photo by Bren Wyona
Mali Obomsawin is a performer, composer, and improviser. She is best known for her evocative singing, compositional storytelling and bass playing in her experimental ensembles and her band Deerlady. She is a citizen of Abenaki Nation at Odanak. Mali also works in film as a composer, writer and actress.
She composed the score for the Oscar-nominated documentary Sugarcane (2025) directed by Julian Brave Noisecat and Emily Kassie, and scored, wrote and narrated Lokotah Sanborn’s experimental doc Otherworld (2025). Her music was featured in the FX series Reservation Dogs in 2023. She has collaborated with musicians Raven Chacon, Esperanza Spalding, Yo-Yo Ma, Taylor Ho Bynum, and visual artist Cannupa Hanska Luger in recent years.