Barbara Assiginaak for kids: her life, her music, and what to play first

Barbara Assiginaak is an Anishinaabe composer from Manitoulin Island, in Ontario. She writes for orchestras, choirs, and small groups, and she performs her own music on the pipigwan, a traditional wooden flute. She has also written piano pieces for students, named for birds and for times of day. The best first piece for a child is “Niimi Aandeg,” which means “Crow Dances.”

Quick facts

• From: Mnidoo Mnissing, also called Manitoulin Island, in Ontario
• Nation: Anishinaabe (Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi)
• Era: Living composer
• Plays: pipigwan (wooden flute), drum, voice, and piano
• Known for: music that joins Anishinaabe traditions with the instruments of the orchestra

The life in short

Assiginaak has made music for voice and for the pipigwan since she was a child. She learned in two ways at once. She learned the songs and instruments of her own people, and she trained in classical piano and composition.

She earned a diploma in piano from the Royal Conservatory. She studied composition at the University of Toronto and then in Munich, Germany.

She has worked as a composer since 1995. Orchestras, choirs, theaters, and dance companies have asked her for music. She often performs in her own pieces as the soloist, singing or playing the pipigwan while the orchestra plays around her.

She teaches composition at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Ontario. In 2023, she was named a Member of the Order of Canada.

Some of her music is printed under her earlier name, Barbara Croall.

Her family’s history

Assiginaak is a descendant of chiefs who signed treaties in Ontario. She is the child and grandchild of survivors of residential schools, where Indigenous children were taken from their families. Many of her projects speak of these histories.

Parents can decide how much of this to share. For a young child, it is enough to say that her music carries the language and the stories of the Anishinaabe.

What the music sounds like

Her student pieces are named for birds and for times of day. They point a child toward sounds that can be heard outside.

The pipigwan is a wooden flute with a soft, breathy tone. In her concert pieces, it plays beside the instruments of the orchestra, and she is often the soloist.

Her titles are in Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Anishinaabe, with an English meaning beside them.

Pieces to play first

“Niimi Aandeg (Crow Dances).” A Level 1 piano piece in the Royal Conservatory lists. Ask your child what the crow is doing.

“Miimii.” The title is the word for the mourning dove. Listen for the dove.

“Biidaaban.” The word means the first light of dawn.

A piece for pipigwan and orchestra. Search for a recording of Assiginaak playing the pipigwan with an orchestra, and listen to how the flute and the orchestra answer each other.

Things to do together

Say the words. Practice the three titles: Niimi Aandeg, Miimii, and Biidaaban. Each one names something a child can see or hear outside.

Listen outside first. Sit outdoors for two minutes with eyes closed. Count the sounds. Then play “Miimii” and listen for a bird.

Crow steps. Play “Niimi Aandeg” and move as a crow moves: hop, stop, and look around.

Dawn drawing. Play “Biidaaban” and draw the sky at first light.

Whose land? Find Manitoulin Island on a map. It lies in Lake Huron and is the largest island in a lake anywhere in the world. Then find out which Indigenous nations live where you do.

For piano students

Her student pieces are in the Royal Conservatory books, starting at Level 1. A beginner can play music by a living Anishinaabe composer in the first years of lessons. Ask the teacher for one.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for Barbara Assiginaak. Read about more composers in Canadian composers for kids, women composers for kids, and living composers kids can hear today.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.

Sources

Checked in November 2026.

• National Arts Centre. Barbara Assiginaak.