Cree cover of Raffi's Baby Beluga earns Winnipeg students top prize and shout-out from children's singer

A Grade 1 class at Isaac Brock School in Winnipeg is getting a lot more attention than they expected for their Cree rendition of a popular English children's song.

Teacher Colleen Omand said it all started with a unit on animals of the North. One of her students was fascinated by the baby beluga whale.

That brought to mind Canadian singer Raffi's tune, Baby Beluga and the teacher remembered she had a Cree translation tucked away.

Omand, who has been teaching in the school's Cree-language bilingual program since it started a few years ago, started working with the 14 students in her class to learn the lyrics.

"It took quite a long time to get used to the words," she said. "Our Cree words are really long."

After weeks of practice, Omand entered their song in a contest put on by the Indigenous Languages Symposium.

Their video won first place, scoring the class a $500 prize that will go toward a pizza party and educational resources.

WATCH | Raffi says he's thrilled byIsaac Brock students' version of song:

Winnipeg students do Cree cover of popular children's song

4 years ago

Duration 2:59

A group of students recently won a national award for their rendition of Raffi's Baby Beluga in Cree. The song's original writer says he's thrilled to see his song is helping these students reclaim their language.

"They did a phenomenal job. I was so proud of them," Omand said. "They were ecstatic."

Omand, who grew up speaking Cree on Kinosao Sipi Cree Nation (also known as Norway House Cree Nation), said it means a lot to see the impact her small classroom's song has had.

Emails and social media comments have been pouring in from people excited to see students learning the language in school.

"Students are actually taking the songs home to their families and singing to them, and that makes me proud," she said.

"Through residential school, our language was almost lost. But our students are going to be the ones that are going to be learning and carry on the language to pass on. So it gives me great hope."

• Watch the students' animated video submission here

And the recognition didn't stop there. Raffi himself took notice and commented online one of the most unexpected parts of the whole endeavour, Omand said.

The children's singer said he was excited to see the new version of his song, which turned 40 last year.

"It made my heart smile and sing," he said.

"I'm thrilled that Baby Belugacan inspire reclaiming language. I think it's wonderful."