Just Us Folk

Dictionaries define the word “evoke” as meaning “to bring a feeling, memory or image into the conscious mind.”

For singer-songwriter Mimi O’Bonsawin, it means sparking a fire and being inspired. It’s for that reason she’s called her new album, Evoke. Over the last few years Mimi and her husband, Ryan Schurman, have toured across Canada and as far away as Australia. Along the way they’ve talked with a lot of people, and gathered what she describes as “good energy.”

“We wanted to capture that musicality, and show how playing in front of humans shapes a song,” she said.

Mimi also used the album to challenge herself artistically by writing and singing the song ‘P8GWAS’ in her native language of Abénaki.

“When we were touring in Australia, I met a couple of Indigenous artists who were singing in their native language. They didn’t speak fluently but they could sing in it,” she said. “I thought I’d have to spend 30 years learning Abénaki before I could compose in it.”

With help from her language teacher back home, Mimi was able to write the song and get the correct pronunciation. The encouragement she received from the women in her community afterwards was very empowering. It changed the way Mimi feels about language, and how it connects to people.

“To be able to sing these words that hadn’t been heard in a long time was pretty life changing,” she said.

Mimi also used Evoke to address some of the expectations people have of her. She tours with Ryan as her percussionist, and inevitably they’re asked about whether they have kids or not.

“I made a choice a long time ago that I wasn’t going to be a mother,” she said. “I never saw myself as one. I’m an auntie to two wonderful boys and I love children. But talking to me about that is difficult. So addressing it in the song ‘Steady’ was a great way to get it off my chest.”

A life on the road can be difficult but it also gives Mimi a lot of hope and inspiration. The kindness of those she meets restores her faith in people and counteracts the negativity of the daily news.

“Meeting people, singing my heart out for them and connecting in that way, really restores the medicine that we need,” she said.

Another way in which Mimi and Ryan get “good medicine” is through gardening. While festival season and gardening season run concurrently, they make it work, growing about 50 percent of the food they eat.

“We do regenerative, no-till gardening,” she said.

“We have a lot of weeds but they’re curated weeds. The gardens are like me, it’s not one straight line. It’s a bunch of stuff going on.”

Having a garden helps Mimi lift the weight her touring has on the climate. Growing food and reconnecting with the land helps to ease the guilt of long drives in the car and flights abroad.

“Reclaiming that part of who I am, ancestrally, has been really important to us,” she said.

“When I say a word in Abénaki, I feel that power inside of me. When I get to eat something that I started as a little seed, I have that same kind of satisfaction.”

Coming up in October is a series of concerts called, She Carries The Song. Performing with Celeigh Cardinal and Lacy Hill, the concerts will weave voice, stories and songs rooted in their Abénaki, Cree and Oneida/Mohawk cultures.

The winter of 2027 will see Mimi and Ryan working on a French language album. They’re touring in Québec more and more, so the new album will honour her Francophone heritage.

At the heart of all Mimi does, presenting music is the most important thing to her.

“Live music, art that is living, that you can feel and touch, that changes all the molecules in your body, there’s nothing in the world that can replace that. That’s why I’ll tour until I can’t tour, because I love it so much,” she said.

For more on Mimi O’Bonsawin and Evoke, to go https://www.mimi.ca.