Though I Am the River, The River Is Me is about their personal journey of identity. What they found at the end of that river was that the collective is what saved them. 

Australian musician Jen Cloher plugs into her roots, giving us one of the year’s most soulful albums. The album’s name is taken from the Māori proverb “Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au”, which translates as “I am the river, the river is me.” Cloher’s mother was a well-known Māori historian and a Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Kahu woman from the indigenous Polynesian people of Aotearoa, New Zealand. On I Am the River, The River Is Me, Cloher takes us on a journey to explore the heritage on their mother’s side and reclaim that part of their identity. The album is the result of the confluence of a lot of change and endings. Cloher broke up with their long-term partner, musician Courtney Barnett, leading to the breakup of their band. Then the pandemic hit, leaving Cloher with plenty to think about. Despite all this, I Am the River, The River Is Me is by no means heavy the album seeks to lift rather than wallow. 

The connection with their heritage has allowed Cloher to bring a new depth to their music while not losing the indie lo-fi that has gained her fans worldwide. Many of the album’s highlights come with their celebration of Māori language and music. The album’s opener, "Mana Takatâpui", comes from the Māori word for queer. The musician said, “in 2019, I typed the words ‘Māori word for Queer’ into Google. The word ‘takatāpui’ flashed onto my screen with this description: ‘Takatāpui is the Māori word meaning a devoted partner of the same sex. In Western terminology, a person who identifies as takatāpui is a Māori individual who is gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Takatāpui is used nowadays in response to the Western construction of "sexuality, gender, and corresponding identity expressions.”

The resulting song is a quietly rollicking anthem to their queerness and an ode to the joy they found in the word Takatāpui: “I typed my newfound word into the Māori Dictionary app and listened to it being spoken. It was beautiful. The extended ahh after the k, giving it a luxuriousness as it rolled off the speaker's tongue. I marvelled at the idea of one word that could explain my sexuality, gender and cultural identity. What an incredible language! The next day on a walk with a queer, trans Samoan friend, I told them of my new discovery. I took a deep breath remembering the speaker on my app, and said “takataapui” aloud for the first time. A sense of belonging ensued, like a question being answered. There was a warmth in my chest, the feeling was pride.” This pride and joy continue on the next track, ‘Harakeke’ — the Northland — you feel the musician waking up to this dormant ancestry, and it is very moving.

The album is a tight ten songs that powerfully weaves Cloher’s indie songwriting and their reclaimed Māori heritage identity. On the track, ‘Being Human’, an explosive haka chant from Naarm-based Te Hononga ō ngā Iwi backs Cloher, and in the title track — a moving contemplation on ecological disaster — finds the musician singing in te reo Māori, the official language in Aotearoa since 1987.  One of the album’s highlights, ‘He Toka-Tū-Moana,’ is sung entirely in te reo Māori. Māori artist Te Kaahu joins Cloher, the two voices delicately weaving around a quietly plucked acoustic guitar. Most of all, this song encapsulates what this album is about.  Cloher wants to bring light to the Māori part of her and introduce the world to their artists, culture and language, with the album not so much being about Cloher. It’s a tough charge, but I think Cloher handles the responsibility with great respect and tenderness, as they clearly have no interest in exploitation but rather celebration. Though I Am the River, The River Is Me is about their personal journey of identity. What they found at the end of that river was that the collective is what saved them.