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Kevin Abourezk
ICT
The sounds of Indigenous drums and song will fill a Los Angeles theater March 10 at the Academy Awards.
An Osage songwriter and singing group will perform an Oscar-nominated song from the film “Killers of the Flower Moon” at the 96th Academy Awards ceremony.
Scott George, Osage, wrote the 6 ½-minute song “Wahzhazhe” (A Song For My People), which is featured in the closing credits of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and performed by the Osage Tribal Singers. The group will perform the song live at the March 10 Oscars, alongside other musical artists whose songs are nominated for best original song, including Jon Batiste, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell.
“Wahzazhe” is the first Indigenous nominee in the best original song category for the Academy Awards, which will take place at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the 96th Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 10, at the new time of 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT.
George’s best original song nod is among the 10 nominations “Killers of the Flower Moon” received for this year’s Academy Awards, including a nomination for best actress for “Killers” actress Lily Gladstone. The lyrics were written and performed in the Osage language. They encourage the tribal people to rise up, be strong and have faith through life’s ordeals.
The other nominated songs include Diane Warren’s “The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot,” and Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson’s “It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony.”
George wrote the song along with Vann Bighorse, who is the Cabinet Secretary of the Osage Nation Language/Cultural/Education Department.
George told ICT earlier in February the Oscar nomination for his song was “unbelievable and a little overwhelming at times.” He said he wrote the song after “Killers” director Martin Scorsese approached him to add a new song to the film.
“We had talked about our music and reviewed it. We have several traditional songs that probably could have delivered the same impact, but they had people’s names in them that were two or three hundred years old, and there are still people today that refer back to those as their relatives, so they weren’t appropriate for that purpose. We finally came to the conclusion that we’re going to have to compose our own.”
Martin Scorsese said in an interview for Apple Films: “By the end of the film, we had to have some sense of the presence of the Osage. They survived, and the music of the Osage is the best display of this extraordinary survival. I felt that we should end the film with a special piece of music created by the Osage.”
As far as the lyrics, George said in the two parts of the song, there’s the lead part and then there’s what they refer to as honor beats in the middle, then there comes the tail of the song where the words are.
“We’re asking my people to stand up. When you translate it literally, it’s that simple. That’s all it says. And when you ask me what I meant by it, I meant that everything that our people have gone through, especially what’s depicted in the movie, but even today, we still go through issues and situations politically and some horrific situations that are still out there about the missing Indian women and things of that nature. So we’re still going through those things. I’m saying that I want my people to stand up, be proud because God got you this far.”
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