‘Notorious Cree’ James Jones Reveals Debut Music Album, Admits TikTok Opened His Eyes To Peoples’ Ignorance About Indigenous Culture

etcanada.com:

Traditional hoop dance artist and TikTok star James Jones, a.k.a. Notorious Cree, reveals he has a music album on the way  — a project that has stemmed from finding fame through his entertaining yet educational TikTok videos.

During our exclusive interview with Jones, the Canadian artist from the Tallcree First Nation in Alberta, told ET Canada’s Morgan Hoffman that he didn’t expect his videos would teach so many people about indigenous culture, admitting it made him realized how ignorant people in North America are to Indigenous culture. READ MORE: 10 Rising Indigenous Artists In Canada You Should Be Listening To “My intentions when I joined TikTok, I was honestly just really bored,” he shared, referring to the 2020 pandemic. “We were in lockdown with COVID and stuff, and I just wanted to spread some, as we say, good medicine, do some dancing videos.

I never imagined that people would be interested or people wanted to learn more. But it also opened my eyes that there’s just not a lot of, especially then, there just wasn’t, you know… people didn’t know anything about Indigenous culture. “It felt like a lot of people didn’t even really know that we were still around,” he confessed. “So there were just so many non-Indigenous people who were just wondering, ‘Hey, like, wow, I’ve never seen this before.

we don’t see this on TV. We don’t see this in mainstream social media or anything like that. So, yeah, it was really just eye opening for me, the amount of people that didn’t know anything.” Nonetheless, Jones, who was included in the first ever 2023 TikTok Indigenous Visionary Voices List — which recognizes visionary creatives, among others, using the platform to educate, entertain, and advocate for the Indigenous