Cultural pride is at the heart of recent festival.
Shadae Henriques
Kicker News
While it was a festival of song, it began with an artisan market filled with beautiful patterned beaded jewelry, delightful artwork, and sealskin crafts.
Later that night at the First Light Centre for Performance and Creativity in St. John’s, the opening ceremony for the Festival of Songs was held. It began with a prayer from an Indigenous elder and featured traditional drumming and singing.
Natasha Blackwood is the organizer of the five-day festival which began on Nov. 22.
“It started out as just holding a space for local urban Indigenous artists to get together and share their music and connect so the greater community can see it,” said Blackwood. “It’s now grown into this really giant special thing.
“Spirit Song causes us to stop and recognize all the beautiful work that people are making, seeing the progress that’s happening in communities. Taking the time to celebrate, be with each other, and honour each other through art and teachings is profound.”
Paradise teen Summer Bennett has been taking the music world by storm. She performed at the opening ceremonies.
“After winning the MusicNL Indigenous Artist of the Year, following up with this is so important to me and being able to share my story with my community here,” said Bennett.
Mason Dicker performed the song Sons of Labrador by Gregoire Boys in both English and Inuktitut.
“While I was performing, I would look at the elders in the audience and sing at them and they would sing at me so that felt really nice,” said Mason Dicker. “It’s a way that I can speak Inuktitut and sing Inuktitut in a spot that although 90 per cent of people may not understand, it isn’t for them. It’s more for me and my community like the elders and other Inuit in the audience.”
The 22 events featured at this year’s five-day festival ranged from online and in-person workshops on topics such as raku pottery firing, hands-on carving, powwow dancing, and beading. There were also art exhibits, a Labrador rock night, a film night, and the big-ticket concert with Indigenous artists from across Canada.
The film night showcased two documentaries, The Forgotten Warriors – a documentary about the brave Mi’kmaq people of Conne River fighting for their rights and the money owed to them. Nine courageous men went on a hunger strike that lasted nine days. Chief Mi’sel Joe lead the strike and was in attendance for the screening.
Aunt Nellie’s Legacy is a documentary on the life and dynasty of Nellie Winters, an Inuit artisan. She raised a family 11 children and has 60 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, most of whom are artists as well.
The festival ended with the big-ticket concert with performances by Inuit drum-dancing group Kilautiup Songuninga and a performance by Nunavut singer Tanya Tagaq.
“Now we are here and we are proud and we are proud for the people who were not allowed to be proud of themselves.”
Ashley Dicker
Happy Valley-Goose Bay native Amy Norman hosted the big-ticket concert.
“There’s a really strong community that Spirit Song fosters and they bring together Indigenous people from all over,” said Norman. “It’s especially cool for me as a Labrador Inuk to see all the Labradorians that are here… It has been great to experience the community here.”
Two members of Kilautiup Songuninga, Ashley Dicker and Stan Nochasak, say such celebrations of Indigenous culture help it flourish.
Nochasak and his bandmates opened for Tagaq.
“With her style of music, it’s not just one thing, it’s not just throat singing,” said Nochasak. “She’s been very inventive and makes us feel more included. I feel like an Inuk and she makes us feel that way. It makes me very proud to be Inuk and I’m very thankful to her.”
Each festival matters, says Ashley Dicker.
“It’s important because this wasn’t shown to the world or it was hidden and kept quiet,” said Ashley Dicker. “Our grandparents and great-grandparents, our ancestors weren’t allowed to do this. Now we are here and we are proud and we are proud for the people who were not allowed to be proud of themselves.”
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