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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

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Created and Hosted by Amy z. Farid

Follow me @therealamyfarid

The LHAP Original songs "Wakon 2" "Wakon 3", "Laud Up", "Clapt", and "Whisper" were created by Jason Guitano/Skellz @jay_anton_

Logo Design by my homegirl @DanielaHritcu

God Bless Community!