Kelly Montijo Fink takes us on her musical journey

DK: We are visiting with Kelly Montijo Fink "White Sparrow," Mexican, Apache, and Spanish, a wife, mother, adjunct Spanish professor, singer-songwriter, and creative artist. She has multiple Native American Music Award nominations and won a NAMMY for an album that she co-produced as "Best Compilation CD" in 2011 with her song "More" as the featured track. Discography: Heartbeat of the Creator (2008), Songs of War & Victory (2010), The Color of Hope (collaborative work 2011), Don't Let Me Forget (2013).

What would you like us to know about you that we might not know yet?

KMF: The name "White Sparrow" was given to me by a Kalapuya brother in a naming ceremony. The "white" is for purity of heart and the "sparrow" is a song bird.

DK: How did you realize that music was your path?

KMF: I've been singing for as long as I can remember. I've just always loved music! In school I sang in choir groups and musical theater. I've sung everything from Italian opera to Madrigal music, rock / pop, folk, Mexican mariachi, Native drum songs, and now (curiously) rap and hip hop.

In our household growing up I heard everything from Elvis to disco, Freddy Fender to traditional Mariachi music. In my younger years, I would say that I was particularly drawn to the voices of Linda Ronstadt and Pat Benatar-women with powerhouse voices! I have so many influences today that it's hard to just pick one. I love Latin music and would love to do an album all in Spanish some day.

DK: As a Native woman, how does your heritage influence your music?

KMF: My first album, Heartbeat of the Creator, is more of a traditional sound. It was birthed out of my spending hours every week for the better part of three years praying for our Native peoples. Really, it's a collection of prayer songs with the voice and drum. My second album Songs of War & Victory is about identity and has a lot more instrumentation and covers everything from pop and blues to contemporary folk and Native drum songs. I can't stay put in one genre.

To me, every song has a personality that is expressed through a particular genre. So I write music across genres.

DK: As you write your music, where do you dream it will take you in the future?

KMF: It's funny that you should ask that because I do literally dream of myself on stages or sometimes singing over people. I hope to continue to do that which I see in my night dreams. Wherever I'm supposed to go, that's where I want to be. I have also spoken to some particular people about doing collaborations and I'm excited about that possibility.

DK: What do you think makes your music so powerful and so popular?

KMF: I believe that my music connects with people's spirits, no matter where they are or what language they speak. Our spirits are always crying out for hope and truth. If a song can release that in someone's life, then that is healing.

guess I'm most surprised to learn that my music has traveled overseas to places like France, Austria, Russia, Israel, Peru, and Colombia. I love hearing the stories of the people that hear my music. For example, that some kids adopted from Africa listen to my drum CD every night before bed; that a young Cherokee woman incarcerated in Texas was changed by it or that a young woman who was sexually assaulted was brought peace by it.

A teacher who bought my music indicated that she would use it in her classroom and a doula wanted to play it while her moms (patients) were birthing children. How cool is that? I'm thrilled that music is so accessible to everyone.

DK: Wonderful! What are some of your songs that have special meaning to you?

KMF: Here are just a few. "Song of Freedom" was birthed in that season of intense prayer. I was going to a gathering where I had been asked to bring healing with sound. In one of those particular times of prayer...I heard the words and began to sing them over and over so that I would remember them. I knew that Creator God was giving me a song to sing over someone at that gathering. Sure enough, I met Beth there and that was her song. She wept as I sang it to her and told her the story of the song. "Supposed To" became kind of a chick anthem and the idea came when I was reading the Penny Saver (local paper with events and ads) in my kitchen and I was thinking, "Everyone wants to make their mark.....so what kind of impact do I want to have and what do I want to impart as a woman to my own daughter?"

"The Awakening" was written in a time when Creator God was speaking to me in dreams and revelations about my Native heritage (I am Apache, Mexican, and Spanish). In one particular dream, I saw the face of a Native man and immediately knew that he was one of my ancestors. I knew that I was being "called out" to walk in greater understanding of who I was created to be in the fullness of ALL that I am.

Interestingly enough, sometime later a total stranger (non-Native) sat down with me and told me that he had this vision of me and began to describe that same man that I saw in my dream. Before I met my husband, he had also had a dream about a woman with dark hair wrapped in a Native blanket.

DK: Tell us about your creative process. How do you know when you have a hit?

KMF: I don't really try to force a song. Some songs come quicker than others. They may come in bits and pieces, but eventually become fully formed. I keep both scraps of paper and Word documents with songs waiting to happen or songs in progress. Sometimes it's just a line or two of lyric, other times it's just verses or choruses around a particular theme. I use my phone to record melodies that pop into my head at any time. I feel responsible to take note of what I've been given.

The greatest moments are when people feel the impact of a song and it resonates with them-when a song or songs give them courage, determination, freedom, healing, hope. Those are the moments I treasure the most because I believe it to be a reciprocal experience. I pour out what I have, they receive something from it and I, in return, am encouraged by their response.

My most cringe-worthy experience was when I was in college and had been asked to sing with a Mariachi band in a regional festival. I was pretty naïve about just jumping in with the band to sing. I just met them that day and we had about fifteen minutes of practice before the half-hour performance. It was a disaster. The ironic thing about that was the very next day I went to a quinceañera (15th birthday party for a girl) and the same Mariachi band had been hired to play. They called me up to sing a song with them and it went much better that time.

DK: How can we find your music or connect with you?

KMF: You can always contact me directly at indigenouity@aol.com if you'd like to order a CD, rather than do a download.

DK: What do you wish we knew about you and about your music right now that we don't?

KMF: My family and friends fill my time. I'm so blessed by both. I love to take walks and create (arts and crafts) so any free time I have that's what I like to do. may describe myself as a singer-songwriter, but I'm really a song catcher I try to catch the messages I hear and adapt them into musical form. I always say that the truth doesn't have to be complicated, but it helps if it's catchy.

I'm a work in progress and so is my music. I couldn't do it alone. One of my favorite quotes is from the Guatemalan singer-songwriter Ricardo Arjona who said, "Songs are born in absolute solitude, but they find accomplices." I have been blessed to find so many talented accomplices along the way who have mentored, instructed and encouraged me as well as lent their talents to my projects.

Dr. Dawn Karima Pettigrew (Creek/Cherokee) is a NAMMY winning recording artist, who hosts A Conversation With Dawn Karima, a Native American radio program that airs on TalktainmentRadio.com and its affiliates. Her home is the Qualla Boundary Reservation in North Carolina.