We share a candid, funny, and deeply rooted conversation with Oscar-nominated composer and bassist Mali Obomsawin, tracing a path from Western Maine to Indigenous jazz lineages, archival repatriation, and a pedalboard moment with Yo-Yo Ma. Music, memory, and sovereignty braid into songs that carry both grief and lift.
• identity as Abenaki Wabanaki and citizen of Odanak First Nation
• Indigenous jazz history from Mildred Bailey to Oscar Pettiford and Don Cherry
• fiddle camps, Berklee year, Dartmouth scholarship and culture shock
• research on colonization, captive diplomacy, and Dartmouth archives
• repatriation of Abenaki recordings to the Odanak museum
• Sweet Tooth as ancestral storytelling with modern ensemble
• Deer Lady origins, Reservation Dogs placement, and shoegaze textures
• mentors, community learning, and critiques of institutional jazz
• collaborations, Yo-Yo Ma set experiment, and future wishes
• writing process for the next Dear Lady album and upcoming shows
Find me on Instagram: @maliobomsawin
Follow the pod @letshaveapowwowpod
Created and Hosted by Amy z. Farid
Follow me @therealamyfarid
The LHAP Song "Wakon" was created by Jason Guitano/Skellz @jay_anton_
Logo Design by my homegirl @DanielaHritcu
God Bless Community!
