Jeremy Dutcher

Early Days

Jeremy Dutcher is Wolastoqiyik of Tobique First Nation (Neqotkuk), in western New Brunswick near the Maine border. It is the largest rural reserve of the six Wolastoqiyik Nation reserves in New Brunswick. Dutcher’s mother, Lisa Perley-Dutcher, taught him to speak the Wolastoqey language and to understand and respect Wolastoqiyik culture and traditions.

Always interested in music, he worked with Maggie Paul, an Elder and song carrier. She taught him traditional stories and songs in the Wolastoqey language. He also became involved in theatre and taught himself to play the piano.

Dutcher’s family moved to Fredericton, but he always summered back in Tobique First Nation. After graduating high school, he attended Dalhousie University in Halifax, where he studied anthropology and music and trained as an operatic tenor.

Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa

To create the songs for his first album, Jeremy Dutcher followed Maggie Paul’s advice and devoted two weeks to research at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. He listened to Wolastoqiyik music that had been recorded on wax cylinders between 1907 and 1913 by anthropologist William Mechling. He also explored the work of linguist and anthropologist Philip LeSourd, who, like Mechling, recorded Wolastoqiyik stories.

Dutcher then went into the studio and blended samples from the wax cylinder recordings of the old songs with original music. His goal was to create a record that would be accessible to young people while stirring an interest in traditional stories, songs and culture. He hoped to help revitalize the language by recording the entire album in Wolastoqey. The songs were about love, marriage, trading, water, canoeing and installing a new Chief.

In April 2018, after five years of research and work, the album was released to wide acclaim. A music critic wrote, “The songs that have been rediscovered, recovered and revived here are beautiful, celebratory and very much alive.” Historians and anthropologists also praised the album. The Society for Cultural Anthropology observed, “It demonstrates the creative potentialities of archival research and offers a lesson in the importance of respecting Indigenous sovereignty and refusal.”

At a gala event in Toronto in September 2018, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa won the $50,000 Polaris Music Prize for album of the year. The prize is based "solely on artistic merit, without consideration of genre or record sales." With a feather in his hand, Dutcher said in his acceptance speech that Canada is in the midst of an Indigenous renaissance. He asked if the country was ready to hear the truths that need to be told and to see things that need to be seen.

At the 2019 Juno Awards honouring achievement in Canadian music, Dutcher performed the song “Sakomawit.” Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa won Indigenous Music Album of the Year. In accepting the award Dutcher said, “I hope to continue to share and use this platform to tell truth. We can all do better.”

The televised performances and awards led to increased interest in Dutcher’s concerts across Canada, the United States, Australia and Europe. An NPR Tiny Desk Concert has earned over 101,000 views. Additionally, Dutcher had the opportunity to collaborate with Yo-Yo Ma and performed at Joni Mitchell’s 75th birthday party.

In 2022, Dutcher’s mother, Lisa Perley-Dutcher, began Kekhimin, a Wolastoqey language immersion school in Fredericton. Dutcher donated $10,000 to the school and did benefit concerts to raise more funds. His mother is the school’s director. The goal is to revitalize the language that at that point was spoken fluently by fewer than 100 people.

Gender Diversity

Jeremy Dutcher identifies as two-spirit. Through his songs, performances and media work, he addresses the ways in which colonization brought homophobia and transphobia to Indigenous peoples, many of whom previously had no concepts of binary genders. He has noted that the Wolastoqey language has no gender-based pronouns. Dutcher said, "I hope to be that beautiful complication for people.... That's part of the medicine I want to give.… It's not just about the music."

His dedication to initiating conversations regarding gender was seen in his choosing to perform at the televised 2018 Polaris Gala, as part of the Polaris Music Prize program, wearing high-waisted briefs and a long, sheer cape. He explained that the outfit was part of his celebration of culture because, “This is the culture, you know? Two-spirit people and gender diverse people have always been a part of our circles."

Dutcher brought that spirit to television again in 2022 when he became a guest judge on the third season of Canada’s Drag Race.

Motewolonuwok

Jeremy Dutcher released his second album, Motewolonuwok, in October 2023. While he had created his first album specifically for his community and Indigenous audiences, its broader appeal taught him that others could be invited into the conversation, and so Motewolonuwok presented some songs in the Wolastoqey language with others in English. Some were his compositions. Many of the songs tackled difficult issues, such as “Ancestors Too Young,” which is about high suicide rates among Indigenous youth (see Suicide Among Indigenous Peoples in Canada).

The album earned many enthusiastic reviews. Motewolonuwok won the 2024 Polaris Music Prize for album of the year, making Dutcher the first artist to win the award twice. His moving performance on the televised Polaris program demonstrated the passion of his music and his spectacular vocal range and ability.

Motewolonuwok was nominated for the 2024 Juno Awards in the Adult Alternative Album of the Year category. Dutcher earned another national audience when he performed “Honour Song” on the awards program. In 2024, Nipissing University, in North Bay, Ontario, awarded Dutcher an honorary Doctor of Education degree.

Awards and Honours

• Polaris Music Prize (Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa) (2018)
• Indigenous Music Album of the Year, Juno Awards (Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa) (2019)
• Polaris Music Prize (Motewolonuwok) (2024)
• Honorary Doctor of Education, Nipissing University (2024)
• National Arts Centre Award, Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards (2025)