A great shot of energy from Art Napoleon and friends – and a probable theme song for Winnipeg’s Althea “Got Bannock?” Guiboche, celebrating her First Anniversary serving bannock to the homeless on the cold streets of Winnipeg.
Art’s dialect is Bush Cree from BC, a y-dialect that often uses î instead of ê, but he says these words are more “Creenglish:” they don’t follow all the rules of proper Cree. The blues jam, on the other hand, is universal!
pê-mîci [pê-mîci]
pahkwêsikan [pahkwêsikan]
pê-mîci pahkwêsikan
Let’s go out and have some fun!
namilâs astâ ham mîna
wiyâs astâ jam mîna
pê-mîci pahkwêsikan
pê-mîci pahkwêsikan
î-môcikan [î-môcikan]
î-môcikan [î-môcikan]
Roughly translated:
Come, have some bannock.
Put some molasses and ham, meat and jam.
Let’s have fun.
The album includes more great tunes and lessons in Cree for kids. You can find the whole album on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/mocikan/id274522625, or purchase songs from CD Baby Music Store.
3 Responses
Hi, I wanted to do an assignment creating a dance with this for a grade 3 class, and wanted to teach them the lyrics. I can’t find them anywhere online. Would you be able to help me please?
Hi there – I was able to get some help from Art to fill in the lyrics gap. Hope this helps!
I was just listening to a very informative interview of Buffy Sainte Marie with Tom Power on CBC. She mentioned this website. Cool! I like this song. It rocks! Nice website, too. I like that the Calgary Library has sponsored some children’s writers to teach indigenous languages. I was looking for a site where I could hear the words. This find is wonderful. Music is a great way of introducing and repeating those new sounds. I used to teach French that way. Good on you!