’t do this yesterday
I’m gonna do this for you I’m gonna tell
you my day-to-day life I grew up coast
to coast and without leaving my City
Limits passing prose was a passion so I
had to start a beginning from my front
step I’d head west
I passed Winnipeg to hit Quebec
collecting pounds in health not those
average type of fellows never tested
even called shotgun when arrested and
when released hit the same spot like
they never left it the next intersection
I passed my trail to hit Toronto POW
fist with stoop sitters and watch people
take some bong loads right to me but
most considered to say they were the
wrong road since I chose them I knows
men many mano-a-mano there’s no nice
pieces to see only sets and paint bombs
only officers not offices from Ottawa to
Saint John’s so I grew up in that area
and I spent my summers I spent my
summers actually I was all the holy
First Nations kid in my class in school
we had a there’s like eight of us from
grade 1 to grade 8
and I was always that odd man out
I never really felt like I belonged so I
had some friends there like I’m going to
Disneyland summer holidays woo
like I’m going to Germany to visit my
grandparents Brad what are you doing I’m
going to carry the kennel First Nation
oh that sounds cool where’s that it’s
about 45 minutes east of Regina and
every morning
my grandma it would give me a ice cream
pail and I go into schools I tell this
story a lot and they’re like wow that’s
awesome nice come every day it was empty
I’m like empty yeah because my grandma
would send me out into the into the
Prairie and I go pick Saskatoon berries
and I couldn’t come back and it would be
like one for the bucket one for my belly
one for the bucket one for my belly so I
could say it healthy every morning and I
was growing up in Saskatchewan hockey
you know I was talking would be a hockey
star then I got to high school and I
realized there’s a lot of hockey players
out there and the idea that I was
actually looking at when I was thinking
about rap like I got to grade 9 I met I
met somebody
I actually just seen him this morning
ironically enough grabbing a coffee he’s
the guy that challenged me to my first
rap battle like write your rap down this
is before before rap was everywhere it’s
like high school was like yeah
tragically hip whoa boxy frutos spirit
of the West you go on a spirit of the
West like dr. Dre like nope I didn’t
really know what rap was but I went home
and I tried it I gave it a shot wrote my
ride came back the next day he had one
and he’s like okay okay I take this I
dig this we could be friends and we did
that that was our thing I didn’t really
understand the idea of what hip-hop was
I understood where I grew up and the
social issues that were happening in my
community but as I got older I find it I
found a hip-hop was more than just rap I
was thought rap was hip-hop but I
started uncovering the idea behind
hip-hop where did it come from it
started in a marginalized poverty
poverty stricken community in the Bronx
in New York there was crime there was
gangs there’s addictions there’s
substance abuse
and I see all of these social issues in
indigenous communities and our inner
cities so I actually stuck with rap I
remember in high school I used to tell
my teachers I’m gonna be a rapper like
yeah right bright eyed one friend he’s
like I’m gonna be an accountant 6 6 16
another friend he’s I’m gonna be a
lawyer he’s a lawyer and my other
friends an accountant
I’m a rapper you know and I was always
telling me I wasn’t old school or new
school I was skip school that was my
motto and I used to I used to actually
go to school oh just hanging out just
one goal class and I stuck with it after
high school you know it’s tough there’s
this term the starving artist that’s
that’s true that’s real it’s hard it’s
hard to make money especially from
Regina like dr. Dre came from LA yeah
Jay Z from New York Regina
where’s that I tell I used to tell
people from Saskatchewan Oh what
province is that in but I got a call one
day this is so it’s all from
Saskatchewan arts board we’re just
wondering if you’d be interested in
going to the Vancouver to perform for
the Olympics like perform rap I made it
yes I got the call and I got interviewed
by a journalist there and I along my
journey in life I met somebody who is a
professor at the University and she used
to be like come to my program you’d be
great get out here I’m gonna be a rapper
Kanye is a college dropout jay-z didn’t
go to college I don’t need it but I got
I got interviewed and the questions were
so stereotypical and ignorant no
animosity towards that journalist I
think she just didn’t learn what she
needed to learn in school it was like as
the First Nations person from
Saskatchewan and how does it feel to be
here in Vancouver
like we don’t go there you know how does
it feel to be a role model sketch when
did you ever think he’d be performing at
events this big yeah I wanted to be like
dr. Dre you know like yeah I did think
like that but it rubbed me the wrong way
and I got back to Regina picked up that
phone and I called that person and she’s
like you could starting me so
I’m pleased to say in two and half weeks
from now I will conv Kate with my
Bachelor of Arts in journalism and
Indigenous Studies so in a way rap
brought me to education and that’s the
power that it actually has because I was
always able to stick with writing raps
that was my dream so what is what is
hip-hop though rap is just the language
it Saskatchewan we can look at this
display here Saskatchewan there’s five
indigenous languages this free sedona
coda Dakota and Deni MCS bring the
language of hip-hop there’s the other
elements like the DJ brings the music
and in in indigenous culture we have the
drum there’s b-boying be growing
breakdancing there’s all different types
of powwow of styles there’s men’s
traditional women’s traditional women’s
fancy shawl men’s fancy dance the list
goes on and on there’s all types of art
these are all identifiers but a very
very influential individual in the world
of hip-hop his name is Karis one he said
knowledge of self that’s your identity
got to keep it real now I can’t stand up
here and rap about diamonds and
Bentley’s and Lamborghinis because I
don’t have any of those I could rap
about in 1988 Honda it just doesn’t have
that much appeal so I’m the first
generation from my family that did not
go to residential school and in this in
this world that we live in now looking
towards reconciliation what role can i
play in assisting youth so I try to
write my songs as a storyteller
storytelling’s deep rooted indigenous
culture but I got to do it with some
hip-hop so when we look at look at the
idea of reconciliation I wrote a song my
parents went to cappella Indian
Residential school and I wrote a song
about their first day in school so I’m
[Music]
so I realized this this experience that
they told them sat down with them this
experience is something that every
residential school survivors can relate
to it’s the first night you first day of
school you’re 5 years old your parents
leave so these are pictures of my family
like my father’s there my uncles are
there and a lot of very influential
people in Saskatchewan are in this
picture I was playing outside just the
little man with the world in the palm of
my hand a little kid living life with
innocence
I remember everything with images a red
truck and a man in the black robe they
told my mom call him father Joe so we
called him father Joe I saw a tear in my
mother’s eye I let out a cry but I
didn’t know why piled up in the back of
a truck it had a flatbed on it and the
road was rough my hands are shaking
feeling sick to my stomach where are
they taking us who could have done it my
body is nervous why am i leaving what is
the purpose what is the reason now I’m
just the last little kid looking for my
mother in this life that I live all
alone on the road that I’m traveling and
all I really wanted to do was just go
home I remember walking through the
doors of the school that was cool in
September they gave us clothes put
numbers on us what it said this will be
your name to your home in December they
put powder on my head throw me in the
shower then line us up a bed they took
[Music]
my heart becomes display shadows I never
see first night cold night feeling
shackled to my bed
I remember hearing whispers from the
kids whispers across the room talking
things like I hope we go home soon and
this is just the first night in my life
I think this is my worst night I’m just
a kid and the test of my will when we’d
hear the jingle of the keys with all
life still I close my eyes just a block
of where I’m living within the image on
the cloud that I’m sitting I want to fly
away I want to fly away I can’t cry I
can’t sleep they even took away your kid
for trying to speak I remember thinking
that we’d never get to meet then my mind
drifted off of fell asleep my first
mourner brought food I couldn’t eaten if
we did it we get punished in a seat this
is the life that I had to live in
residential school this kid now with 60
years later looking back kind of funny
how my mom remembers that all the little
things that I can’t forget but I’m
thankful that I made it every step and
through the years confronted so many
fears my feelings have been adjusted I’m
telling it to you is the elements of my
tears or sentiments of the years that I
spent with my peers I remember
[Music]
so that song actually was a
collaboration thank you it was a
collaboration with a group from from
Vancouver BC and it was initially
written itial II to share with the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission but after
hearing stories from my family I felt it
was very important for me to keep that
in my family because as an indigenous
person who is Nakota and in Cree those
oral traditions and oral histories have
to stay in the family so it’s it’s
something I love to share with people so
what do I do when I go to schools I
write Scripture for the future with kids
you know I’m a true believer that
everybody has good in them regardless of
the stuff that they’ve done you know we
are not our thoughts you know if you
think bad that doesn’t mean you act out
on it but everybody everybody’s a child
everybody has a mother everybody’s part
of something and the only way that I can
relate to these kids personally for me
it’s to come in and just drop a rhyme
for them and they’re like oh okay
you’re cooler than mr. Smith over here
so I’m gonna end I’m happy that this
this education journey my music kind of
slowed down but I started a song and
have performed it at this year’s
Saskatchewan Arts Awards and I wrote the
first verse
a couple months before I went to
university and I forgot about this song
but when I got offered to perform at the
Saskatchewan Arts Board Arts Awards I
finished the song when I was living in
Ottawa last summer so this is actually a
song can take six years there’s a
picture of me performing for Prince
Charles and Camilla
this one’s called IRA Hayes I just want
to thank you guys for spending some time
here on treaty for territory and I hope
you enjoyed yourself today thank you to
the RPL and Ted
beat by murky waters unlike your
counterparts standing on a mountain top
of mountain heart and speaking poking
words with spoken word my speeches are
sounds absurd but I play the part
nowadays I play the part as I’m spilling
words like liquid at the bar I’m getting
nervous I might take it too far
start talking about some things that I
wish I did in twos or some things that
I’m doing now or things that I’m going
through it’s like my mind’s been
darkened with tint I still see bright
but it gets dark now and then and
negative forces of clarity make it hard
to find clarity in this world filled
with sin we got a world filled with sin
when winners usually choose to lose
before they often win that’s why I’m
usually Susan when opportunity wants to
get in and the door belt always broken
go figure that passed out on the couch
no money take a swig of that lifestyle
of van IRA Hayes
these words are medicine for brighter
days knock knock let us in the medicine
this year and it’s better than better
than it was back then
so knock knock lettuce in knock knock
lettuce in knock-knock lettuce in the
medicine this year and it’s better than
better than it was back then
so knock-knock let us in I’ve reached
the age where nowadays I like to
reminisce but not with animosity towards
all those things I miss is everything
that I missed wound up with a twist like
not chasing my dream to wrap present to
me with the gift a gift to understand
where I was and where I am in how did I
get here so fast when that wasn’t even
the plan another reason for me to make
it and keep believing keep moving
continue to do what I believe in make
music and use it to inspire some change
one song at a time I’m rhyming to rid
the pain or your pain I acknowledgement
the same but that’s what we’re living in
you know it’s the same we can’t change
that but we could change fact get our
acts together but shift up the game fast
slow down hit reset and just get in the
groove I’m on that field goal Bob there
ain’t nothing to lose there ain’t
nothing to lose on that field good vibe
knock knock let us in that the medicine
is here and it’s better than better than
it was back then
so knock knock lettuce in thank you guys
I hope you enjoyed your afternoons they
you [Applause]