Jeremy Dutcher’s debut album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa on Monday was named the winner of the 2018 Polaris Music Prize.
The award, which honours the year’s best Canadian album “solely on artistic merit, without consideration for genre or record sales” comes with a $50,000 cash prize.
The Toronto artist created the album using archival recordings from the Tobique First Nation and performed songs in both English and the Wolastoqey language.
This year’s Polaris short-list included Daniel Caesar’s Juno-winning Freudian.
The award is determined by a panel of 11 music industry insiders and journalists. Previous winners include Arcade Fire, Tanya Taqaq and Feist. Last year's winning album was La Papessa by Lido Pimienta.