Matthew “Creeasian” Wood: The connections between hip hop and powwow
Navigating the connections between hip hop and powwow
matthew “creeasian” wood moves within powwow and hip hop cultures to illuminate areas of connectivity and exchange.
Wood is a bboy, DJ, beatmaker and grass dancer living and working on amiskwaciy-wâskahikan land. He has toured extensively with A Tribe Called Red, the award-winning DJ crew, and is the founder and curator of Edmonton’s longest-running block party, CypherWild. He is also a founding member of Sampler Cafe Collective, a group that focuses on enabling entry points to the art of beatmaking.
Wood grew up with an artist mother, surrounded by ceremony, powwows and round dances. After a rebellious youth where
Wood found himself struggling against his Cree heritage, dance brought him back.
“There was something about hip hop and breaking that drew me in,” Wood explains. “I can tell you now that it reminded me of powwow, but at the time I didn’t quite understand.”
The more Wood learned about the pillars of hip hop – DJing, MCing, bboying and graffiti – the more the artist drew parallels to his cultural upbringing. From the seven teachings of love, respect, humility, honesty, courage, truth and wisdom to methods of uplifting and resistance to oppression and erasure, Wood found critical connections that led him to ask himself “Why do you dance?” and “What is your purpose?”
“It really provoked myself and others to do the homework. … And it just brought me full circle to powwow. When I went to round dances, it was the same energy,” he says.
Wood articulates how similar core values and elements weave through his experience of both cultures: the DJs, the drummers and the singers who keep the rhythm going; the MCs and the
Elders who share stories, teach lessons and invite call-and-response; and the graffiti and visual artists who “make their letters dance,” tell stories and share knowledge through beadwork, painting and drawing. While navigating these many connections, Wood is cognizant to not collapse or reduce either cultural experience.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without Black music,” he says. “It has also led me to be proud of my culture. I salute the Black community for creating that space. Finding hip hop >>
helped me. It pulled me back to appreciate my history, my heritage, and made me able to inspire others.”
Wood speaks to the importance of both acquiring and sharing knowledge, especially when Indigenous languages, dances and cultural practices have been criminalized, marginalized and lost due to colonial violence. Through the late 1990s and 2000s, Wood travelled with Red Power Squad, a performance group that worked towards Indigenous empowerment. The group visited reserves and big cities throughout Canada and the United States, engaging in reciprocal skill sharing.
“We would make it our mission to find the practice spot of that community to show up at and battle so they could help us level up,” recalls Wood. The mentoring experience fostered connections with youth and fellow artists while showing them that they can be proud to be Indigenous. “[The experience] taught me not just how to be a better dancer but how to be a better human,” Wood says.
In June, Wood wrapped up a residency with Mile Zero Dance where he shared a dancefilm in the GrassRocks style, which was founded by artists Que Rock and B-Boy Phantom. He’s also currently teaching dance, working DJ gigs and releasing new music in summer 2020.