By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
When Canada’s premier music award, the Juno, was presented March 29 in Hamilton, an Alderville-born and -raised artist took one home.
Jordan Mowat – son of Jan Mowat and former chief Dave Mowat, alumnus of Roseneath Centennial Public School and the former CDCI East – won as a member of the Bear Creek drum group in the Traditional Artist or Group category in recognition for their album On The Move, recorded at the 2025 Apache Gold Intertribal Powwow.
Bear Creek was formed in 1998, and it’s their first Juno win – and Mowat is the first person from Alderville to win a Juno.
The original inspiration for Bear Creek drummers were their family members in Batchewana First Nation near Sault Ste. Marie gathering and sharing their stories, Mowat said in a recent interview. They formed their own group called Chinodin and started travelling.
They eventually met up with a medicine man, the late Adam Lussier, and asked him for a name – Makwa Ziibiins was the one he gave, which translates to Bear Creek.
“We have been competing for such a long time and, when it comes to travelling to powwows, we travel far – it’s not just in Ontario – travelling into the US as well and competing against the top drum people,” Mowat said.
Born and raised in Alderville, he now lives in Sturgeon Falls (where he originally moved to attend college). But his roots are still strong, and he gives a lot of credit to his parents.
“They kind of gave us that choice to be connected to our ways – it wasn’t forced on us. Luckily for me, I just really connected with this at a very young age.”
Mowat shared a memory of his dad passing the drums to him when he was about two and a half years old.
“From as early as I can remember, I have always been around the drums, through traditional music and contemporary music. We grew up with that in my home,” he recalled.
“I was probably the only one in my seven-year-old-friends group listening to musicians with names like Alvin Wolf and T-Bone Walker.”
Being a musician has also brought him healing personally. Sober for two years now, he has concentrated on an album of his own (The Poetry Scars) and an indie music project (Smile In Trouble). Writing his own songs, he finds he can often just come up with the first couple of lines and isolate the theme his song should take.
Mowat describes the Bear Creek Juno win as “such a surreal moment.
“We have to give it to the group, because they have been at it for so long.
“I joined them originally in 2015. Five years prior to that, they were actually nominated for a Grammy.
They attended that Grammys (ceremony), they walked the red carpet,” he related.
“It’s just such a big representation for Indigenous people – it’s almost kind of felt like we were not supposed to be heard.
“I can remember about 10 years ago literally being told that there was no value within our music. I was told this by a company. They didn’t see any value in this music.
“For myself personally, us winning a Juno, it was kind of just like – wow! There is value, and it’s not just the award. It’s through the people that connect with this. That is where the value is for us. It’s an acknowledgement,” he stated.
“Some people just don’t understand but, to the ones that really, truly listen, they understand what it’s all about.”
