And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
VIA: LISN
The Toronto Star
June 10, 1999
Festival gives a voice to Indian culture:
Artists and musicians descend on Toronto for inauguralm event
http://www.thestar.ca/thestar/editorial/whats_on/990609ENT01_WO-COVER10.html
===========================================
A new festival of musicians,
artists, dancers, actors and
writers ensures Indian culture
will be seen and heard
===========================================
Festival gives a voice to Indian culture
Artists and musicians descend on Toronto for inaugural event
By Sara Jean Green
Toronto Star Staff Reporter
Guided by the vision of thousands of buffalo
thundering through Toronto, Gary Farmer's eyes light up at the
mention of the Aboriginal Voices Festival.
First Nations musicians, dancers, authors, actors,
comedians, artists, filmmakers and media from across Turtle
Island (North America) will converge next week on this city, aptly
named ``the meeting place'' by its original Ojibway inhabitants.
Beginning Wednesday at Harbourfront, the festival runs
until June 21, which is National Aboriginal Day as well as
the summer solstice - a time for peace and prayer not only
for First Nations, but for people around the world.
To mark the day and cap off the festival, the Buffalo
Jump Peace March - led by the Unity Riders, a group of
spiritual leaders on horseback who travel across the continent
promoting peace and solidarity - will wend its way
from Nathan Phillips Square to the Harbourfront Centre.
``I'm a real bad planner,'' Farmer admits, sipping a
latte in a coffee shop on Spadina Ave., down the street from the
office of Aboriginal Voices magazine, which he founded six years
ago.
``What happens is I have an idea, but it takes time to
flesh out. It always costs money and puts people in a panic,'' he
says, laughing.
Adding that the festival hasn't secured a major
corporate sponsor, Farmer says it's going to be a challenge to
get it off the ground on a shoe-string budget of $150,000
generated through fundraising. ``Our airfare alone (for the
artists and acts) is $40,000,'' he says.
A bear of a man dressed in a frayed gray T-shirt,
baggy pants and sneakers, Farmer doesn't look the part of an
impresario. But perusing the line-up of talent he's assembled from all
over Indian country, it's clear Farmer's goal is to spark
``a spiritualand cultural awakening'' among aboriginals and
non-aboriginals alike.
Last year, Farmer organized a much smaller festival,
``but no one came,'' he says. To attract larger crowds this
time around, most concerts, literary readings, plays and art
exhibits will be free, although there'll be minimal fees for the films.
``Our people have come into their own - there's no
doubt about it - but now, we have to build an audience . . .
because our voice isn't being heard,'' he says, noting that, with some
exceptions, aboriginal artists remain largely unknown outside
their communities.
Lucie Idlout, a rising-star Inuk rocker - who is being
courted by American and German record labels - says making art
and music is something First Peoples have always done. Although
the 26-year-old from Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut territory, doesn't
want to highlight her cultural background above her status as
performer, she admits her songs are about her experiences and
things going on in her community.
``I do write about things like suicide and spousal assault,'' she
says on the phone from Ottawa, where she's practising
with her band for the festival before a summer-long tour takes
her across Canada and the United States.
``I'm not feeling sorry for myself or trying to bring down
my people,'' she says about her music. ``It's more about
feeling safe
enough and being honest enough to talk about it.''
Incorporating both traditional and contemporary sounds, the
music component of the festival is truly eclectic, including Ulali,
a women's a cappella group performing Southeast American
and pre-Columbian music, as well as Anishnabe nation
musicians Keith Secola and the Wild Band of Indians,Arizona's
Burning Sky (who, with four CDs out, are gaining international
recognition for their Native funk sound) and Navajo-Ute jazz/r
'n' b/salsa flutist R. Carlos Nakai. Sudbury-based rock band No
Reservations will perform along with Six Nations blues rocker
Derek Miller.
World champion drummers the Red Bull Singers will accompany
some of the best dancers on the continent, including Boye
Ladd and Manitoulin Island's Daybreak Dance Troupe. Standup
comedian Gerry ``The Bear'' Barrett, Buddy Big Mountain, the
first nationally recognized Indian ventriloquist, and the
Debajehmujig Theatre Group are a small sampling of the acts
Farmer is bringing to town.
A Cayuga Indian and member of the Wolf Clan, Farmer began
an acting career in 1976. Since then, he's played a prominent
role in the entertainment industry - writing, directing and
producing films, TV programs and documentaries - and has
worked to raise the profile of aboriginal people.
And time is long overdue for Toronto - dubbed Canada's
largest Indian rez because more Indians live here than
anywhere else - to celebrate the contributions of First
Peoples.
``When you go to Vancouver, you get a sense of the people,
the culture, immediately,'' says Farmer. ``In Toronto, we're
invisible - it's like we don't exist here.''
Along with the Aboriginal Voices magazine, Farmer has been
instrumental in establishing the Aboriginal Peoples Television
Network, set to hit the airwaves Sept. 1, and he's pushing for a
national Indian radio network. ``Radio is the answer to
empowerment and being able to do our own stories . . . And
there's so many stories,'' he says.
People who can't make the festival can still tune in to JUMP!
FM 106.3, which will broadcast festival news, live simulcasts
and interviews 24 hours a day.
Noting that ``our story hasn't been a happy one,'' Farmer says
Indians are the only ones who can address issues like sex
abuse, alcoholism and residential schools within their
communities. And media is the key to that discussion, and
ultimately, to healing.
That's why a media conference, called Telling Our Story, will
coincide with the arts festival, bringing together aboriginal
journalists to discuss accessibility to media.
The conference's keynote speaker is filmmaker Alanis
Obomsawin, who is being honoured with a special tribute for
her 25-year-long career documenting the struggles of First
Nations people in Canada.
Invoking the spirit of the buffalo - a traditional symbol of
leadership and responsibility - the festival is all about bringing
people together to celebrate their relationships with each other
and with Mother Earth.
``Never has peace been more necessary - things are
pretty dismal out there,'' says Farmer. ``And it's time
to
really get down to the business of our spiritual awareness and
understanding of that.''
For a more detailed listing of festival events:
http://www.thestar.ca/thestar/editorial/whats_on/990609ENT08_WO-ABORIG-LI.html
* Telling OUR Story *
ABORIGINAL MEDIA CONFERENCE JUNE 16/17/18, 1999 TORONTO
This conference is part of ABORIGINAL VOICES FESTIVAL of entertainment
and culture:
June 16 - 21 in Toronto!
Conference: University of Toronto Campus
Festival: Harbourfront Centre
For Updates and More Information on the Media Conference, go to:
http://www.aboriginalvoices.com/fest99/conf_sched.html
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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