‘NOBODY CAN GASLIGHT US’

After the discovery of hundreds of Indigenous children’s unmarked graves at former Canadian residential schools, Drezus grew unsure about his longstanding plans to release his music video, Bless.

The rapper, who is of Cree and Ojibwe heritage from the Muskowekwan First Nation in Saskatchewan province, starts the song by calling the atrocities his people have faced “an act of war”, then follows that with bar after bar of Indigenous empowerment. Unsure if that would be appropriate while his people grieved, he turned to his mother, who had attended one of those schools. Her advice? “Release it, son. We need it now.”

The boarding school system – government-funded, Christian church-administered – was established in Canada in the late 1800s. Its founders’ intent: to forcibly remove Indigenous children from their “savage” parents and impose on them English and Christianity. About