Handing the Mic to the Mosaic: Lessons on Race from Canadian Music Artists of Colour

One of Canada’s most notable traits as a nation-state is its policy of multiculturalism or its national identity as a “cultural mosaic”. In this research-creation project, 11 music artists of colour from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver were asked how multiculturalism affects their cultural identities and music-making practices. This research builds on existing work that has lauded music as a valuable site for studying race relations within Canada. Investigating Canadian multiculturalism as an active political ideology, this project comprises both a written analysis and podcast series. Multiculturalism is mediated diversity which distracts away from the inherent whiteness at the centre of the colonial settler-state. As an ideology and dominant discourse, it filters down into infrastructures and everyday interactions. This project points to some of the ways that this occurs for artists of colour, namely through the static and single-layered dimensional framings of their work. On top of this, this research shines a light on how discourses around traits for a sellable and successful music, act i.e. “authenticity” and “relatability”, are also informed by this brand of Canadian race politic. More importantly, this thesis showcases how artists in their music-making practices navigate these nuanced barriers as well as how their works and perspectives offer robust alternate understandings to state multiculturalism