Brian Wright-McLeod (Dakota/Anishnabe) is a Toronto-based Native music journalist, media producer, archivist and educator.
He enrolled in North Bay’s Canadore College in 1978 in the journalism program and graduated from the graphics design course in 1981. While in school, he began writing for the North Bay Nugget as a concert reviewer and journalist interviewing numerous Canadian musicians including guitarist Domenic Troiano, vocalist Lisa Dalbello and local performers.
Through selling his visual art to Native-owned galleries in Toronto’s Yorkville area, he was encouraged to move to the city where he began working as a freelance illustrator and music journalist for Native publications. For a time, he was also employed as background talent for film and television productions.
His broadcast career began in 1983 at Metro (Ryerson) University’s campus-community station CKLN 88.1 FM where his on-air work evolved into the groundbreaking indigenous program “Renegade Radio” which ended in 2011 when the station ceased operations. During his time on-air, he interviewed numerous political activists, artists and musicians such as Robbie Robertson, Rita Coolidge, John Trudell along with numerous others. Additional programming in the medium included stints with CBC Radio 1, BBC Radio London, and his indigenous music show “Electric Powwow” for Sirius Satellite/Iceberg 95 that ran from 2005 to 2008.
Additionally, he freelanced for Native publications across Canada and the United States writing a multitude of interviews, feature articles and album reviews in every genre of Native music.
As a political activist, he travelled internationally representing the Canadian Alliance in Solidarity with Native People (CASNP) and the Leonard Peltier Canadian Defense Committee (LPCDC) on diplomatic tours to Italy, Libya, Mexico, and the United States.
He also served as chairman for the Aboriginal Music Category for the Canadian Academy of Recording Art and Sciences JUNO Awards from 2000 to 2004, and assisted in creating the Native American Music category for the American Grammy Awards from 1999 to 2010.
More than two decades of his research, radio programming and writing resulted in the publication of his first book The Encyclopedia of Native Music [University of Arizona 2005], and he was executive producer for the book’s companion 3-CD set The Soundtrack of a People [EMI Music Canada 2005]. The multi-award-winning projects document recorded Native music from 1905 to 2005 in traditional music, powwow, flute, spoken word and contemporary genres from the Arctic region to the U.S. Southwest.
The Encyclopedia of Native Music was a foundational pillar for the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian music exhibit Up Where We Belong (2010-2015), and the resulting multi-award-winning documentary film Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World [Rezolution Pictures 2018].
Over the years, through his work in print and broadcast journalism, he amassed probably the largest private collection of recorded indigenous music in Canada comprising several hundred 78, 45, 33 1/3 RPM vinyl recordings, cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, digital recordings, books spanning more than a century, vertical files and image bank. With the exception of the vinyl component, the audio/visual library, including published work by and about him are housed at the Ross Library, York University.
The first book in his graphic novel series Red Power, which he wrote and illustrated, was published by Fitzhenry/Whiteside in 2011. Original artwork from the publication was included in the 2017 exhibit “Direct Action Comics: Politically Engaged Comics and Graphic Novels” at the University of Massachusetts alongside Joe Shuster (Superman), Art Spiegelman (Maus) and others.
He has lectured extensively, worked as a music consultant for film, television and recording projects, and for various institutions including the Library & Archives, Ottawa; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC; the Gustav Heye Center, New York City; and the National Music Centre in Calgary, Alberta.
“Renegade Radio” was included in the Canadian Museum of History’s 2025 exhibit “Retro – Popular Music in Canada from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s”, and he was honoured by being made part of the Museum’s permanent online interview platform “Shaping Canada”.
Additionally, his activist and radio experiences are detailed in two chapters he wrote for the award-winning anthology Indigenous Toronto [Coach House Books, 2021].
For most of his professional career, Brian has delivered educational services and workshops to primary grades, secondary and post-secondary levels including college and university.
Currently, he teaches Indigenous Media at York University in the Communications department, and Indigenous Music in Culture at Centennial College Music Industry Arts and Performance program.
Course:
- Indigenous Music in Culture