Cree-Métis singer finds peace and harmony in Cree Christmas carols

Falynn Baptiste always loved Christmas concerts as a young girl growing up on Red Pheasant Cree Nation, 150 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

The Cree-Métis child, who was known for her powerful pipes, was only six years old when she donned a purple dress and sang her first solo – a Christmas carol in Cree – at her school concert.

"People would say, 'Oh Falynn, can you sing?' and I was always raring and ready to get up on stage and, not so much be seen but share music and be heard," she said.

Thirty-two years later, the recording artist stood centre stage in a floor-length green gown and sang What Child is This? in Cree with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra at its Christmas concert. 

In that moment, Baptiste felt she had come full circle.

"I'm very, very proud," she said. "To go from maybe a time when I wasn't proud of who I was to now … Showcasing our beautiful language, it's an accomplishment."

Baptiste, who is now 38, grew up surrounded by family members who spoke Cree as their first language, and she could sing Cree church hymns. She learned English in school, however, and lost interest in the traditional language as a teenager. She had to bus off reserve to attend junior high in the city of North Battleford, Sask.

"It was pretty jarring. It was so clear as a 12-year-old girl, that 'All right, whomever you are is not okay, so we need to change who you are to fit in,'" she said.

She changed how she spoke, acted, dressed, and who she spent time with.

"I spent a large part of my life trying to prove to others that I wasn't First Nation, that I wasn't 'Indian,'" she said.

Years later, when she was struggling with her sense of identity in her late 20s, she realized "my culture, my spirituality, my language, my family, that was the connecting piece to making me feel complete."

At age 30, the teacher returned to the University of Saskatchewan's education program to complete an Indigenous language certificate. 

She's become a champion of the Cree language both on stage and in the classroom.

Today, she teaches in the miyo mâchihowin academy — an Indigenous wellness program that incorporates language and culture — at E.D. Feehan Catholic High School in Saskatoon.