Juno Award-winning duo blending folk, roots, blues and Indigenous musical styles
Winner of the 2023 Canadian Juno Award for Contemporary Indigenous Group of the Year, Digging Roots breathes life into songs from their land, Turtle Island, to raise their voices in solidarity with a global chorus of Indigenous artists, activists and change-makers. For over a decade, two-time Juno Award-winners Digging Roots have traveled the world with a joyful message of resistance, celebrating Anishinaabe and Onkwehón:we traditions of round dance and interconnectedness. As Roots Music Canada says, the band is “…badass, empowering and hopeful all at the same time.”
Digging Roots takes you on a journey through tall grass, sweet waters and unconditional love in a joyous and powerful celebration on their fourth album, Zhawenim (2022). Led by the electrifying current of husband-and-wife-team ShoShona Kish and Raven Kanatakta, the six-piece band responds to a majestic and spiritual call from ShoShona’s earthy vocals and Raven’s exhilarating guitar mastery through a fusion of blues, soul and rock n’ roll. For longtime fans or new audiences, their constantly evolving live show opens a space, wherever they may be in the world, for healing, compassion, unconditional love and Baamaadziwin (the good life). Constantly interweaving between drum culture and guitar dialects, Raven and ShoShona were raised in cultural families that have continued to resist oppression and colonialism.
More than a band, Digging Roots have taken their place at the frontline of the fight for equity and representation in the arts, with involvement in industry advocacy and organization to empower arts communities worldwide. ShoShona is the founder of the International Indigenous Music Summit and the music label Ishkōdé Records.
Raven, who studied at Berklee College of Music, “grew up in a small Anishinabe Rez called Winneway in northwestern Quebec. It’s formally called Long Point First Nation. It’s where my grandfather and father taught me to hunt, trap and fish. I also spent my summers on my mother’s Mohawk Rez of Kahnàwa:ke.” ShoShona’s “family is from Batchewana and a part of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge.”
Expect rock-concert sound levels