Indigenous festival ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl (Come Toward the Fire) releases 2023 lineup, with headliners Black Belt Eagle Scout and Reservation Dogs’ composer Mato Wayuhi
The second annual celebration of Indigenous culture, creativity, and community is a presentation of the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and Musqueam
Black Belt Eagle Scout.
THE CHAN CENTRE for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia and Musqueam today announced initial details about the second annual Indigenous festival, ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl (Come Toward the Fire).
Taking place on September 16, just ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30), the event will highlight a vast range of Indigenous artists from Musqueam and Indigenous nations across Turtle Island (North America). With a mandate to celebrate Indigenous culture, creativity, and community, the festival will feature free outdoor programming from 1 to 5:30 pm then a ticketed evening festival concert from 6 pm, all at Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
The gathering’s hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ name was provided by Musqueam and elder Larry Grant, with thanks to Musqueam artist Miss Christie Lee Charles for suggesting the name “move toward the fire.” The fest’s overarching goal is to support the movement to return Indigenous voices to the forefront and bring them back to the centre—the fire—and the heart of the community, following generations of erasure through colonization and Indian Residential Schools.
“Musqueam is excited to partner with the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and welcome Indigenous performers to our territory for the second year of ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl,” yəχʷyaχʷələq, Chief Wayne Sparrow, Musqueam Indian Band, says in a release. “In our culture, fire is the centre of our longhouses, where our ceremonial work takes place. Being called ‘toward the fire’ is a call to join us in this celebration of Indigenous cultural expression. We look forward to strengthening our relationship with the Chan Centre to continue uplifting Indigenous voices for many years to come.”
The 2023 lineup is loaded with changemakers and top talent.
Headlining act Black Belt Eagle Scout, aka Katherine Paul, is a Swinomish/Iñupiaq singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Paul, who was born and raised along the Skagit River on Puget Sound in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, grew up immersed in the musical traditions of her culture, performing as a jingle dress dancer with her family’s drum group, the Skagit Valley Singers. Her musical style has been compared to that of Feist, Snail Mail, and Julien Baker, with Pitchfork saying her “reverberant, wide-open sound suggests a sense of possibility and the broad sweep of history” Paul’s 2023 album, The Land, The Water, The Sky, was made in honour of her ancestral lands.
“Through gauzy instrumentation and driving percussion interspersed with hints of the Coast Salish music tradition, Paul paints the soundscape of the Pacific Northwest with an impressive clarity,” according to a release. “The album is a testament to community and the power of coming home, as she reflects on her COVID-era move from Portland, Oregon, back to Swinomish and the healing that followed. The Land, The Water, The Sky recognizes not only her own lineage but the history of the land itself. The music invites listeners to take a journey of healing and resistance through Paul’s eyes.”
This evening performance will be hosted by Musqueam’s Christie Lee Charles, who goes by the stage name Miss Christie Lee. A direct descendant of the great warrior Capilano, Charles is the City of Vancouver’s first Indigenous poet laureate as well as a rapper, storyteller, Coastal hand-drum singer, filmmaker, and speaker for her ancestors. (Charles will also perform a set during the day.) The xʷməθkʷəy̓əm artist and mother incorporates traditional knowledge and ancient hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ dialect into her work as a hip-hop artist and emcee, rapping about life, culture, and empowerment while encouraging Indigenous youth to be proud of their roots.
Mato Wayuhi. Photo by Josue Rivas
Also appearing is Mato Wayuhi, who achieved fame as the composer of the Peabody-winning, Emmy-nominated TV show Reservation Dogs. The Oglala Lakota rapper, producer, composer, and filmmaker from South Dakota has been producing since he was 16, made it onto the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and received an honourable mention in NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2018. He composed the score for the feature-length film War Pony, which won the Caméra d'Or prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, and also creates solo music about his identity and ancestral history. As he works to redefine Indigenous art, Wayuhi is currently writing the score for the upcoming Marvel Studios and Disney+ series Echo.
“Wayuhi sees himself as an ‘agent of storytelling’ for his ancestors, whose voices were silenced or ignored,” the Chan Centre and Musqueam release states. “His raw, multifaceted, and vulnerable sound is rooted in his native Lakota culture and the vast landscape of South Dakota while drawing inspiration from pop, soul, funk, jazz, and hip-hop.”
Grammy-nominated Young Spirit, founded in Frog Lake Cree First Nation, Alberta, is one of the most in-demand drum groups on the Pow Wow trail and Round Dance circuit. In 2013 and 2018, the ensemble won the Worldwide Championship title at the Gathering of the Nations Pow-Wow in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their use of Plains Cree in their music is a way of sustaining and revitalizing their language, and the group aims to empower Indigenous youth.
Notorious Cree.
Other high-profile names performing at the festival are two artists who have 1.5 million followers on Instagram and over six million followers on TikTok combined: James Jones, who goes by Notorious Cree, and Tia Wood.
Nehiyaw (Cree) from Tall Cree First Nation in Treaty 8 Territory in Northern Alberta, Jones is one of the top five hoop dancers in the world who is also a powwow dancer, performance artist, youth workshop facilitator, and public speaker. He has performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics, 2014 and 2022 Juno awards, 2015 Pan Am Games, and 2015 Coachella Music Festival. (Notorious Cree will offer a workshop before his evening performance.)
Tia Wood.
Wood, who hails from Saddle Lake Cree Nation, is a 23-year-old singer-songwriter who has travelled the Pow Wow trail with her family, many of whom are members of Grammy-winning group Northern Cree; her sister is Juno-winning artist Fawn Wood. Wood gained her huge following on TikTok during the pandemic by “Indigenizing” sounds, with Vogue covering her story. Wood is currently working on her debut solo album.
Tsatsu Stalqayu/Coastal Wolf Pack—a three-generation family group of singers, drummers, dancers, and textile artists with members from Musqueam, Nanaimo, Kuper Island, Cowichan, Tsartlip, and Skway—makes a return performance at the festival this year. The group has performed at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Vancouver Folk Music Festival, the Museum of Anthropology, and Talking Stick Festival.
Musqueam master weaver Debra Sparrow (θəliχʷəlʷət) and Vancouver artist Ruby Singh are reuniting after last year’s collaboration for “Inter/weavings Pt. 2”, a composition in ongoing development by an intercultural string ensemble led by Singh and featuring harpist Elisa Thorn and Andrea Wong, who plays guzheng, violin, and piano. The piece is based on a visual score inspired by design elements of Sparrow’s blankets and weavings. The first part of the work was presented in 2022, based on a score using Sparrow’s Reconciliation blanket design; the pair’s new work will expand on that and will be presented in the round of the Chan Centre’s cedar grove with dancers and a semi-improvised score.
ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl (Come Toward the Fire) will also feature Ojibway “moccasin gaze” band Zoon and indie pop-punk duo Miesha and the Spanks, led by Secwépemc singer and guitarist Miesha Louie of Treaty 7 Territory.
Syilx singer-songwriter Francis Baptiste, who sings in the endangered N�syilxčn̓ language, is also on the bill. So is pop band Hayley Wallis and the Bright Futures; Wallis is a member of the Kitasoo/Xais’xais Nation. KeAloha, a Hawaiian, Tahitian, and Lheidli T'enneh singer who fuses R&B with dream pop; and DJ Paisley Eva, who hails from the Sḵwxwú7mesh Nation ̱ village of Eslha7an, are also appearing.
“The artists programmed showcase the limitless and diverse talents of Indigenous peoples,” says Jarrett Martineau, Chan Centre curator-in-residence, in a release. “Whether they are taking over Hollywood, re-defining Indie rock on their own terms, or blowing up on social media, these performers are a testament to the growing stature and influence of Indigenous creativity.”
Alongside performances, the festival will feature an Indigenous artisan market, food vendors, film screenings, workshops, speakers, and more. The evening concert will be recorded and broadcast on CBC Music, CBC Radio One, and CBC Gem on September 30. Further details will be announced later this summer.
Tickets are now on sale. More information is at cometowardthefire.com.
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