Morgan Toney (Canada)

Morgan Toney is a Mi’kmaq fiddler and singer-songwriter from the Wagmat cook First Nation in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He began his musical life as a drummer before turning to fiddle in the late 2010s, developing a sound he calls “Mi’kmaltic,” a fusion of Mi’kmaq song and Cape Breton Celtic fiddling. Alongside longtime collaborator Keith Mullins, Toney released his debut album, First Flight, independently in 2021, funded partly through a community crowd-funding campaign. His subsequent albums, Resilience (2023) and Heal the Divide (2024), have been recognized at Canada’s Juno Awards, with Heal the Divide winning Traditional Roots Album of the Year in 2026. Toney continues to learn the endangered Mi’kmaq language partly through the songs he performs, connecting with elders and his father, a fluent speaker.

Featured Song:

“Ko’jua” (Celebration Dance) is one of more than fifteen traditional song variations within the Ko’jua repertoire, a fast-paced style of Mi’kmaq circle dance performed at gatherings for generations. This version, titled after its opening word, “wapikatji’j,” is known in the tradition as “The Little White-Footed Dog.” Toney’s rendition, from his 2021 debut album First Flight, has introduced the song to a new generation of young Mi’kmaq listeners.

Artist Website

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