Irene Bedard and Deni have been a band for 5 years. They have recorded 4 records and have been nominated for numerous music awards.
They perform original contemporary music with traditional Native and American roots.
Their music finds its sound in the marriage of two cultures with a message of love for the human nation, with no exclusions. Their latest album Ravenboy to be released in the fall of 2009, deals directly with some of the issues facing Alaskan Native youth. As well as the ancient art of storytelling as told by Irene.
Irene Bedard is best known as an actress and has starred in over 42 movies, and many television shows.
Irene was the speaking voice and likeness of Disneys "Pocahontas ".
She has starred in many TNT movies such as" Lakota Woman","Two for Texas", "Crazy Horse" and Steven Spielbergs "Into The West" .
Cult classic "Smoke Signals", and many more (check out IMDB).
Irene has won over 15 best actress and best supporting actress awards .
Irene has had several films released in 2009 including" Tortilla Heaven" with George Lopez and Elaine Miles, and "Cosmic Radio" with Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas and Micheal Madsen (which features new music from I.D.) This year will also be released Terrence Malicks "Tree of Life" with Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and Fiona Shaw.
She has also just completed the 2nd year of the new Spiderman animated series, for which she is a regular.
Deni began his music study at the Canal Street Tavern in Dayton Ohio working as a sound engineer from the age 15-22.
Deni learned music from the many legendary greats that played there during that time including blues greats Willie Dixon, Taj Mahal, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy to name a few. All sorts of musicians played there , all had an influence on him. Country to bluegrass, Celtic to Zydeco and many modern rock stars.
Deni s first band won many local band contests. This led him to leave Ohio for the big apple where he met Irene Bedard. They waited tables at the famous Around the Clock in the east village and were soon married.
Deni is an indie musician and recorded with many bands over the years and has starred in off Broadway theater. Deni won an mp3 Grammy for best male vocalist. He has scored 6 films.
Irene and Deni have married for a long time and have a 6 year old named Quinn.
In 2007 Irene Bedard and Deni launched an acting and music program for Native American kids.
Here is their mission statement, written by Irene.
Creativity in the human mind is the heart of the soul and lives everywhere and belongs to everyone.
Dream Potential: Inspiration for Native Youth
A youth mentoring and leadership program through the use of the performing and media arts.
Statistics show that per capita in the United States Native American youth have:
1) the highest drug and alcohol use rate
2) the highest teen pregnancy rate
3) the highest teen suicide rate
4) the highest high school drop out rate
5) the highest college drop out rate
I believe the causes are multigenerational and multilayered.
Because I am Alaskan Native and was born and raised there and because the culture shock and contemporary cultural deconstruction which has overtaken our Native American youth, I see a great need of epidemic proportions to create a bridge, not a buffer to the effects of coexisting in two worlds.
How: To ease the culture shock through combining traditional cultural pride and modern multimedia mediums.
Where to begin: At this time we are creating a performance of Alaskan Native traditional stories set to music and are intending to perform and include traditional Alaskan Native dancers to go on tour to all the remote Alaskan Native villages and schools. We will then engage the youth in creating stories, songs, theater and music with the use of computers, recording equipment, HiDef camera equipment and 10-15 digital cameras for the youth to create visual life diaries.
Our 1 goal is to create both personal and cultural self-esteem. Through this process, the end result will be a reality documentary of the struggles of Alaskan Native youth and the beauty of cultural survival in the face of social factors, acculturation stress, environmental factors and political warfare.
All Alaskan Native youth should be considered to be "at risk" youth by the simple fact that they are living subsistence lifestyles passed down from the beginning of time, many whose first language is of their traditional heritage and yet they are exposed to the partial or complete values of the prevailing social system. Where do they belong? How can we make them strong in their cultural identity while still retaining the ability to function in contemporary society?
Then there are those urban youth who face discrimination, more access to the influences of Western society, including drug and alcohol use and because of the multigenerational deconstruction of traditional ways are more likely to face domestic violence, sexual abuse and alienation.
Our youth are fractured and in epidemic proportions.
There are outward reasons this documentation should also be considered. This is not only a human interest story, but an environmental story and laden with political hauntings.
In 1958, in Point Hope, Alaska, 1000 tons of uridium, thibidium and cobalt were intentionally buried in the ground and water sources simply because during the cold war the U.S. government wanted to find out what eating radioactive food would do to people.
In my lifetime, glaciers which have existed for tens of thousands of years have simply vanished. The arctic ocean is rising and whole villages have had to move upland from ancestral homes. And during the winter, when whole villages and/or individuals make passage to another village to maintain multigenerational relationships, because of global warming and no snow for the snowmobiles and dogsleds, they are unable to do so. So these relationships are dying. And the State of Alaska has threatened to defederalize the tribes which would cause tremendous turmoil in the state of affairs of tribal existence.
In the meantime, 6 out of 10 Alaskan Native youth are not living to the age of 18. This is an epidemic.
We have already accomplished shooting a documentary, a public service announcement, an original song recording and a music video through Raven, a youth mentoring program.
We believe we could continue this work through a series of conferences for the performing arts and the media arts for Native American youth with a long term goal of creating a school, with a 1-year college preparatory program for the performing and media arts using great Native American talent such as actors Adam Beach, Wes Studi, Sheila Tousey, and Elaine Miles, directors such as Chris Eyre and Valerie Red-Horse, and musicians such as Jim Boyd and Keith Secola.
All of these artists are pioneers having achieved so much in their careers. That experience should come back to the next generation.
Each youth will be involved, whether it is in front of the camera, or as a recording engineer, an actor, singer, writer ,or director of their own autobiographical documentary. It is our hope to send every youth out into his or her own world with their own camera to challenge their perceptions of life, to facilitate personal reflection and introspection.
In shooting these documentaries our goal is to capture indigenous culture, inspire this generation to rise to personal and cultural affirmation and to raise awareness in the mainstream American consciousness, for we are the invisible people, but one might only hope that through some catalyst such as this project we may not face extinction.
Over the years we have found that live performance and film can really open the minds of young people. Even if they don't listen to the kind of music we play or watch the kind of movies we make.
To be affected by an experience that is new can be very powerful.
Inspiration can change the world, and that's worth everything.
