School of Music

Mali Obomsawin is one of GRAMMY.com’s “top ten Jazz Artists to Watch this year.” An award winning bassist, songwriter, and composer from Odanak First Nation, Obomsawin’s stunning debut, Sweet Tooth (2022, Out of Your Head), received international acclaim and was named in “best of” lists from The Guardian, JazzTimes, and NPR. Sweet Tooth’s success has brought Obomsawin’s touring sextet to major jazz festivals across the US and Canada, and landed her a triple-feature in the hit Hulu FX series Reservation Dogs’ soundtrack.

A Smithsonian Folkways Recordings artist, Obomsawin  toured internationally from 2014-2021 with beloved folk-rock band Lula Wiles. An in-demand bassist in the folk and jazz circuits, Obomsawin appears often as an accompanist with contemporaries like Jake Blount and Lizzie No, and has performed at premier festivals like Newport and Philly Folk Fest. She can also be found in galleries and creative music spaces with the likes of Peter Apfelbaum, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Bill Cole’s Untempered Ensemble. In addition to their artistic work, Obomsawin is a community organizer dedicated to land justice and tribal sovereignty.

Obomsawin received the 2022 International Folk Music Association’s “Rising Tide Award,” which honors young artists who embody the values and ideals of the folk community through their creative work, community role, and public voice. They also received the New England Foundation of the Arts’ “New Work New England” award in 2022. Obomsawin is a member of The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band and Indigenous Performance Productions’ Welcome To Indian Country. As a composer-arranger, they scored the upcoming film We Are The Warriors, and collaborated with Red Sky Performance, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Palaver Strings. Beyond the stage, Obomsawin is a community organizer and advocate for Indigenous rights, environmental justice, and landback. She works as a writer and educator with the Wabanaki-led Sunlight Media Collective to document and promote stories at the intersection of environmental justice and Tribal sovereignty. Her journalism has been published recently in Smithsonian Magazine, National Performance Network, and The Boston Globe. In 2020, Obomsawin co-founded Bomazeen Land Trust, the first-ever Wabanaki land trust, where she currently serves as executive director.