It’s been great, hasn’t it? Talk about a showcase for indigenous performers. Every night, we’d think the show at the First Nations Pavilion couldn’t possibly match the previous night’s – but it always did.

Tonight’s performance is called “The Road Forward” with Evan Adams, Pura Fe’, Leela Gilday, Byron Chief Moon, Jennifer Kreisberg, Michelle St. John and Kevin Loring.

Adams is an actor featured in “Smoke Signals” (He said: “Some days, it’s a good day to die. Some days, it’s a good day to have breakfast.”) and now is a physician serving aboriginal communities. Watch a video interview with him here.

Pura Fe’ and Jennifer Kresiberg, both Tuscarora, sing with the a capella women’s group Ulali. See previous post with video, here.

Actor, artist and dancer Byron Chief Moon is Blood and Cree, and also is a Two-Spirit person. Watch an interview with him here.

Leela Gilday (video above) is a North Slavey Dene singer with a big, big voice from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. Here‘s her MysSpace page.

Michelle St. John, who is Cree, has starred in several films, including 1989′s “Where the Spirit Lives,” about aboriginal children being removed from their homes. Watch an excerpt below.

Kevin Loring of Vancouver is a member of the Nlaka’pamux First Nation. His first play, “Where the Blood Mixes,” won second prize in the Canada-wide Herman Voaden National Playwriting Competition a couple of years ago. Check out an excerpt here.

Enjoy, and let’s keep looking for all of the artists featured in the last two weeks.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Smoke Signals", 2010 Winter Games, Blood Tribe, buffalo post, Byron Chief Moon, Cree, Dene, Evan Adams, First Nations, First Nations Pavilion, Gwen Florio, Herman Voaden National Playwriting Competition, Jennifer Kreisberg, Kevin Loring, Leela Gilday, Michelle St. John, Native American news, Nlaka’pamux First Nation, Pura Fe', Tuscarora, Two spirit, Ulali, Vancouver Olympics, Where the Spirit Lives

Tonight’s show is called Crossing Bridges, featuring Jason Burnstick, who is Cree from the Duffield reserve in Alberta.

Here’s the official blurb on him:

Jason Burnstick is a remarkable guitarist whose eclectic range and musical wit make him a favourite of the national Aboriginal recording and producing arena. This evening, Jason unpacks a whole new show featuring all kinds of tunes, guitars, pedals, gadgets and gizmos.

Check out his MySpace page, here.

And enjoy the video above, which shows Burnstick accompanying Tinsel Korey at the 2008 Aboriginal Achievement awards.

For a complete schedule of events at the First Nations Pavilion, click here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Winter Games, Aboriginal Achievement Awards, Alberta, buffalo post, Cree, Duffield reserve, First Nations, Four Host First Nations, Gwen Florio, Jason Burnstick, Native American music, Native American news, Vancouver Olympics

This evening’s lineup at the First Nations Pavilion features Coastal Wolfpack, Whitefish Juniors and Meewasin Oma.

Coastal Wolfpack (watch them in the video above) performs traditional Musqueam and Stó:lo songs. Then, Saskatchewan’s Meewasin Oma sings peyote prayer songs (video below). Finally, the Whitefish Juniors sing powwow songs (bottom video).

For the full schedule of events this week at the First Nations Pavilion, click here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Winter Games, Coastal Wolfpack, First Nations, Gwen Florio, Meewasin Oma, Musqueam, Powwow, Sto:lo, Vancouver Olympics, Whitefish Juniors

It’s a two-part evening tonight: First up, aboriginal short films introduced and presented by Bird Runningwater, associate director of the Native American and Indigenous Programs at the 2009 Sundance International Film Festival.

He’ll be followed by a band that, as the promotional material says, “has pretty much won all the available music awards this country has to offer. Musical sensation Eagle & Hawk will rock out at the Chiefs’ House.”

If you’re not familiar with them, you really, really want to watch the video below. There are plenty more on YouTube, and on their Web site, here.

Meanwhile, for the full schedule of events this week at the First Nations Pavilion, click here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Winter Games, Bird Runningwater, buffalo post, Eagle & Hawk, First Nations, First Nations Pavilion, Native American and Indigenous Programs, Native American news, Sundance, Sundance International Film Festival, Vancouver Olympics

Tonight’s simply titled program at the First Nations Pavilion, Drums and Voices, says it all. It’s all about percussion and singing, with styles that span the globe. Featured are Valerie Naranjo, Steven Alvarez, Pura Fe’ and Cary Morin.

Pura Fe’ (video above) is a founding member of the Native women’s a capella group Ulali, and is of Tuscarora and Puerto Rican ancestry. Here’s her Web site.

When people refer to Ute percussionist Valerie Dee Naranjo as world-renowned, they mean it literally. She’s won an African xylophone percussionist in Africa, and also has played with the Saturday Night Live band, according to this piece. Watch her in the the video below.

Steven Alavarez is Mescalero Apache. Here‘s a link to his solo timpani performance at the National Museum of the American Indian.

And Cary Morin, from Fort Collins, Colo., performs on his own, as well as with Pura Fe’. Catch him on his MySpace page, here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Winter Games, buffalo post, Cary Morin, First Nations, Gwen Florio, Mescalero Apache, National Museum of the American Indian, Native American news, Pura Fe', Saturday Night Live, Steven Alvarez, Ute, Valerie Dee Naranjo, Vancouver Olympics

The promo for tonight’s performance at the First Nation’s Pavilion describes it this way: An explosive evening of DJs, rappers and hip-hop royalty. Don’t miss as artists such as Feenix, Team Rez Official, Ostwelve, Kaiva and Def 3 rip it up on stage.

We say, we defy anyone to to listen to this and not dance.

Watch Feenix on the video above.

And, you can watch a video of Team Rez Official below (warning: not safe for work!).

Nunavut’s Kaiva, led by Li’l Bear, brought break dancing to the youth of Nunavummiut. Find out more, here.

Vancouver’s Ostwelve, aka Ron Dean Harris, was born into Coast Salish and Sto:Lo territoritory, according to his MySpace page, which has all sorts of other interesting information about him.

And here’s the MySpace page for Def3, who’s based in Regina, Saskatchewan.

For a complete schedule of events at the First Nations Pavilion, click here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Winter Games, buffalo post, Coast Salish, Def 3, Feenix, First Nations, Four Host First Nations, Kaiva, Native American news, Nunavummiut, Nunavut, Ostwelve, Sto:lo, Team Rez Official, Vancouver Olympics

Tracee Hamilton of the Washington Post, here, calls the decision by Russian ice dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin to stick with the aboriginal costumes and music that spurred so much controversy “bizarre, to say the least.”

The pair skated in the original dance portion of the ice dancing competition in a routine that brought outrage from Australia’s aboriginal community after it debuted last month in Estonia.

They toned it down some: While both still wear brown body stockings adorned with leaves, and Shabalin wears a loincloth, the body stockings in question are lighter and Domnina no longer has white paint on her face.

And, while they scored well, audience response was decidedly tepid. Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the night’s competition, with Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White coming in second. Domnina and Shabalin ended up in third.

In a Sydney Morning Herald editorial, Bev Manton, chairwoman of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, writes:

“Our dance, our ceremony and even how we look is the basis of much of our culture. Our designs and images have evolved over 60,000 years. We’re understandably fond of them, and we don’t like seeing them ripped off and painted onto someone’s body for a sporting contest.”

Members of the Four Host First Nations met with the pair last week and talked with them about cultural sensitivity, then gave them wool blankets with Coast Salish designs. The pair displayed those blankets after skating the compulsory portion of the competition a couple of nights ago, draping them over their shoulders as they awaited their winning scores.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Winter Games, aboriginal, Maxim Shabalin, Oksana Domnina, Vancouver Olympics

Blues Indigo is the theme, with yet another lineup that gives us the blues because we aren’t there.

Murray Porter, who is Mohawk from the Six Nations Reserve, starts off the evening. Porter’s performance on the Steinway piano designed especially for the Olympics is featured in the video above. Here’s his MySpace page.

Then there’s Leanne Goose, who is Dene/Inuvialuit from the Arctic Circle town of Inuvik in the far western Northwest Territories, just a slice of the Yukon between it and Alaska. Experience her high-energy roots music in the video below, or on her Web site.

Rounding out the evening are performances by Shakti Hayes, Jared Sowan (also on MySpace), and Pat Braden, (here, on MySpace).

For a complete schedule of events at the First Nations Pavilion, click here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Winter Games, buffalo post, Dene, First Nations, Four Host First Nations, Inuvialuit, Inuvik, Jared Sowan, Leanne Goose, Mohawk, Murray Porter, Native American news, Northwest Territories, Pat Braden, Shakti Hayes, Six Nations, Steinway, Vancouver Olympics

Will they or won’t they? Olympics viewers find out tonight if Russian ice dancers stick with aboriginal costumes
Russian ice dancers Maxim Shabalin and Oksana Domnina made a point – after winning the compulsory portion of their competition – of showing off the red, white and black blankets given them by members of Canada’s Four Host First Nations. The pair met with First Nations representatives who talked to them about cultural sensitivity after a furor arose over their Australian aboriginal-style costumes and music during an earlier competition, the AP’s Nancy Armour writes here. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge even said he might intervene. But, says Shabalin, “Our routine was very fair, and we respect this culture.” He and Domnina remain coy as to whether they’ll wear the costumes – consisting of dark body stockings, white aboriginal-style markings, and large leaves – tonight in the Olympics.

No curse on Norwegian athletes, First Nations leader says
In fact, Bob Chamberlin, chairman of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council and secretary treasurer of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, says cursing has never been part of First Nations tradition. Nonetheless, the Montreal Gazette reports here, there have been suggestions aboriginal people put a curse on the Norwegian Olympic team because of Norwegian-owned fish farms along wild-salmon migration routes.

Native ranchers praise settlement of black farmers’ suit; urge quick action on their own
The Obama Administration announced late last week that it will settle untimely civil rights claims of black farmers for $1.25 billion. Now, those involved in the 12-year-old case of Keepseagle v. Vilsack regarding Native farmers and ranchers urge the administration to follow up on talks it started in the fall with a quick eye toward resolving that suit, too, Farm Forum reports here.

Storage of nuclear waste on Indian reservations “economic racism akin to bribery”
Health News Digest says here that it gets why some impoverished tribes host hazardous waste on their sovereign reservations – which are not subject to the same environmental and health standards as U.S. land – as a way to bring in money. But Bayley Lopez, of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, says that “in the quest to dispose of nuclear waste, the government and private companies have disregarded and broken treaties, blurred the definition of Native American sovereignty, and directly engaged in a form of economic racism akin to bribery.”

Crow Creek Sioux Tribe launches telephone system
The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe’s lephone system is up and running on the reservation, according to the AP, here. Tribal leaders say the telephone and advanced broadband services provided by Native American Telecom-Crow Creek will pave the way for business, economic, social and educational development on the reservation.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Winter Games, aboriginal, buffalo post, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Four Host First Nations, Ice dancing, Keepseagle v. Vilsack, Maxim Shabalin, Musgamagw Tsawataineuk, Norwegian Olympic Team, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, nuclear waste, Oksana Domnina, Vancouver Olympics