This thesis, by way of deep reflection and truthful recounting, pays homage to six different groups of predominately Indigenous incarcerated women and detained male youth, who engaged with me in an active process of collective songwriting and recording between 2008 and 2015. This inclusive creative process was designed to enable participants— who are at risk of having their voices, histories and identities erased—to participate in a life-‐affirming demonstration of their own self-‐expression by co-‐creating a song together. Indigenous Inquiry or Critical Indigenous Pedagogy (CIP) was the methodology utilized, in order to examine my motivations for wanting to discover and share what constitutes a ‘freedom song’. In doing so, this thesis shares specific knowledge I gained as a result of my lifelong dedication to furthering the dissemination of nêhiyawin (Cree Worldview), through my favourite mode of creative expression: song-‐ writing. In addition to this written thesis, the original songs are included.
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