{"id":233278,"date":"2019-10-03T02:25:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T06:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=233278"},"modified":"2019-10-03T02:25:55","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T06:25:55","slug":"juno-awards-rejig-indigenous-category-to-focus-on-artists-instead-of-albums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/03\/juno-awards-rejig-indigenous-category-to-focus-on-artists-instead-of-albums\/","title":{"rendered":"Juno Awards rejig Indigenous category to focus on artists instead of albums"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After 25 years of awarding the albums produced by Indigenous creators, the Junos will now consider the broader work of Indigenous musicians within the qualifying year. (Photo<\/a>: The JUNO Awards\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO — Juno Awards organizers are shaking up the Indigenous music category in hopes of putting a bigger spotlight on the artists.<\/p>\n

After 25 years of awarding the albums produced by Indigenous creators, the Junos will now consider the broader work of Indigenous musicians within the qualifying year.<\/p>\n

As such, what used to be presented as the Indigenous album of the year will be retitled as the Indigenous artist or group of the year award.<\/p>\n

The changes will take effect at the Juno Awards in Saskatoon next March.<\/p>\n

The Juno advisory committee for the Indigenous category says the decision was made in recognition of frequent questions they receive from Indigenous artists \u201cwho believe they’re submitting to a category meant to shine a spotlight on the accomplishments of Indigenous people.\u201d<\/p>\n

For artists to qualify, they must be Inuit, First Nation or Metis, while groups must have at least half of their members from those backgrounds, the organization said.<\/p>\n

The committee noted broader conversations have questioned the purpose of the Indigenous category at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel strongly that this change will eliminate a lot of the confusion and put us in a better position to explain the need for the category, when challenged,\u201d the organization said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Since its introduction in 1994, the Indigenous category has undergone many changes.<\/p>\n

Originally called the best music of Aboriginal Canada recording, it was renamed numerous times before the Junos settled on Aboriginal album of the year in 2010.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, a committee of Juno organizers moved to rename the category Indigenous music album, in order to reflect the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People a year earlier.<\/p>\n

But its foundation has been seen by some critics as a way to silo Indigenous artists into their own category.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, best Indigenous music album winner Jeremy Dutcher used his acceptance speech at a Junos industry gala to ask his fellow nominees to stand and be recognized.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of your work changes this place, and it deserves to be considered outside of this category,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause our music is not niche. Our music is saying something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO — Juno Awards organizers are shaking up the Indigenous music category in hopes of putting a bigger spotlight on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":96482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-david-friends","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233285,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233278\/revisions\/233285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}