Album Review: Dakota Ray Hebert, I'll Give You An Indian Act

“Well, I hope I’m funny! That’d be cool, right?” This is how Dakota Ray Hebert addresses and welcomes her waiting audience, and I can confidently say that she is funny and then some. Hebert’s debut album, I’ll Give You an Indian Act fits so much into its 30 minutes of material. Not only does it have barrels of laughter, but it surprises with its astute and hilarious observations, historical facts and ability to paint an entertaining scene. 

Hebert has a uniquely funny way of ridiculing (complete with vivid impersonations) the politicians whose names are the titles for tracks 3, 5, 6 and 7. These were some of the men who in 1876 created The Indian Act (an act that still stands to this day) and those who upheld it almost a century later. Hebert points out the hypocrisy of wanting to show a racist murderer – who oddly outlawed the potlach – respect in track 3’s “John A”.  The way in which Hebert pokes fun at these men who have been problematic to Canada’s Indigenous people (to say the least) allows the audience to enjoy the absurdity of reimagined historical inaccuracies, against a backdrop of actual historical atrocities. Hebert does this in such a light way that the audience still howls along with her, while simultaneously being audibly aghast at some of the truths Hebert casually drops. A perfect example of this is in the culminating “Dirty Talk” (track 15).

Unlike the government, who Hebert admonishes, “Makes promises they can’t keep,”, she delivers the audience more than what they expected, in the best of ways. I'll Give You An Indian Act has endless laughter, mixed with truth that both confronts and allows the audience to not only really enjoy everything Hebert is delivering, but to be left wanting more.

I'll Give You An Indian Act was released on October 31, 2022 by Howl & Roar Records.
Listen to it here.