2 Rivers Remix Virtual Feast - WE ARE STILL HERE! - Day 1

Indigenous Artists for this Event!

• Amanda Rheaume

  Amanda Rheaume

  [Metis]

  One of Rheaume’s great gifts as a songwriter is her ability to take the personal and make it universal, drawing upon her own experience to deliver messages with a wide resonance. She digs deep on The Skin I’m In, reflecting upon her Metis heritage, as on the profoundly moving title track and “Return To The Water,” and addressing issues of identity and mental health.

  [Metis]

• Big Willie G

  Big Willie G

  [‘Namgis/Kwakwaka’wakw/Nlaka’pamux]

  Garret T. Willie is a 21-year-old Blues, Rock, and Country folk musician. He grew up listening to the Blues greats Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Johnny Cash. You can feel it in his ability to tell his life stories in songwriting. Born in Campbell River BC, his music showcases the complexities, hardships and tenacity of a 1st Nations youth and how he’s turned that into a zeal for life.

  URL https://youtube.com/channel/UC-0Y3XNZyfi_u8Q69Wg1-Dw

  [‘Namgis/Kwakwaka’wakw/Nlaka’pamux]

• Curtis Clear Sky and the Constellationz

  Curtis Clear Sky and the Constellationz

  [Blackfoot/Anishinabe/ Maori/Guarani]

  Curtis Clear Sky and the Constellationz captivate audiences with their funky rhythms, thundering percussion, blasting horns, soulful harmonies with empowering lyrics that gratify your soul. Their highly-engaging performance will make you “bump with the booming blasting blare”, “you’ll be moving your feet like you don‘t care”. You can find Curtis Clear Sky and the Constellationz latest album Indigifunk that features Juno Award winning Mohawk Bluesman Murray Porter on their single “Turtle Island”. Indigifunk is available on all digital streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple music. In 2020 Curtis Clear Sky and the Constellationz are developing a new album with super talented Indigenous musician Beaver Thomas and they will highlight news songs at the upcoming 2 Rivers Remix Virtual Feast show.

  [Blackfoot/Anishinabe/ Maori/Guarani]

• Digging Roots

  Digging Roots

  [Anishinaabe]

  Digging Roots breathe life into songs from their land, Turtle Island, to raise their voices in solidarity with a global chorus of Indigenous artists, activists and change-makers. For over a decade, JUNO Award winners Digging Roots have traveled the world with a joyful message of resistance, celebrating Anishinabe and Onkwehonwe traditions of round dance and interconnectedness interwoven with the bedrock sounds of blues, soul and rock n’ roll.

  [Anishinaabe]

• DJ SHUB

  DJ SHUB

  [Mohawk]

  2022 Contemporary Indigenous Juno-winner, DJ Shub has pioneered a growing genre of electronic music – PowWowStep – since his initial start with internationally-acclaimed group A Tribe Called Red. Born Dan General, he is a Mohawk, turtle clan of the Six Nations of the Grand River located in Ontario, Canada. Since the creation of PowWowStep, he has grown more aware of the Indigenous way of life through his music, merging his heritage with his craft. As a solo artist, DJ Shub released his first EP “PowWowStep” in 2016 and has since played some of the biggest music festivals in North America. He’s also been featured in a number of national media outlets. His song “Indomitable” was notably handpicked by Sacha Baron Cohen as the theme music to his hit Showtime series, “Who Is America?”

  URL https://www.djshub.ca/

  [Mohawk]

• Geo AKA The Voice

  Geo AKA The Voice

  [Secwepemc/Cree]

  George Ignace ~ Geo aka The Voice~, (Vocals, Beats) is Secwepemc and Cree, began working with The Melawmen Collective in 2007 through projects as artist, facilitator and producer.

  He is also a prolific wordsmith, a talented visual artist, and has collaborated on written published works, as well as other film projects, and practices his traditional culture through harvesting and processing traditional foods.

  [Secwepemc/Cree]

• Helene Duguay

  Helene Duguay

  [Mikmaq]

  Helene is a legendary bass player, who use to play with ‘The Beatlettes’, an all female pop band in the 1960’s in Montreal. She brings many years experience tearing it up on stages throughout North America and Asia.

  At seventy-five years of age, Helene shows no sign of slowing down, and can hold her own with the best of them on any stage! Proud of her French/Miqmaq heritage, and fluent in French, she performs at numerous fundraisers for various Indigenous communities and organizations throughout British Columbia.She has been featured on the TV shows, Rez Bluez and The Mix, and several episodes of Beyond Words on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. Helene also performed bass on both Murray Porter’s albums.

  From the girl groups and go-go boots of the sixties and through all the twists and turns in popular music since, Helene plays all styles with authenticity and heart.

  [Mikmaq]

• JB The First Lady

  JB The First Lady

  [Nuxalk/Onondaga]

  Jerilynn Webster, aka JB the First Lady, is a member of the Nuxalk & Onondaga Nations. She is a Vancouver-based hip hop and spoken word artist, beat-boxer, cultural dancer and youth educator.

  With four studio albums under her belt, JB sees her songs as a way of capturing oral history, and isn’t afraid to write lyrics that speak to challenging subjects like residential schools and missing and murdered indigenous women.

  [Nuxalk/Onondaga]

• Kin Balam

  Kin Balam

  [Nahua Purulapan Pipil]

  Kin Balam, the path of the jaguar (Indigenous Maya/Lenca) is an unprecedented, groundbreaking musical project of world music, comprising of virtuoso Flamenco guitar, Afro Latin rhythms, Indigenous (Meso-American) instrumentation, Hip Hop of social political content, and improvisational elements of Jazz.

  This powerhouse of musical spirits come to electrify, and deepen our souls’ beats, while changing the perspective, spiritual quality and vibrational frequencies that hold our bodies and minds in limitation. Indigenous tradition, African drumming of Latin America, Flamenco Gypsy language, Rap hood Poetry, and Jazz improvisation are the cultural ingredients that give rise to the originating group phenomenon Kin Balam who offer us a message of hope, rebellion, reconnection, and the medicine of living from our hearts.

  Balam S Antonio, aka Kin Balam studied under the renowned flamenco guitar master Jeronimo Maya In Spain Madrid. Born in the Indigenous lands of Kuxkatan (El Salvador) in the heart of a Central American revolution, along with his family he came to Turtle Island, Canada as a refugee of war. Descending from a long family line of musicians, Kin was born with a unique gift of musical abilities that would one day come to determine the direction and intention of his living. Burying his heart in the pain of urban violence as a teenager with a soul hungry for meaning, Kin opted to die to a self-destructive lifestyle that shattered the foundation of his community, making a vow to focus all of his might and capabilities to create a sound that spoke the positive message and cultural power he felt lacked in the world.

  Since then he has dedicated his entire being to the refining of his skills, potential, and music to reflect the voice found in his soul, and to serve the oppressed communities of our world. Kin Balam symbolizes the returning to ourselves, to our roots, to our deepest truths, to our learning of tangible love, to the healing of our pain, to decolonizing, to reconnection, to forgiveness, to the mistakes that fructify into teachings, to the actions required by a necessary social, environmental, and political change. For all we truly leave behind and before us, is the legacy of our actions. And it is this very legacy, which we all must be soulfully, and mindfully giving rise to.

  [Nahua Purulapan Pipil]

• Kinnie Starr

  Kinnie Starr

  [Mohawk]

  JUNO-winner Kinnie Starr, a multi-threat songwriter, performer, visual artist, filmmaker and producer. Starr is a trailblazing female Indigenous artist with her unique blend of conscious hiphop and groove driven pop.

  [Mohawk]

• Kiva MH

  Kiva MH

  [Secwepemc/ Nuu-Chah-Nulth]

  Kiva Morgan-Hall is a Secwepemc/Nuu-Chah-Nulth youth grounded through the roots of his people. He started his artistic solo and collaborative journey with The Melawmen Collective at the age of 7 years old, as a participant of their workshops (visual, song writing), then as a youth facilitator, and later as a working lyricist of the group as an early teen.

  He is a trained traditional cultural Nuu-Chah-Nulth dancer and performer, and his young wisdom shines through his verses, time and time again, relating to all generations.

  [Secwepemc/ Nuu-Chah-Nulth]

• Lacey Hill

  Lacey Hill

  [Oneida/Mohawk]

  Lacey Hill is Oneida/Mohawk of Six Nations of the Grand River Reservation, Wolf Clan. She is a singer/songwriter and inspirational speaker. Lacey went solo launching her debut album titled 528, independently, in 2013, which put her in the music scene and opened up the stage to perform her original songs. 2017 Her sophomore album 528 Volume II M has taken Lacey across Canada and on to international stages. 2018-19 Lacey traveled to New Zealand, Australia and UK, stage managing and providing original compositions for Tara Beagans’ theatre production DeerWoman. 2020, Lacey released and premiered “The Shiner” as a single for APTN’s Amplify series. 2021, Lacey is gearing up to release her 3rd album. Check her social medias for more details.

  [Oneida/Mohawk]

• Leela Gilday

  Leela Gilday

  [Dene]

  A passionate singer/songwriter and soulful performer, Leela Gilday has a voice that comes straight from the heart. Confessing her stories to her audiences with a gutsy voice and open stage presence, Gilday weaves her experiences as a northerner, a member of the Dene nation, and a traveler into a beautiful world that transports the listener.If you’re from the North, Leela’s music is home. If you’ve never been, it will take you there. Born and raised in the Northwest Territories, she writes about the people and the land that created her. The power in her voice conveys the depth of her feelings of love and life in a rugged environment and vibrant culture, as if it comes straight from that earth. Leela’s family is from Délįne on the shore of Great Bear Lake and her rich vocals dance across the rhythmic beats of traditional Dene drumming as smoothly as a bass line onstage the largest venues in the country.Leela has toured festivals and concert halls with her four-piece band through every province and territory in Canada. She has played in the United States, Greenland, Australia, New Zealand and several countries in Europe. Her live shows are where she connects with fans who have followed her on a 20-year career and where new fans are born. She reaches into their hearts and feels the energy of every person in front of her as she guides them on a journey through song and experience. Shebelieves music has an inexplicable effect on people. It is a place where she can share light and dark and the most vulnerable moments, with a clarity and genuine purpose that reassures her listeners through every word. She is a storyteller, and through this, reflects the world onto itself.Leela’s fifth album “North Star Calling” was awarded the Indigenous Artist of the Year JUNO Award 2021. It is more raw, more intimate and more Leela than anything you’ve heard from her before. She is currently working on a Dene-language record with her close friend and producer Hill Kourkoutis. It is expected out summer 2024.

  URL https://www.leelagilday.com/

  [Dene]

• Lido Pimienta

  Lido Pimienta

  [Wayuu (Columbia)]

  Afro/Indigenous/Colombian/Canadian/punk/folklorist/traditionalist/transgressive/diva/angel. There are so many layers to Canadian-Colombian singer Lido Pimienta’s identity that you might get lost in them. But if you did, you’d be missing the point.

  Her multi-textural, mind-bending voice and music project what Canada’s The Globe and Mail called her “bold, brash, polarizing” persona, which constantly confronts the powers that be. But it also reveals an embrace of the Afro- and Indigenous traditions that is at once defiant, delicate and sweetly nostalgic.

  URL https://lidopimienta.com/

  [Wayuu (Columbia)]

• Madelaine McCallum

  Madelaine McCallum

  [Metis]

  MADELAINE MCCALLUM is a dancer originally from Ile a la Crosse, Saskatchewan. Though she is well known for Métis dance (she’s been jigging since she could walk!), she enjoys all forms including Pow Wow, contemporary, Hip Hop and just movement from the soul. Madelaine has performed for many stages. Performing was a natural progression into choreographing her first solo piece which includes Powwow dancing, contemporary and Metis Jigging.

  Through many performance’s with her solo piece and collaborating with many dance/theatre companies such as Compaigni Vni Dansi, Dancing Earth and Full Circle etc. Her passion for dance has taken her all over Canada. Madelaine is currently one of the choreographers for Butterflies in Spirit, a dance group made up of family members of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Founded by Lorelei Williams. Madelaine has a passion for sharing her knowledge of dance and culture.

  Madelaine also shares her story of survival and how dance has been her outlet and savior throughout her life. Her belief in sharing knowledge with her community to empower and strengthen them and her deep love of dance and firm belief in its healing powers, for the audience as well as the dancer, is what makes Madelaine McCallum such a name to look out for!

  [Metis]

• Ms.PANIK

  Ms.PANIK

  [Haida]

  Lyrical Wisdom, Looped Melodies & Rhythm.
  Turn up your inner Freq* with Award-nominated Haida loop-poet, interdisciplinary artist & producer Ms.PAN!K. Experimental loop-pedal-driven soundscapes merge and mix vocal elements, traditional drum, guitar, and percussion all overlaid with poignant lyrics to satiate and meditate on. Haida wisdom is woven with multiple genres; PAN!K explores live PA and production tangling indie and folk roots with elements of hip hop, spoken word & Indigenous soul.
  2019 Western Canadian Music Award Nominee for “Spiritual Artist of the Year.”
  Ms.PAN!K is originally from the unceded territory of her Xaayda Ancestors on Haida Gwaii she is of the K̲aayahl ‘Laanaas Clan. PAN!K works, lives, plays and writes tunes on the unceded ancestral territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht & Nuu-chah-nulth Nations.

  URL https://www.panikdanyk-music.com/epk-media

  [Haida]

• Murray Porter

  Murray Porter

  [Mohawk]

  Murray Porter is Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. He tells the Aboriginal side of history with a mixture of country, blues and humour. He’s a “red man, singing the black mans’ blues, living in a white man’s world!” (from his song “Colours”).

  Murray is a self-taught, singer, songwriter and piano player, who’s spent the last 30 years playing the blues throughout the world, spreading his unique style of foot-stomping, hand clapping, rockin’ blues piano!

  Now living in North Vancouver, British Columbia, his CD “Songs Lived & Life Played”, was released to rave reviews in 2011 and won a JUNO Award for “Aboriginal Album of the Year” in 2012. He was also a 2005 JUNO nominee for ‘Full Circle’ with his former group THE PAPPY JOHNS BAND, and Canadian Aboriginal Music Award winner for ‘Best Blues’.In 1994, he launched a solo career. In 1995, Murray recorded his first solo album “1492, Who Found Who?” for First Nations Music (distributed by EMI).

  In 2006, Murray performed at the “Out of Doors Festival”, at the LINCOLN CENTER in New York City at their “23rd Annual Roots of American Music Festival”, on a 10 foot grand piano, with Sipho Kunene on drums. Blues greats, such as Mavis Staples, Guy Davis, Larry Johnson and Bettye LaVette, were part of the festival. He also performed at “Native Sounds Downtown” at the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, in New York City.

  [Mohawk]

• Old Soul Rebel

  Old Soul Rebel

  [Cree/Kainai/Ojibwe]

  Old Soul Rebel is the musical musings of Chelsea D.E. Johnson and Lola Whyte. They offer a raw blend of original soul music and bad ass rock ‘n roll and were featured on the second season of CTV’s “The Launch.”

  With a repertoire inspired by their respective First Nations and African American upbringings, Old Soul Rebel’s music vividly recites the honest experiences of human life. Formed in late 2015 by a like-minded need to sing stories of their past, Old Soul Rebel has graced many stages and festivals across Canada. The band was recognized as one of the 11 Best New Bands of 2016 by CBC Radio Music.

  “Chelsea Johnson is truly one of the most talented singers Vancouver has ever been blessed with.”
  – vanmusic.ca

  [Cree/Kainai/Ojibwe]

• Ostwelve

  Ostwelve

  [Sto:lo/Nlaka’pamux]

  Emcee Ron Dean Harris aka Ostwelve, is a Stolo/Nlaka’pamux multimedia artist based in Vancouver, BC.
  As hip-hop artist Ostwelve, he has performed in numerous festivals and has opened for acts such as Guru, K’naan, and Snoop DoggRon got his start with professional graphic design at the age of 14 after submitting a design to a Vancouver-based skateboard company “Arson” and got this design printed. In the same year he began co-hosting the “When Spirits Whisper” on CO-OP Radio 100.5 FM (formerly 102.7 FM).

  In the past years he’s worked on number of projects, most prominently as an actor and composer for APTN/Showcase dramatic series “Moccasin Flats” for two seasons as a performer and a lead character, and in the subsequent film project “Moccasin Flats: Redemption” in 2007. As well, he was the lead composer for APTN children’s Cree language series “Nehiyawetan: Let’s Speak Cree”.

  He has gone on to contribute music to TV series such as ARCTIC AIR, MOHAWK GIRLS, FIRST STORY, SKYE & CHANG and film projects like FIRE SONG, NUMBER 14, THE ROAD FORWARD, WINDIGO TALE and CEDAR & BAMBOO.

  In 2011, he was hired as Content Manager for RPM.fm, an Indigenous music culture website based out of Vancouver. The website focuses on bringing the latest of Indigenous music culture to its audience, as well as a podcast series of which he was the host. The podcast was selected as the recipient of the United Nations DPI Gold Medal as well as being awarded a Silver Medal in the Culture & The Arts, Audio Podcast category at the New York Festivals Awards.

  Check out the podcasts here: http://rpm.fm/podcasts/

  Most recently, Ron is featured in the National Film Board musical documentary “The Road Forward”, directed by Marie Clements. https://www.nfb.ca/film/road_forward/Ron performed and emceed at 2RMX in 2019 and 2018.

  [Sto:lo/Nlaka’pamux]

• PIQSIQ

  PIQSIQ

  [Inuit]

  With a style perpetually galvanized by darkness and haunting northern beauty, sisters, Tiffany Kuliktana Ayalik and Kayley Inuksuk Mackay, come together to create Inuit style throat singing duo, PIQSIQ. Performing ancient traditional songs and eerie new compositions, they leave their listeners enthralled with the infinity of possible answers to the question “what is the meaning of life.”
  With roots in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot and Kivalliq Regions, the sisters grew up in Yellowknife, NWT, where endless sunlight shines for two short summer months and deep, wintery darkness consumes the rest of the year. These environmental extremes had a huge impact on Tiffany and Kayley’s overall aesthetic and the pair have always engrossed themselves in creating soundtracks to life that reflect this natural phenomenon.

  [Inuit]

• Quanah Style

  Quanah Style

  [Cree]

  Quanah Style is Canada’s most infamous 2-spirit trans recording artist and house music diva. From coast to coast, there are few dance floors who haven’t felt her presence. After a brilliant run of singles on the Toronto-based LGBTQ+ record label Wet Trax, Quanah became a Pride festival fixture, performing her anthemic hits with vogue dance crew House of La Douche. Music videos for songs such as her debut “Beat of My Heart” and the Storyhive award-recipient “Give Me Life” showcase Quanah’s undeniable star-quality. Her incredible stage presence, signature vocals, and inspirational story led her to become the subject of several documentaries produced by CBC Arts, World of Wonder, APTN and Vice Magazine. She has also opened for Peaches, Bif Naked, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and more.

  URL http://quanahstyle.com/

  [Cree]

• Shawnee Kish

  Shawnee Kish

  [Mohawk]

  Shawnee, 2-Spirit singer-songwriter, is winner of CBC Music’s 2020 Searchlight and named one of Billboard’s “LGBTQ2 Artists You Should Know.” Her Debut EP is available everywhere!

  URL https://shawneekish.com

  [Mohawk]

• The Melawmen Collective

  The Melawmen Collective

  [Secwepemc/ Nuu-Chah-Nulth/ Nlaka’pamux]

  A contemporary Indigenous alternative fusion woven together with elements of hip/trip-hop, rock/folk, righteous rhymes and rich harmonies, carried through with experience, manifestation, and visions of intergenerational stories of pain and healing. The Melawmen Collective brings a uniqueness to their sound like no other, drawing in a wide variety of listeners through sharing their own journeys of life through their musical evolution together. ‘Melawmen’ means medicine in the Secwepemc language, and the unceded territory of the Secwepemc People in what is now known as BC, is where co-founders Meeka Morgan (vocals, Secwepemc/Nuu-Chah-Nulth), Rob Hall (Vocals, Ghengis Ghandi’s, Ashcroft), Geo Ignace aka Geo The Voice (Vocals, Secwepemc/Cree), and Kiva Morgan-Hall (Vocals, Secwepemc/Nuu-Chah-Nulth), continue to grow. The collective is honoured to be joined by Cass Gregg (Bass, Tŝilhqot’in) and Victor Laso (Drums, Republic of Chile).

  URL https://themelawmencollective.bandcamp.com/

  [Secwepemc/ Nuu-Chah-Nulth/ Nlaka’pamux]

• The Spiritual Warriors

  The Spiritual Warriors

  [Lil’wat]

  The internationally acclaimed music group, The Spiritual Warriors, create music inspired by the land and life in the coastal mountains of the Lil’wat Nation. With their unique blend of indigenous chants and contemporary roots, rock, reggae, the Spiritual Warriors are distinctly west coast. The band perform most of their songs in Ucwalmícwts and are passionate about preserving and promoting their language and culture. The uplifting reggae rhythm only underlines the beautiful harmonizing of the vocals sung bilingually in English and Ucwalmícwts the Lil’wat language. The Spiritual Warriors, formerly known as Kalan Wi, are led by father and daughter, Leroy (vocals, guitar) and Daisy Joe(vocals) and accompanied by founding member Rich Doucet on drums, Mike Rowe on Bass, Cuyler Biller on guitar, Quentin De Lorenzis on keys and Leonard Fisher on percussion. The band regularly collaborates with other first nation artists and musicians to write and perform live. Ancestors’ their debut album was released in 2019 and has received 4 nominations at the Native American Music Awards in New York and won for Best World Recording. This truly unique band will take you on a cultural journey to the natural heartbeat of the Indigenous drum and the St’at’imc people.

  URL https://thespiritualwarriors.ca/

  [Lil’wat]

• Tzo'Kam

  Tzo'Kam

  [Lil’wat]

  Tzo’kam means “chickadee” and “visitors are coming” in the Stl’atl’imx language. Flora Wallace and her family have sung together at family occasions and community events for more than 50 years. After elder Flora Wallace participated in the Aboriginal Women’s Voices gathering (1997) at Banff, Alberta, the family decided to expand their efforts to share the culture.

  It did not take long for Tzo’kam to hit the stage and start recording. The first major concert by Tzo’kam was at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in the summer of 1997 opening a stage that featured Buffy Saint Marie and Keith Secola. Tzo’kam recorded for the Smithsonian Institution, for Silverwave Records and released three CD’s on their own. Since 1997 Tzo’kam has performed at many festivals and concerts including Folklife in Washington D.C., Full Circle Concert in Calgary, Alberta, Harrison Arts Festival in Harrison Hot Springs, B.C., Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver, B.C., and many conferences and gatherings.

  Tzo’kam, under the direction of Russell Wallace, continues to work within the Aboriginal communities and educational communities to teach, share and maintain a tradition that has been kept alive by dedicated elders.

  [Lil’wat]