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Five years after winning the Polaris Music Prize with his ground-breaking debut, Jeremy Dutcher has returned with a radiant exploration of contemporary Indigeneity and his place within it. With songs performed in his people's Wolasotqey language but also, for the first time, in English, Motewolonuwok extends beyond anything the musician has made before, encompassing traditional song, starlit ballads and staggering orchestrations. InchWith my first record, the concept was so clear, so complete,Inch Dutcher says. This time, InchI wanted [to make an LP] that wasn't always so sure of itself.InchWolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, released in 2018, vaulted Dutcher into the upper echelons of Canadian performance, from the Polaris and Juno Award stages to the judges' panel on Canada's Drag Race. The follow-up is more intimate, more personal, inspired by his growing understanding of the Inchmiddle spaceInch of being Two Spirit-Indigenous and queer. In the Wolasotqey language, Two Spirit people are called InchmotewolonuwokInch-Inchthe people of great spiritual powerInch-an identity filled with strength and knowledge, which is not dogged by shame. Dutcher came out as gay when he was 12-but even that idea, of Inchcoming out,Inch was imposed upon him by a colonialist framework. Motewolonuwok is a stepping-through and singing-into his full identity. On Inch'tahcuwi Anelsultipon,Inch Dutcher stands almost alone on a stage, singing about devotion. InchThe Land That Held Them,Inch his tribute to Inchthe ones taken too soon,Inch shudders with a force that recalls Nina Simone and Anohni. Elsewhere, Dutcher reached for the largest possible frame a full orchestra, with arrangements by Owen Pallett, and, on tracks like InchSakom,Inch a 12-voice choir made up of Dutcher's queer and allied kin, including friends from music school and members of the Queer Songbook Orchestra.1. Skicinuwihkuk2. Pomaw
