Jade Turner

 With a natural talent for telling stories through music, rising Canadian country artist Jade Turner continues to share and support the Indigenous culture that inspires her. Recognized for her original songwriting and stunning music videos, the member of Misipawistik Cree Nation has already established a diverse audience attracted to her energetic stage presence and singles like “Somehow Someone,” “Hangover Blues,” and “Worth.”

“I can only have my own stories, so if I want the music to be true to me, it all has to be coming from my point of view. The stories I tell will be different but I feel we’re all the same in different ways,” she says. “In the communities where I grew up, we’re storytellers and we’ve always been storytellers. Country has been a huge part of my life because it’s a storytelling genre.”

Turner and her family are from Misipawistik Cree Nation, known in English as “Grand Rapids.” She was raised in the northern communities of Manitoba, where local radio stations played Indigenous music as well as songs by country artists. She often competed in singing contests as a kid, even though she lived in a lot of different communities as her mother moved frequently with her nursing job. After being bullied at one school when she was 7 or 8 years old, Turner pretended to get on the school bus one morning but actually skipped classes and hid in the woods, biding her time until it was time to go back home.

“It was the middle of winter and I just sat there writing songs all day and humming songs to myself,” she recalls. “That’s the earliest time I can remember writing – as far back as I can remember.”

After that incident Turner was sent to live with her father in Misipawistik Cree Nation, where he served as chief, until her mother completed her term. In the years that followed, taking comfort in music helped Turner get through the bullying and also gave her an outlet to express herself.