This month, the Mother Tongue Film Festival will hold its tenth annual showcase of linguistic and cultural diversity. Each year, Mother Tongue highlights Indigenous-language films, including music videos.
Music provides a space for creative storytelling that transcends language barriers; it is a medium of emotional connection. A “mother tongue” is more than a collection of words; it is a way of experiencing life. Both film and music allow artists to give others a glimpse into their lives, conveying personal experiences that are otherwise indescribable.
Music is also a medium for creative exploration. Through song, artists innately fuse genres, cultures, and languages to create unique pieces which spotlight the survival of their traditions in a changing, interconnected world.
This retrospective video playlist explores ten themes of creative fusions. The featured music videos convey the Mother Tongue spirit by melding culture, time, and genre to offer viewers glimpses into different ways of being. This playlist highlights the musicians and videos long beloved by Mother Tongue organizers while celebrating emerging artists from around the globe.
Stream the videos in this YouTube playlist as you read, or play them individually below!
Unexpected Places
Expectations about “folk” culture can often fall into narrow boxes. The following videos showcase women who defy assumptions about their traditional folk music. Bringing their Native languages and musical styles to casual performances abroad, these artists claim space for their culture in the global consciousness and show that traditional art has a place in the modern world.
1. “Goaskinviellja (Eagle Brother)” (Chile, 2018, 5 min.)
Language: Sámi
2019 Mother Tongue Film Festival
Finnish duo Vildá give an improvised performance of Mari Boine Persen’s “Goaskingviellja (Eagle Brother)” while on tour in Chile. This unexpected performance brings the powerful spirit of a soaring eagle from the tundra to the rooftops of South America. Hildá Länsman’s Sámi-language yoik (folk song) and Viivi Maria Saarenkylä’s Finnish accordion combine for a rich display of Nordic culture.
2. “Cepho Celho Lizo” (France, 2023, 1 min.)
Language: Chokri
Vildá’s performance is mirrored by the Tetseo Sisters’ performance of “Cepho Celho Lizo” in France. A quartet of sisters from the Northern Indian state of Nagland, the Tetseo Sisters sing in many languages, including their native endangered Chokri. With a stunning blue sky as their backdrop, the sisters sing of a joyous spring day back home. The performance of their li (Naga folk song) in front of the Eiffel Tower is a testament to the endurance of heritage in the face of westernization and the ability of traditional culture to touch a global audience.
Dull Versus Bright
Mother tongues provide unique lenses for viewing the world, as well as a warm connection to one’s home environment. The following videos merge the traditional with the modern, showing how music and language can bring brightness to monotonous, day-to-day life.
3. “Vowels and Consonants” (China/Tibet, 2015, 5 min.)
Language: Tibetan
2017 Mother Tongue Film Festival
Dekyi Tsering’s “Vowels and Consonants” is a multilayered fusion of historical and modern Tibetan culture. The video features a dull classroom brought to life when a teacher and student begin rapping about Tibetan syllables and history. The video acknowledges the exhausting task of preserving traditional culture in a changing world. Symbolism is a central feature of the video, with scenes depicting monks collapsing, exhausted as they carry a book of knowledge through a desert. However, it also shows that artistic media bring vibrancy and ease to the task of cultural preservation. Music inspires the youngest generations to speak their native tongue.
4. “SLÁINTE” (Ireland, 2024, 3 min.)
Languages: Gaelic, English
The song “SLÁINTE,” a cheer of good health in Gaelic, promotes living for something more important than money. This musical collaboration unites Irish artists IMLÉ, James Shannon, and Róisín Seoighe to juxtapose energetic natural scenery with colorless, urban office locations. This dichotomy not only highlights the necessity for an even work-life balance but represents the brightness mother tongues bring to modern, colonized places.
Cultural Collaborations
The collaborative nature of music opens the door to multicultural partnerships, fusions of sound, language, and style. The following songs feature language and instrumentation from multiple cultural groups who uplift each other to protect their native languages.
5. “Tassi”(Togo, 2020, 5 min.)
Language: Mina
Vaudou Game is a multiethnic collaborative music project in which frontman Peter Solo attempts to preserve and venerate his spiritual heritage, creating music which mimics the songs and chants of vodou practice. This post-colonial expression of African culture is highly inclusive, featuring native and foreign sounds such as an African choir, European cello, and Chinese stringed erhu. A Togolese women’s chorus is center stage in “Tassi,” leading the audience into captivating, trance-like synergy with their performance in the Minalanguage.
Colonialism has long sought to suppress traditional West African religions. Projects such as Vaudou Game not only preserve the spirit of vodou practice but provide a space for outsiders to experience and understand this religious tradition.
6. “Ilbilgini Agiyabarda (When The Water Goes Down)” (Australia, 2024, 4 min.)
Languages: English, Jingulu
In “Ilbilgini Agiyabarda (When the Water Goes Down),” Jingili country musician Stuart Joel Nuggett collaborates with David Garnham and The Reasons to Live. As members of the Jingili Song Project, these musicians strive to preserve the highly endangered Aboriginal language Jingulu. It is estimated that fewer than thirty people, including Nuggett, still speak it.
Here the artists protest environmental destruction in Jingulu and English, showing the connection between endangered language and endangered resources. The loss of language is the loss of knowledge. The loss of knowledge impairs humanity’s ability to care for ecosystems and protect our planet.
Modern Music, Traditional Spirit
Around the world, people express traditional values and stories through modern means. The following videos include music in the genres of rap and rock, styles pioneered by twentieth-century Black Americans. The artists fuse modern styles with Native instruments and rhythms to create unique expressions of their cultures without sacrificing their identities.
7. “Toj” (Guatemala, 2017, 2 min.)
Languages: K’iche’, Spanish
Balam Ajpu is a Guatemalan hip-hop band that incorporates Maya language, spirituality, and aesthetic into their music. They fuse the Western, often highly digital, music of hip-hop with traditional acoustic instruments and nature sounds. Filmed on a lush coastline, the video shows how urban culture can be expressed with a traditional spirit.
8. “Erkazamane” (Niger, 2024, 4 min.)
Language: Tamasheq
In “Erkazamane,” wedding band Etran de L’Aïr perform in a pan-African style, fusing Western instruments with traditional rhythms to create music that is uniquely theirs. In the highly saturated video, band members’ bright robes contrast the golden desert and shots of their home city, Agadez. Etran de L’Aïr are members of Sahel Sounds, an artist collective which uplifts West African musicians. Many Sahel Sounds musicians such as Etran de L’Aïr, recorded their first albums on cellphones, the only recording equipment available to them. Despite the high cost and legal hurdles that come from international touring, Etran de L’Aïr have worked hard to bring their joyous, energetic desert blues to audiences around the world.
Endurance
The Mother Tongue Film Festival celebrates the ability of Native languages to overcome the challenges of colonization, genocide, and lost knowledge. The following videos explore the intersection of pain and resilience that runs through many mother tongues. They display endurance of spirit and culture in the face of hardship and destruction. Fusing suffering with hope, these songs inspire individual and cultural endurance.
9. “Inuugannuk” (Canada, 2021, 5 min.)
Language: Inuktitut
Terry Uyarak’s “Inuugannuk” represents the perseverance of Inuit culture. Uyarak sings of his father’s advice to stop trying to adhere to the Western culture of colonized Northern Canada. Instead, his father asks him to preserve traditional art forms, remember familial stories, and embrace the spirit of Inuk unity. The lyrics convey community resilience and sound a call for younger generations to maintain traditional ways of living. The soft ballad fuses a reverence for what has been lost with a hope for future pride and preservation.
10. “Mↄkpↄkpↄ (Hope)” (Ghana, 2019, Ghana, 2 min.)
Languages: Ewe, English
Fafanyo the Pryme is a musician and spoken-word artist whose work often focuses on themes of depression, loss, and endurance. In “Mↄkpↄkpↄ (Hope),” he stands in a courtyard wearing traditional clothing, proclaiming of message of hope in the face of both material and psychological hardship. The concept of “hope” takes on that of a spiritual protector, watching over humanity and energizing us in the darkest times. With a mix of Ewe and English, poetry and music, Fafanyo the Pryme promotes enduring hope.
Mother Tongues for Change
The Mother Tongue Film Festival tends to highlight female artists, as women are often the first teachers of language. In the next two videos, female artists cross boundaries and defy expectations to advocate for justice. They fuse their traditional gender roles with their passionate causes; both featured artists use rap, a male-dominated genre, to champion their causes.
11. “Humedal” (Mexico, 2019, 3 min.)
Languages: Ombeayiüts, Spanish
2022 Mother Tongue Film Festival
In “Humedal,” Lesvia Essesarte advocates for the protection of the environment and her native, endangered Ombeayiüts language (also known as Umbeyajts or Huave). Essesarte is a schoolteacher and activist who believes that one’s mother tongue is as important to their identity as their own name. In “Humedal,” she sails through a mangrove, showcasing the lush environment her people have stewarded. Dressed in traditional, feminine clothing, she displays an earnest confidence often seen in male rappers. As a symbol of mother nature, Essesarte fuses traditionally feminine roles of teaching and nurturing with traditionally masculine roles of protection strength. She highlights the tie between culture and nature—and the necessity of protecting both.
12. “Daughters for Sale” (Iran, 2018, 4 min.)
Language: Dari
In “Daughters for Sale,” Sonita Alizadeh protests the practice of child marriage in her culture. Despite appearing as a battered bride, Alizadeh’s performance is confident and strong, fusing the expectations about her social position with her anger at the injustice she and many other young girls must face. Alizadeh was nearly sold into marriage twice during her youth. During the second attempt, as an Afghan refugee living in Iran, she created this music video in her native Dari. Media attention from this video, including the documentary Sonita (shown at the 2017 Mother Tongue Film Festival), allowed Alizadeh to relocate to the United States, where she continues to advocate for the rights of children and women.
Centuries of Rage
Many mother tongue artists use their platforms to champion pressing social issues. Indigenous alternative music fuses popular Western styles of punk, metal, and rock with themes of endured violence, displacement, and resistance. A space not only for cultural preservation but also the expression of rage, this genre promotes honest Native expression.
13. “Rū Ana Te Whenua” (Aotearoa [New Zealand], 2017, 5 min.)
Language: Māori
Alien Weaponry is a te reo metal group from Aotearoa (New Zealand). The members represent their heritage by incorporating Māori language into their music. In “Rū Ana Te Whenua,” the members sing of the historic battle at Gate Pa, Tauranga, where an outnumbered group of Māori warriors defeated British soldiers. The musicians fuse history with metal music in this sorrowful tribute to their ancestors.
Alien Weaponry was the youngest band to receive the New Zealand On Air Award to fund the studio recording and music video for “Rū Ana Te Whenua.” Their passion and efforts are crucial for preserving Māori culture and language, which is critically endangered.
14. “It Ain’t Over” (United States, 2006, 3 min.)
Languages: English, Diné bizaad
In 1989, siblings Klee, Jeneda, and Clayson Benally formed the influential punk band Blackfire. Inspired by their father’s traditional Diné music and the contemporary American rock scene, they created a space for political protest and Indigenous solidarity. “It Ain’t Over” is Blackfire’s anthem critiquing hostile governments at home and abroad. They fuse Indigenous struggles for land rights with protests against U.S. occupation of the Middle East. They combine anger at violent injustice with a hopeful message, reminding listeners that they have the power to protest social inequality.
Klee Benally passed away in December 2023, but Jeneda and Clayson Benally continue to create music as the duo Sihasin.
Past and Future
The next selection of videos blend the past with the future. These artists acknowledge the cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples while expressing a hopeful vision of Indigenous revitalization. Mixing retro and futuristic aesthetics, these videos show that Indigenous culture has a rightful place in the modern world of music.
15. “Alright” (United States, 2022, 5 min.)
Languages: Apsáalooke, English
In “Alright,” Apsáalooke musician Supaman travels through time to bring his music to different generations of Indigenous people. The video pays homage to Indigenous American culture as well as early hip-hop in the 1980s. Blending the traditional and modern, Supaman advocates for a mindset of hope, encouraging younger generations to change the world through empathy and cultural preservation.
16. “AKAKAW” (Peru, 2023, 4 min.)
Languages: Quechua, Spanish
In “AKAKAW,” Quechua rapper Renata Flores enters a portal to a world that combines Indigenous aesthetics of the past and future. She collaborates with Los Mirlos, highly respected pioneers of psychedelic Peruvian cumbia music, revitalizing their music for a new generation. She also partners with the Amazonian Murui Buue community and one of the last Taushiro speakers, Amadeo García García.
The Taushiro tribe of the Amazon suffered the violence and diseases of colonization, leaving García as the last surviving member. In the video, Flores sits with García , next to a fire which illuminates the dark jungle. “AKAKAW” references the flame of Indigenous culture that cannot be extinguished, despite the cultural and environmental damage it has endured. This video pays respect to the past and looks to the future with hope, proclaiming that this is only the beginning of Indigenous revitalization.
Transcending Genre
Much like creole languages, mother tongue music is often built by elements picked from different cultures. This aural syncretism transforms diverse sounds into something entirely unique. The following videos mix traditional music with elements from various music genres to creatively engineer undefinable music.
17. “Hêwaka Waktû” (Brazil, 2015, 5 min.)
Language: Akwẽ Xerente
2022 Mother Tongue Film Festival
Folk metal group Arandu Arakuaa begins “Hêwaka Waktû” with gentle, uplifting folk music complemented by a bright, vibrant natural setting. The song then takes a sudden turn into heavy metal territory. Electric instruments and growling vocals replace the soft, acoustic performance. The song flows through genres, culminating in a combination of folk, metal, and traditional Guaraní music.
18. “Storm” (Siberia, 2022, 4 min.)
Language: Chulym
2023 Mother Tongue Film Festival
In “Storm,” OTYKEN merge traditional instruments such as the bowed igil, mouth harp, and leather drums with modern rock elements. Their vocals weave throat singing, chanting, and screaming with melodic pop vocals. The unique mix of traditional and modern sounds creates an energetic, genre-transcending piece that warns of traveling through the frozen eastern landscape.
Heart and Home, Love and Loss
Mother tongue media is often bittersweet. Underlying the joyous celebrations of culture in this retrospective is a memory of oppression and a struggle for acceptance. The final two videos focus on nostalgic themes of nourishment and home. These heartfelt pieces express love for the cultures they represent but contain sadness and remembrance of things that have passed.
19. “Ixim Ulew” (Guatemala, 2021, 3 min.)
Language: Tzʼutujil Maya
2022 Mother Tongue Film Festival
“Ixim Ulew” is a hip-hop ballad dedicated to corn, a crucial grain of the Americas. Tzutu Kan pays homage to this earthly gift that nourished him and his ancestors. He venerates the land for nourishing him as a mother, while his own mother cooks the sacred grain. This video was shot in the ruins of Tzutu Kan’s home which had been destroyed shortly before filming. While “Ixim Ulew” is a celebration of Native foodways, it is also a reminder of the resilience Maya people have had to muster in the face of destruction.
20. “Uummati Attanarsimat” (Heart of Glass) (Canada, 2023, 3 min.)
Language: Inuktitut
2025 Mother Tongue Film Festival
“Uummati Attanarsimat” is a soulful cover of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” Set to footage obtained from the Avataq Cultural Institute and the Mary & Bill Cowley Collection, the piece resembles a home video montage. Multidisciplinary artist Elisapie Isaac conveys a nostalgic love for the Inuit way of life, with a focus on family, community, and nature. This sentimental video, tinged with sadness at the passage of time, conveys an extreme love for the concept of “home.”
Corinn Olson is an intern for the Mother Tongue Film Festival and a research assistant at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She received BS degrees in psychology and anthropology from Arizona State University.
Thank you to Amalia Córdova, Josenrique Villarreal, Cynthia Benitez, Kālewa Correa, and Bryan Yvari for assistance in curating the featured music videos.
