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.
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.
It’s International Indigenous Day at the First Nations Pavilion in Vancouver!
Up tonight: Tjupurru, Adjagas, Kinnie Starr and the Borealis Quartet.
Tjupurru is a member Djabera Djabera tribe of the West Australian Kimberleys, and performs on a slide didjeridu. It’s wild! Check it out on the video below. Would love to hear his take on the Russian ice dancers and their controversial aboriginal routine. You won’t get that on his Web site, but you’ll find out everything else about him, along with more music, here.
The members of Adjagas are Sami joikers (or chanters) from the indigenous peoples of northern Scandinavia. Watch the video (above) and check out their MySpace page, here.
Kinnie Starr is back tonight (read about her and watch a video in yesterday’s post, here.)
For coming events at the First Nations Pavilion, click here.
Throughout the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, we’re trying to post videos of some of the First Nations and Native American performers featured at the First Nations Pavilion – maybe because we’re feeling a little sorry for ourselves that we can’t be there, and mostly because we really enjoy these performances, even if only on YouTube.
Tonight, Inuit throat singers Lois Suluk-Locke (featured in video above) and Maria Illungeayuk are performing at the First Nations Pavilion in Vancouver.
Also scheduled: old Cuts, with Spakwus Slolem, Ian Ross and Sandy Scofield. Check out Scofield in the video below.
Here’s the schedule of events at the Pavilion.
Gwen Florio
The festivities in Vancouver at the First Nations Pavilion feature more Metis fiddling tonight.
Performing will be the Métis Fiddler Quartet, the Métis Nation Jiggers, Lee Mandeville, Richard Lafferty and Wesley Hardisty, shown in the video above.
Wesley, who is Dene from Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories, is just 16. His music is great and so is his story. Find out more about him here, or by watching the video.
Here’s the week’s schedule of events at the Pavilion
