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Jayli Wolf is a true artist, using her life experiences as blood memory to write the narrative of her craft. Raised in British Columbia, Wolf was unknowing that she, her ancestors and her father were of the Saulteau First Nations (Anishinaabe) of Moberly Lake, BC near Fort St. Johns. She is a survivor of a Jehovah’s Witness doomsday cult which she escaped to reclaim her life as her own, fall in love and share her story to empower others.
Wolf uses her music to release the guilt taught to her in her youth around her bisexuality, depression and mental health. Wolf and her partner, Hayden Wolf, who was also a doomsday cult survivor, entered the music scene in 2015 as a duo under the name, Once A Tree. Wolf explains that “being free now, my deprogramming has also allowed me to question the societal conditioning around relationships and sexual orientation. I hope this [work] brings people feelings of power and freedom in their own personal explorations.”
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By escaping the clutches of the cult she was once in, Wolf was able to reconnect with her birth father. Together they discovered their Indigenous roots through her father’s birth records and birth family. Due to the Sixties Scoop, a series of policies enacted in Canada that legalized the removal of Indigenous children from their families to be placed in foster homes to be adopted by white families, her father had no idea of his lineage.
From finding out about her roots, Wolf embarked on her own personal journey of reclamation of her Indigenous heritage. With this came the release of her autobiographical solo debut EP, Wild Whisper (2021). This collection of music embodies the same unique, indie sound as her work in Once A Tree with Indigenous subject matter very clear in the vocals on this 6-piece album. On Wolf’s website, she writes, “I finally have to courage to use my voice in telling these stories… to shed more light on the subject matter, raise awareness, and bring comfort in solidarity with other survivors of the ‘Sixties Scoop’, sexual abuse and high-control religious groups.”
I have no doubt that this talented artist will strike a chord in you with the heartfelt lyrics and bassy sounds she shared in her music. Listen to Wild Whisper on Spotify to hear her rendition of a piece of Canadian history.