'I felt angry. I felt hurt. I felt afraid.' Singer iskwē describes motivation behind song Little Star

"All I see today is how they wash away our little star"

These are some of the lyrics in Winnipeg-born singer iskwē's song, Little Star. 

'They' in the lyric refers to iskwē's response to the press coverage of the trials of Gerald Stanley and Raymond Cormier -- the men charged for the murders of Colton Boushie and Tina Fontaine.

"Little Star was a direct response to media [reports] and the way they were - in my opinion - being reckless during the trials of Gerald Stanley and Raymond Cormier,"  singer iskwē said in an interview with Tapestry guest-host Laurie Brown.

"I felt endangered. I felt angry. I felt hurt. I felt afraid… The way our [Indigenous] bodies are viewed as disposable and how that sentiment seems to be in repetition when we see the way the media represents these stories."

"It's not just scary for Indigenous people… if we're living in a country where we can truly say there is a demographic of people that is considered lesser than others, then we're not doing very good as a society."

iskwē said she also intended for the primary message in the song and the video to be about connecting people to something beautiful.

"In this song Little Star, I wanted to start bringing in one of the teachings that I had received about coming from the star people," iskwē said. 

"This idea that when you look up in the sky and you see shooting stars, you're seeing the movement of spirit between the walking world and the sky world, because we're descendents from these star people. And so when we pass we make our way back."

She hopes to encourage empathy as a foundation to help support dialogue between cultures who may struggle to communicate due to the effects of colonization. 

"If we're constantly starting [cross-cultural communication] on the hard terrible things, it just further separates us ... because we're not finding ways to connect first," the singer said.

iskwē extends this intention to her concerts. 

"I want people to feel safe and I want people to feel included," the singer said.

"The moment you [come into the concert venue] you've entered into this space -- this other world -- what I like to reference as a sky world. And when you enter into this sky world everybody is there on even footing."

iskwē is nominated for a Juno in the category of Adult Alternative Album of the Year, and Sarah Legault is nominated for Little Star - iskwē in the category of Music Video of the Year.