DJ Keeps the Fire Burning

Kevin Kicking Woman found solace in music from a childhood of abuse. Now, as a radio DJ, he shares across the airwaves the traditional music that helped him overcome his struggles.

Every Friday morning on Montana's College Radio station KBGA, Kevin Kicking Woman shares the traditional music of Turtle Island with his listeners on his show Greeting the Sun. It's the music that helped see him through a difficult childhood - adopted out of his family at the age of two, Kicking Woman experienced abuse and bullying as he was moved through multiple homes.

From RezNetNews, Volunteer DJ Shares the Power of Native American Music:

...he began to sing Native American songs that gave him strength. Singing became a gateway that allowed him to leave this world and lose himself in the music and the power of the songs.

“When I start singing I praised the spirits that help carry me," he said.

And now he helps others through the power of music as a volunteer DJ at KBGA College Radio at the University of Montana where he has his own show called ‘Greeting the Sun’. Kicking Woman’s show airs every Friday morning from 6-9 a.m.

Kicking Woman has taken his love for music to a post secondary education, with an undergrad in Native American studies and anthropology, he is now completing a master's degree in cultural anthropology in music. He's working towards using that degree to document the traditional songs of the Blackfeet tribe.

His path to a happy, successful life wasn’t an easy one, but it’s one that can be learned from.

His mother left him when he was six months old, leaving his father to raise him. But his father had problems of his own. He eventually was placed into three abusive homes until he was finally old enough to take care of himself. At nine-years-old Kicking Woman had enough. After being knocked out by a shoe that was thrown at him from across the room he turned to prayer for help.

"I sat at the edge of the bed and I began to cry. I asked God to kill them and I was going to kill myself. All of a sudden I got this really warm feeling in my body and it was like a message came to me. It said ‘Look into your heart there’s a fire burning don't let it go out’,” Kicking Woman said.

Read the whole story at RezNetNews and stream KBGA live at kbga.org.