The Q’emcín 2 Rivers Remix (2RMX) Contemporary Indigenous Music Feast will celebrate its second year on Saturday, July 6 and Sunday, July 7 in Lytton.
Artistic director Meeka Morgan (Secwepemc/Nuu-Chah-Nulth/Nlaka’pamux) recently announced the full list of 24 original Indigenous artists who will be performing at this year’s free all ages, outdoor festival.
The cultural feast will be hosted again by Ostwelve, who will share his incredible knowledge and energy all weekend. The festival is headlined by four Indigenous Juno Award-winners: DJ Shub (Mohawk, formerly of A Tribe Called Red); Quantum Tangle (Inuit/Anishinaabe/Métis); George Leach (St’atimc); and Murray Porter (Mohawk).
The feast of contemporary Indigenous music will showcase a stunning variety of Indigenous artists. “From hip hop to folk, metal to blues, funk to electronic, rock to reggae,” says Morgan. “More than half the lead performers are women, while one-third are youth.”
Morgan has also announced three special guest artists who will also be at 2RMX in 2019: Savage Society, Mana Taketake, and Wild Salmon Caravan.
The Savage Society and its artistic director Kevin Loring (Nlaka’pamux) will open 2RMX with a community production of the play Battle of the Birds at 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 6. Loring is an award-winning actor, playwright, and producer, and the first Artistic Director for Indigenous Theatre at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The Savage Society’s mandate is to tell Indigenous stories using contemporary mediums.
Battle of the Birds is based on a traditional Nlaka’pamux story about a community confronting the issue of domestic violence, set in the mythical time before time, when animals appeared like humans with animal attributes and spoke a similar language.
Special guests who are on tour from Aotearoa, Mana Taketake, are a contemporary Maori performance group who will share a vision of Maori dance, music, and weaponry. Mana Taketake will both perform and give workshops on Saturday and Sunday, including Haka movement, traditional Maori games, and a flavour of the Maori language..
Morgan notes that the Wild Salmon Caravan (WSC), with the Nlaka’pamux Nation, will open the second day of the feast on Sunday, July 7 at noon with a Wild Salmon celebration and parade. WSC will also be hosting interactive Salmon Art workshops at the festival on Saturday, July 6. All are welcome to create, honour, and explore wild salmon traditional knowledge.
The festival also features video screenings, interactive workshops with festival artists, an artisan market, and a large-scale outdoor Indigenous art exhibition.
On Sunday, July 7 a highlight is the 2RMX Elder Series celebrating Indigenous musicians who have had extensive careers, and are still performing. Juno Award-winning artist Murray Porter, a Mohawk blues piano man, brings his band to the festival, including bass player Helene Duguay, who played with Les Beatlettes in the 1960s. Also featured—from the Grammy-nominated compilation Native North America Volume 1—are Willie Thrasher and Linda Saddleback, and Gordon Dick, Sr.
You don’t want to miss this superb Indigenous musical soundscape that complements the beauty of the land surrounding the festival. A 2RMX YouTube playlist of the artists can be found at http://playlist.2rmx.ca, and you can visit the 2RMX website at http://2RiversRemix.ca for more information about the artists. The event runs from 1 to 11 p.m. July 6–7 in Lytton.
editorial@accjournal.ca
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