Indigenous music and culture in the spotlight at massive 2 Rivers Remix Music Feast LIVE
With more than 40 leading Indigenous artists and acts, the three-day fest by 2 Rivers Remix Society has a theme of Bring the Children Home
Madelaine McCallum. Photo by Billie Jean Gabriel Photography
Snotty Nose Rez Kids. Photo by Billie Jean Gabriel Photography
2 Rivers Remix Society presents 2 Rivers Remix Music Feast LIVE at Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Pow Wow Arbor in Kamloops and via livestream, July 7 to 9
MORE THAN 40 top Indigenous artists—including Haisla hip-hop act Snotty Nose Rez Kids and powwow supergroup Halluci Nation (formerly A Tribe Called Red)—will take to Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Pow Wow Arbor in Kamloops for a free three-day celebration of contemporary Indigenous music and culture. The 2 Rivers Remix Music Feast LIVE event will also be livestreamed at feast.2rmx.ca.
2 Rivers Remix Society is a nonprofit First Nations-led society with a mission to educate, empower, and inspire Indigenous people to share their stories through contemporary Indigenous cultural expression. The fifth annual fest features all Indigenous-led musicians and artists, focusing on women, 2-Spirit individuals, youth, elders, and survivors.
The theme for 2023 is Bring the Children Home, with the location bearing great significance at the former site of Kamloops Indian Residential School, where more than 215 unmarked graves of Indigenous children were confirmed in May 2021. (The venue came about last minute; see below for more.)
The healing power of music is among the festival’s guiding principles.
Co-headlining and featured artists for 2023 include Métis folk musician Amanda Rheaume, urban/rez roots hip-hop vocalist Leonard Sumner, 2-Spirit singer Shawnee Kish, Mohawk singer-songwriters Logan Staats and sister Layla Black, storytelling-singing Anishinaabe sisters Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Ansley Simpson, songwriter Keith Secola, Inuit folk-rock star Willie Thrasher, Mohawk rez “bluez” artist Murray Porter and bassist Helene Duguay, Chicano hip-hop group Atzlan Underground, and 2-Spirit trans house-music star Quanah Style.
Also performing throughout the weekend are Hayley Wallis and the Brighter Futures, contemporary roots singer-songwriter Mimi O’Bonsawin, emerging blues artist Garret T Willie, the storytelling Margit Sky Project, Indigiqueer pop artist Nimkish, Indigifunk musician Curtis Clearsky and the Constellationz, roots-rock-reggae artists The Spiritual Warriors, The Melawmen Collective, Jason Camp and The Posers, The North Sound, Haida rock musician Kristi Lane Sinclair, folk-country artist Kym Gouchie, and Black Owl bluesman Gerald Charlie.
Several BC-based hip hop artists are on the roster, such as Earthchild, Kiva MH, Geo aka The Voice, A’a’liyah, Rich & Beka, SacRed, among others. 2-Spirit neuro-divergent performing artist Madeline Terbasket, aka Rez Daddy, also appears.
The road to the 2023 event has been a long one.
Here’s some background: The 2 Rivers Remix began in 2018, taking place that year and the next at Tl’kemtsin (Lytton) on Nlaka’pamux territory. It streamed online during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. On June 26, 2021, 2RMX produced an outdoor event at the Nlaka’pamux interpretative Tuckkwiowhum Village to honour the lives of the 215-plus discovered Indigenous children. Four days later, Tl’kemtsin/Lytton was destroyed by fire. Some of 2 Rivers’ staff, board members, and their families lost their homes, and many remain evacuated to this day; the organization’s office, festival archive, youth exhibitions, and sound and video equipment were all ruined.
In 2022, 2RMX pivoted to a “Movable Feast”, partnering with eight Indigenous communities and culminating in the fest being held in Cache Creek in the territory of the Stuc’tews (Bonaparte First Nation) People. Right up until mid-May of this year, the plan for 2023 was to return to Cache Creek, but floodwaters interfered.
“2RMX planning was buffeted by the effects of human-caused-climate-change again this year, forcing us to move four venues and communities at the last minute, including our main event”, Meeka Morgan, 2RMX’s artistic director, says in a release. “2RMX is eternally grateful to the communities who came to aid and host us this year. Our hearts go out to 2022’s 3-day festival venue, the community of Cache Creek, who suffered catastrophic flooding again this spring. We hope to return with musical medicine when it is the right time to do so, as we continue to envision a return to our original host community of Lytton, BC. We found ourselves reaching out to Tk’emlups te Secwepemc to host and are so thankful they embraced us with their support.”
In advance of the cultural event in Tk’emlups, 2RMX’s Summer Movable Feast Tour launches on June 30 at Lytton First Nation, marking two years of Nlaka’pamux resilience since the fire. It then proceeds to the St’at'imc Nation (Lillooet) on July 2 and the Secwepemc Nation (Skeetchestn) on July 4. Each event features local artists from the respective territories as well as national and international acts.
More information is at https://2riversremix.ca/.
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