Kym Gouchie

Kym Gouchie is an indigenous Canadian musician and visual artist. She plays the acoustic guitar and traditional hand drum, sings, composes songs, and tells stories. Her music often deals with First Nations, women's and environmental issues and promotes reconciliation and community building.

Personal life and education

Gouchie was born in 1964 to Ernie Gouchie, a son of prominent elder Mary Gouchie, and Robin Gouchie. She is a member of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, a Dakelh nation whose territory includes the city of Prince George, British Columbia, where she lives. She is of Dakelh (Carrier), Secwépemc (Shuswap), Cree and Irish ancestry. She has four children and ten grandchildren.

Apple Music characterizes her musical style as '‘alternative folk'’

Most of her songs are in English, but Gouchie has also composed songs in her endangered ancestral Carrier language, working especially with her grandmother Mary Gouchie, one of the last fluent speakers of the Lheidli dialect, until her death in 2019 at the age of 97. In 2008 she received a C$8,000 grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to compose songs in the Lheidli dialect.

Influence Gouchie's music has inspired others. Angela Rudden, principal violist with the National Ballet of Canada and music teacher at the Dixon Hall Music School in Toronto, was inspired by Gouchie's 2016 song "Cleansing the Highway of Tears" and played it to her class. She and her students then wrote an orchestral score to accompany the song. Gouchie subsequently recorded a new vocal track to accompany their score.

Awards and honours

In August 2015 her single 'For the People' was included in a collection of information about the Canadian Indian residential school system, the Truth & Reconciliation Compilation CD. The same month her single 'Sister Rain' made it to the top of the NCIFM National Aboriginal Top 40 Music Countdown. The following year she was an invited speaker at the International Indigenous Music Summit in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The same year, she received a gold medal for her contributions to the BC Summer Games, where she performed in the opening ceremonies and for which she designed the medal ribbons, with themes based on local wildlife.

In 2025 she was one of the five nominees for the Juno Award for Children's Album of the Year.

Discography

Mountain of Youth (2014) Sister Rain (2015) In the Hearts of You & Me (2016) Northern Shining Star Woman (2017)