Live music returned to Six Nations with a showcase of Indigenous talent that included a Juno-award winning singer and a world champion hoop dancer.
Ascension Harjom who won the teen division hoop dance world championships in 2018, and two-time Juno award-winning singer Derek Miller, performed at the Six Nations Unity Festival Friday. The event, held at The Gathering by the Grand Conference Center on Chiefswood Road, also featured Lacey Hill, Jace Martin and Semiah Smith.
“It just felt like the right time to have a festival like this,” Martin said. “We wanted everyone, performers and the audience to feel safe and we really didn’t want to rush into anything.
“But after more than two years of not being able to perform like this we really wanted to do something to bring people together in a safe way.”
The Gathering Place was the ideal location for a return to live performances, Martin said.
The festival was a collaboration between Tkaronto Music Festival in partnership with The Darren Ross Agency. Tkaronto or TKMF is an Indigenous-led performing arts and event planning organization based in Toronto.
“For me, to get back to live performances, to be back with people, it is so crucial,” Martin said.
The festival attracted about 175 people.
“Six Nations has so much talent be it in sports like lacrosse, or the arts like sculpting and it’s the same with music,” Martin said. “As a people, we’re storytellers, it’s part of our DNA so music, singing and songwriting is natural for us.
“That’s why we like having a show like this because it puts Indigenous talent on the main stage for everyone to enjoy.”
It’s often difficult to get Indigenous representation on the main stages of large festivals,” Martin said. “I don’t know why that is because I mean we have people like Robbie Robertson who is in the rock and roll hall of fame.
“We also have people like Derek (Miller) who has knocked down some doors for people like myself.”
Harjo, of Six Nations, was a toddler when he started dancing and, following his father Adrian’s example, he started hoop dancing after turning two.
He has performed for audiences around the world and won the teen division hoop dance world championships in 2018.
Miller, the headliner for Friday’s festival, won his first Juno Award in 2003 in the Aboriginal Recording of the Year category for his song Lovesick Blues, from his album Music is the Medicine. In 2008, Miller won his second Juno award in the Aboriginal Recording of the Year category for “The Dirty Looks” album.
An inspirational speaker, singer and songwriter, Hill played with the Breeze Band, which was nominated for an Aboriginal People’s Choice award, before embarking on a solo career.
Smith is a singer/songwriter from Six Nations whose first single “Nothing Can Kill My Love for You’ debuted in 2021.
Martin is also from Six Nations and has been nominated for six 2022 Native American Music Awards.
twitter.com/EXPVBall
