Summer Reverb Talking Stick Festival Gala fetes Indigenous music and dance, June 9

Fest and SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs celebrate with performers like Melawmen Collective, Jeanette Kotowich, and Michael Creber

Talking Stick Festival and SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs present the Reverb Gala at SFU Woodward’s on June 9

FROM JAZZ TO jigging, Friday night’s Reverb Gala celebrates Indigenous performance in all its diversity, care of the Talking Stick Festival and SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs.

Melawmen Collective headlines the night with its unique blend of contemporary Indigenous fusion of genres like hip-hop, rock and folk. The band takes its name from the Secwepemc language’s word for “medicine”, and the band aims to heal, share, and expand.

Elsewhere on the program, watch for contemporary dancer and Métis jigging master Jeanette Kotowich; singer-songwriter Gillian Thomson, who draws on her mixed Haida, Tsimshian and European background and spans jazz and folk; soulful singer Fara Palmer; and veteran musician Michael Creber.

The mixed program is part of the larger monthlong festival, running during the entirety of June, National Indigenous History Month.

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is cofounder and editorial director of Stir. She is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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