Sweet Tooth
Mali Obomsawin
Abenaki First Nation bassist, composer, and songwriter Mali Obomsawin released her first solo album, Sweet Tooth, in October 2022. The album blends Wabanaki stories and songs that have been passed down in Obomsawin’s family, including field recording of relatives at Okanak First Nation. “Telling Indigenous stories through the language of jazz is not a new phenomenon. My people have had to innovate endlessly to get our stories heard - learning to express ourselves in French, English, Abenaki…but sometimes words fail us, and we must use sound. Sweet Tooth is a testament to this.” Obomsawin grew up on ancestral land in Maine and Quebec, studied at Berklee and Dartmouth and toured as one-third of the acclaimed folk rock group Lula Wiles. In 2020 they co founded the Bomazeen Land Trust, the first ever Wabanaki land trust, and currently Obomsawin is the executive director.
The album Sweet Tooth is broken down into three movements starting with “Odana” which, in the Abenaki language, tells the story of how their village was founded. “It’s the story of my people and why we survived,” Obomsawin explains. “Lineage” evokes the over 12,000 years that went by before the arrival of Europeans in Wabanki land.
The second movement mixes the ideologies of Jesuit priests and the spiritual practices of traditional Wabanki culture. “Wawasint8da” adapted from the hymn “The Harrowing of Hell.” This hymn was translated from Latin into the Wabanaki language, as a way to indoctrinate Obomsawin’s ancestors. “Pedegwajois” is an ancient story taken from a field recording of Okanak’s Theophile Panadis. It tells of the generational passing on of traditional teachings. It is an opposition to the violence in the Christian hymn mentioned prior.
The third movement highlights the album’s themes of “adaptation under colonialism and the deceitful seduction of assimilation. “Fractions,” is a woozy confusion of borders, bloodlines, and values. The final song “Blood Quantum (Nəwewəčəskawikαpáwihtawα)'' is a direct address to violent and misogynistic policies in North America written to tear Indigenous communities apart.” It includes a Penobscot language chant written by Obomsawin and relatives from the Penobscot Nation that celebrates the matriarchs of Indigenous communities. “Many Wabanaki communities are matrifocal, so women's leadership is and was a key part of our survival,” Obomsawin states.
Listen to Sweet Tooth on Spotify. FMI visit www.maliobomsawin.com
