I’m hoping many Fiddle Campers remember Mali Obomsawin. She came to MFC as a Camper back in the 2010s and graduated to the teaching staff shortly afterward. She went to school in Farmington and was a Franklin County Fiddler, studying bass under MFC teacher Steve Muise. I remember having Mali in my bass class at Camp and thinking, “why aren’t YOU (Mali) teaching this class?” Yeah she was that good!

After school, Mali went on to Berklee College of Music for a year before enrolling at Dartmouth for dual degrees in comparative literature and government in 2018, while continuing to study bass, of course.

While all this was going on, in 2014, Mali joined her first band, the folk-rock trio Lula Wiles, a collaboration with MFCers Ellie Buckland and Isa Burke, who first met at Maine Fiddle Camp when they were all still in school. They would go on to tour extensively in the US, Canada, and Germany, receiving acclaim for their renowned three part harmony singing and innovative songwriting. Signing with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in 2018, Lula Wiles released three well-received recordings before disbanding in 2021

That brings us (sort of) up to the present. Here’s a short piece by staff writer Emily Burnham published in the Bangor Daily News this month:

“A Wabanaki musician who grew up in Maine composed the score for an Oscar-nominated documentary about an investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school.

Mali Obomsawin, a jazz and folk musician who grew up in Farmington and who is a member of the Abenaki First Nation at Odanak, composed the score for “Sugarcane,” which was one of five films nominated for Best Documentary at the 2025 Academy Awards, held on Sunday (March 2). Mali didn’t just write the score for the film, but played on it as well! (Sugarcane didn’t win the Oscar. The Best Documentary award went to the film No Other Land.”

Here’s the official trailer for the film:

Obamsawin was born in New Hampshire and was raised in Farmington, later attending Berklee College of Music in Boston where she studied double bass, as well as Dartmouth College. She was a member of the acclaimed folk-rock band Lula Wiles before releasing her debut solo album, “Sweet Tooth,” in 2022. In addition to work on the film “Sugarcane,” her music has also been featured in the acclaimed TV series “Reservation Dogs.”

Her second album, under the alias Deerlady with guitarist Magdalena Abrego, came out in January 2024. The score for “Sugarcane” was released by Hollywood Records in December.

Obamsawin is also a co-founder of Bomazeen Land Trust, which promotes social and environmental justice in Wabanaki lands by protecting and honoring culturally significant spaces through the return of ancestral land and the continuance of cultural practice and presence.”

Finally to read more about this amazing musician, composer, activist, here’s a link to Mali’s web page.