Virtual 2 Rivers Remix 2020

Indigenous Artists for this Event!

• Brandon Peters

  Brandon Peters

  [Statimc]

  Brandon Peters is a first nations artist from Lillooet BC. He first started out performing at the age of 15 and since then has grown into an all around talented artist.

  He has opened for big names such as Snak The Ripper, Dax and Dani&Lizzy. His goal is to share his knowledge and encourage everybody to follow their dreams. You can find his music on all streaming platforms.

  [Statimc]

• Buffy Sainte-Marie

  Buffy Sainte-Marie

  [Cree]

  Buffy Sainte-Marie is a cultural tour-de-force and a tireless social justice activist with multiple JUNO awards and a Polaris Prize as well as being the first Indigenous artist ever to win an Academy Award.
  From Universal Soldier, her definitive anti-war anthem, to her 2017 album Medicine Songs, Buffy Sainte-Marie makes us all feel stronger and more capable of seeing the world around us clearly. Part rhythmic healing, part trumpeting wakeup call, Medicine Songs is her soundtrack for the resistance.

  [Cree]

• 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]

• DJ Kookum

  DJ Kookum

  [Alexis Nakota Sioux]

  Kookum is an Indigenous DJ and videographer from the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, and Cold Lake First Nations, their maternal Denesuline traditional territory. Based out of Vancouver BC, Kookum has been making a name for their self across the country and is no stranger in the community.

  Kookum is an open format DJ but grew up listing to EDM and Hip Hop music. This diverse mix diva slays on the decks and always keeps it hype, fresh, and unpredictable.

  [Alexis Nakota Sioux]

• Ecko Aleck

  Ecko Aleck

  [Nlakapamux]

  Ecko Aleck is from the Nlaka’pamux nation – Grizzly Bear clan, living on Pentlatch territory on Vancouver Island. Ecko is the artist and visionary behind Sacred Matriarch Productions. Initially launching her performing artistry with her english name Ecko, she is transitioning to take the stage as “Sacred Matriarch” for future shows and performances.

  Sacred Matriarch music can be described as the bridging between the ancestral world and modern times with a spicy addition of BIPOC truth-bombs woven with Indigenous hip hop or as Ecko likes to call it – IndigeHop.
  Ecko’s first EP launched December, 2019 and her next album is in the works for a release date later this fall/winter.

  [Nlakapamux]

• Edzi'u

  Edzi'u

  [Tahltan/Tlingit]

  Edzi’u is a 2S Tahltan and inland Tlingit sound artist, songwriter, composer. They were born in the Yukon and raised in Whitehorse, YT, spending a large part of that time in their traditional territory of Dease Lake, BC. They received a Degree in Music Composition at Vancouver Community College in 2019. Edzi’u has been performing nationally for the better part of ten years, in festivals, galleries and living rooms. Their roles in performance life have ranged from solo performer, to choir soprano, actor, and concert coordinator. Currently their art practice centers on weaving electronic soundscapes with audio manipulation, while drawing on classical songwriting elements. Their sound installations have been shown in Tkaronto’s film festival imagineNATIVE 2018 as well as 2019, while debuting internationally in 2019 at the Document Film Festival in Glasgow, Scotland.

  [Tahltan/Tlingit]

• Eekwol

  Eekwol

  [Muskoday/Cree]

  Eekwol (Lindsay Knight) is an award-winning hip hop performing artist in Saskatoon, Treaty Six Territory, originally from Muskoday First Nation. Eekwol has been making music for many years. Her 5th full-length album titled, Good Kill was released in 2017 and the single,”Pitiful feat. 2oolman” made it to the #1 spot on the National Aboriginal Music Countdown and charted in Sirius Radio and numerous college and community stations and streaming site playlists. For 2019, she successfully received a Canada Council grant and completed a concept project with fellow lyricist, T-Rhyme titled, For Women By Women.

  Eekwol uses her music and words to spread messages of resistance, revolution and keeping the language, land and culture alive for the next generations. Through her original sound she displays her activist roots by living and creating as a supporter of both Hip Hop and Indigenous culture and rights. She is currently working towards her PhD Degree at University of Saskatchewan, which she has taken along with her many years of dedication to hip hop and created something unique and astounding to give back to the community.

  Along with motherhood, music and academic work, Eekwol frequently works with young people across the country as a mentor and helper. She achieves this through performances, workshops, speaking events, conferences and programs.

  [Muskoday/Cree]

• 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]

• Gordon Dick

  Gordon Dick

  [Statimc]

  Born in Mount Currie, BC, Gordon Dick was surrounded by a family that loved music. With that influence of his early years, he started a rock band called “Siwash Rock”. His song of the same name appeared on the Grammy-nominated compilation Native North America (Vol. 1). in 2014.

  The band quickly became a sensation locally in the 1970s as they performed at weekend parties and weddings. In 2017 he performed at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival.

  [Statimc]

• Hasatuuk

  Hasatuuk

  [Nuu-Chah-Nulth]

  Hasatuuk (Kalilah Rampanen) comes from the western coast of British Columbia, Canada. Her heritage stems from the nuu_aan_u_ (Nuu-chah-nulth) territory on western Vancouver Island, Woodland Cree near Fort McMurray and Finnish ancestry. Kalilah’s music explores a diverse range of indigenous, environmental and social horizons that combine a blend of acoustic, blues and alternative styles of expression. Her passion for music took root at an early age that has blossomed into a trifecta of strong, melodious vocals, captivating guitar riffs and, a meaningful message.

  In addition to her musical path, Kailah is actively involved in activism and advocacy for the protection and preservation of Indigenous lands, culture and language. Kalilah has participated in a wide variety of campaigns that raise awareness of environmental devastation caused by mining, oil extraction, deforestation, climate justice and aquaculture. She uses her music to shed light upon the interconnectedness that is maintained through ancestral, indigenous roots to the lands and waters and she maintains a lifestyle that keeps her connected to her traditional territories, culture and family.

  [Nuu-Chah-Nulth]

• 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]

• Hujune

  Hujune

  [Dakelh]

  Hujunē is comprised of Dakelh sisters Kumbayaz Dennis (flute, vocals) and Sabina Dennis (guitar, vocals). Tying activism and lyricism together the sisters have continued to be a strong presence in the grassroots activist community as well as a strong presence on stage as they perform their all original Dakelh contemporary music.

  Sabina Dennis-Luksil yoo (Caribou Clan)
  Kumbayaz Dennis-Luksil yoo (Caribou Clan)

  [Dakelh]

• Janet Rogers

  Janet Rogers

  [Mohawk/Tuscarora]

  Janet Rogers is a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from Six Nations of the Grand River. She was born in Vancouver British Columbia in 1963 and raised in southern Ontario. Janet traveled throughout 2017-2019 working within numerous residencies in Vancouver BC, Santa Fe NM and Edmonton AB. Janet is based on the Six Nations territory of the Grand River where she operates the Ojistoh Publishing label. Janet works in page poetry, spoken word performance poetry, video poetry and recorded poetry with music. She is a radio broadcaster, documentary producer and media and sound artist.

  [Mohawk/Tuscarora]

• Jason Camp & The Posers

  Jason Camp & The Posers

  [Haida]

  Jason Camp and The Posers plays what has been dubbed Post-Colonial Rage Rock. The band consists of three Haida madmen: SG_aan Kwah.

  Agang (James McGuire) is on vocals and guitar, Jaahljuu (Graham Richard) rockets away on his drum kit and Jonny Begel hypes up the crowd.

  We write and sing about life on Haida Gwaii, local legends, good times and indigenous struggle worldwide. Our debut EP Neat Times and Family Values gives a snapshot of our sound. Our first full length album First Contact is now released and available on all platforms.

  Both of us are from Haida Gwaii and are of Haida descent. The isolation of the islands we live on has created a hotbed of talented musicians with a DIY attitude, working together to make live shows and on-island recording happen. We have created a lively scene here and have taken our brand of mischief on tour from Skidegate Haida Gwaii to Brooklyn NY.

  On top of making our high energy, rage-filled, Punkabilly music we also both perform in a traditional Haida Dance group. We are experimenting with how to let our background in Haida Dance bleed through into our recordings and our live show.Haida tradition informs our lives in every way.

  [Haida]

• 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]

• Julie Bull

  Julie Bull

  [Inuk]

  Julie Bull is Inuk from NunatuKavut, and currently lives on Epekwitk (PEI). She is a poet, a spoken word artist, an educator, an ethicist, a scholar, an entrepreneur, a learner, a philosopher, a traveler, a winter-enthusiast, a daughter, a grand-daughter, a great-grand daughter, an auntie, a bit nomadic, a change-maker, and a sh!t disturber.

  Julie was awarded an Indigenous Storytelling and Spoken-word Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in March 2020 where she learned to bring her words from the page to the stage with some unlikely integrations, influences, and imagination.

  [Inuk]

• Keliya

  Keliya

  [Sto:lo]

  Keliyah (Theresa) has a BFA in Film Production from UBC. She’s worked in the arts as an activist and hip hop artist for over ten years. She recently turned her attention to film making and hopes to bridge gaps in knowledge and understanding to tell stories that are both modern and traditional. The traditional oral history of the St—:l_ and Coast Salish people has yet to be documented and Theresa wants to be a part of that important work. Theresa wants to makes films that are impactful, not only her people, but for everyone.

  [Sto:lo]

• 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]

• Levi-D

  Levi-D

  [Secwepemc/Cree]

  The youngest of Sundown and Savage House has been holding it down since the age of 14. With shows all over BC he’s known for his double-time raps and epic freestyles.Born in Alberta, Raised in BC this kid knows what he’s doing Ð so be on the look out for his new mixtapes/albums/shows.Check Levi-D out on his prolific soundcloud”

  [Secwepemc/Cree]

• Lorelei Williams

  Lorelei Williams

  [Skatin/Sts’Ailes]

  Butterflies in Spirit: Dance, Healing, & MMIWG builds on the years of community healing work Lorelei Williams has done with her dance group, Butterflies in Spirit. Founded in 2012, Butterflies in Spirit is a dance group consisting of family members of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG).

  Lorelei Williams is a young single mom from the Skatin Nations on her mom side and Sts’Ailes on her dad’s side. To commemorate Aboriginal female victims of violence, Lorelei founded Butterflies in Spirit, an Indigenous women’s dance troupe, consisting of family members of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. To date, they have staged over 70 awareness-raising performances for organizations such as Amnesty International and Canada’s Assembly of First Nations.

  They have also traveled internationally performing at the International Women’s World Peace event in Bogota, Colombia. She started this dance group as a way to get attention to her missing Aunt Belinda Williams picture and honour her cousin Tanya Holyk who was murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton. Lorelei has volunteered at Vancouver’s Battered Women’s Support Services as a crisis line support worker. She is also an active member of the missing and murdered Indigenous women’s coalition.

  [Skatin/Sts’Ailes]

• 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]

• Miss Christie Lee

  Miss Christie Lee

  [Musqueam]

  Musqueam hip-hop artist Christie Lee Charles is Vancouver’s first Indigenous poet laureate. She raps as Miss Christie Lee, and champions poetry, language and arts, and elevating the role of Host Nation and urban Indigenous poetry and cultural practices.

  Christie Lee Charles, 33, who incorporates traditional knowledge, stories and ancient Musqueam dialect into her music, is the daughter of Henry Charles, a well-known Musqueam elder and storyteller who died last year, and during her speech to council Tuesday she highlighted her father’s work as the elder for the DUDES Club, a support group for men in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

  Her project is to connect the greater Vancouver poetic scene and the public to this history of local Indigenous communities, language and lands we live on today,” said Charles. “It will create new relationships and help elevate the beautiful and cultural understandings of my people. This will empower the young people from Indigenous communities and give them a path for creative expression.”

  “I started off with poetry in elementary and high school, and then it kind of just turned into rapping, and now it’s back into poetry, it’s all the same style,” she said. “Rapping and studying our language and our culture, that’s the most exciting thing for me.”

  [Musqueam]

• 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]

• Nimkish

  Nimkish

  [Kwakwaka’wakw /Cree]

  To fully immerse in the multitudes of Indigenous rising star Nimkish is to honour the past, look ahead to the future, and bask in the resplendent present all at once. The Vancouver-based marvel-in-the-making is fearless in her lyricism, Nimkish always brings a bright-eyed aim to flourish in all she has experienced.

  [Kwakwaka’wakw /Cree]

• 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]

• Salt Water Hank

  Salt Water Hank

  [Gitga’at/Tsimshian]

  A member of the Gitga’at community, Tsimshian folk artist Saltwater Hank resurrects stories of the land, loss and absurd circumstance and shines them through a sepia lens, witnessing ageless characters with hearts and lives on the line. Historically speaking, many have come and gone before us without broad notice, despite having made significant impacts during their lives.
  These are the stories that Saltwater Hank sinks his teeth into, spinning them into timeless folk songs with a penchant for a jig.

  Saltwater Hank’s debut album, Stories From the Northwest, is a recording built upon the influence of Hanks before him. Saltwater Hank’s father Henry (also known as Hank) was his first and most influential exposure to music, and instilled in him a deep curiosity and love for the craft. Born in Prince Rupert, Saltwater Hank’s earliest memories of gingerly strumming his father’s guitar strings, to hearing him, his grandfather and uncles perform the songs of Hank Williams Sr. and other country favourites, the influence of these formative experiences is clear when listening to Saltwater Hank.

  Recorded reel-to-reel in the basement of a church in Prince George, BC with some of the province’s best players, Stories From the Northwest is a collection of expertly played tunes with a nostalgic familiarity and a progressive tone. Recruiting Danny Bell and Amy Blanding (fellow members of retired folk-rock project, Black Spruce Bog), to accompany him on the album along with other esteemed Northern artists Naomi Kavka, Big Fancy, Brin Porter and Chloe Nakahara, Together not only as musical cohorts but as friends too, the album portrays their chemistry and camaraderie, all captured through a single ribbon microphone, true to the methods of eras gone by.

  [Gitga’at/Tsimshian]

• Sandy Scofield

  Sandy Scofield

  [Cree/Metis/Dene]

  Sandy Scofield is a multi-award winning composer, musician and singer. She has studied classical, jazz, African, Indonesian gamelan and electro-acoustic music. A Metis from the Saulteaux and Cree Nations, she hails from four generations of fiddlers, singers and musicians. Among her four recordings to date, she has won five Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, a Canadian Folk Music Award, an Indian Summer Music Award (U.S.A.), a Western Canadian Music Award and received three consecutive Juno nominations.

  Over the years, she has mentored innumerable First Nations singers and songwriters in the way of rudimentary music theory, vocal techniques, songwriting craft and music-industry protocol. She has toured to festivals on five continents with the the International Rainforest World Music Festival in Borneo, 2011 making the fifth.

  She has composed for dance, film, television and theatre, with the Aboriginal Welcoming Song for the 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies, the highlight to date.It’s a long way from playing Cajun party music to a capella vocal arrangements of First Nations songs to composing music for theatre and for our own Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver.

  Sandy Scofield has invested a tremendous spirit, navigating and negotiating through a life dedicated to music, sometimes on her own, and sometimes with collaborators. She studied full-time at Vancouver Community College taking their two-year jazz music program. She completed her degree at the esteemed Simon Fraser University School for Contemporary Arts, studying composition under the likes of Owen Underhill and electroacoustic music with Barry Truax.

  Her passion for electro-acoustic music and sound design is not new for Scofield, who has been playing with sounds for a long time. In a feature in SOCAN’s Words & Music magazine in 2001, Alexander Varty talked to her about using noisemakers or toys, such as the toy piano on “Get High”, each time she embarked on a recording project.She has taken the tool box that she has enhanced as a touring musician, through her composition work at SFU, and from the young musicians she mentors and applied them to her sense of melody, harmony and rhythm, resulting in what writer Phil Paine described as “a high-level synthesis of jazz, blues, rock and pop” with First Nations traditions. “Her music is original, refined and intelligent.”

  [Cree/Metis/Dene]

• 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]

• Simbiyez Wilson

  Simbiyez Wilson

  [Wet’suwet’en]

  I’m a 22 year old musician coming at you with a new tune called Uncomfortably Comfortable. I’ve been writing and performing since I was 10 and don’t see a future without my jazzy/folk/pop jumble of music. Born and raised in Smithers BC.

  [Wet’suwet’en]

• Snotty Nose Rez Kids

  Snotty Nose Rez Kids

  [Haisla]

  Skyrocketing Hip-hop stars Snotty Nose Rez Kids second and third albums (The Average Savage, 2017 and TRAPLINE, 2019) were shortlisted for the Polaris Prize while TRAPLINE was also named one of the top 10 hip-hop albums of 2019 by exclaim! magazine.

  [Haisla]

• 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 know 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 honored to be joined by Cass Greg (Bass, Tsilhcot’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]

• Willie Thrasher & Linda Saddleback

  Willie Thrasher & Linda Saddleback

  [Inuvialuit]

  Willie Thrasher is a gifted Inuk singer and songwriter living in Nanaimo, BC with his partner Linda Saddleback. Three of Thrasher’s songs appeared on the 2014 Grammy-nominated compilation, Native North America (Vol. 1), renewing interest in his and other Indigenous artists’ work. Thrasher’s powerful 1981 debut album, Spirit Child, which the 3 songs came from, was then reissued in 2015.

  Thrasher was born in Aklavik, Northwest Territories, in 1948 and at five years of age, Thrasher was taken from his family and sent to a residential school where he was forbidden to practice his Inuvialuit culture. Music was a way for Thrasher to escape the pain and longing. He has recorded both as a solo artist, and as a member of several bands, including The Cordells, and Red Cedar, with Morley Loon.

  Thrasher has advocated for Inuit and First Nations issues for much of his career. Today, Thrasher performs at home and around the world with his partner Linda Saddleback due to the global attention garnered by Native North America (Vol. 1). Wherever he may be, Willie Thrasher is a trailblazing troubadour with an Indigenous heartbeat sound.

  [Inuvialuit]