Alberta musician wins Traditional Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year award at Junos

Congratulations are in order for a Cree musician who brought home some hardware at the 2024 Juno Awards Opening Night Saturday evening.

Joel Wood, from Maskwacis, Alta., was ecstatic to find himself even nominated for Traditional Indigenous music group or artist of the year. Winning his first Juno award was a dream come true for the musician and his community.

“I really feel it's not only representing myself, or my wife or our family, but it's representing our indigenous people as a whole,” said Wood. “Our music is the original music of this land. It was here long before any of the other instruments arrived here, the fiddle of the guitar, the piano – we already had music.”

“It's been here, it's still here. And it's always going to be here.”

The 35-year-old has been performing professionally since he was nine years old with a collective called The Northern Cree. It was during the pandemic where he and his wife, Tonia Jo Hall, performed a show titled Coffee & Stories with Auntie, Sing-Along and Smudge with Uncle over social media.

He credits her for the push towards becoming a solo artist.

“I've never sang in front of people by myself,” said Wood. “She was the one who kind of got there and really opened my eyes for me and said ‘you know, the people want to hear you sing.’”

Wood believes that his prestigious win will pave the way for other Indigenous artists to not only make a name for themselves in the Traditional Music category, but hopefully for the Artist of the Year category.

His message in his music is clear – staying true to your roots, to yourself and being proud of your heritage.

“Represent, be proud of who you are, where you come from and sing those songs,” added Wood. “It's very authentic to be you.”

Wood has also been nominated for nine Grammy awards. Wood’s social media can be found on his website.