Montreal hosts first International Indigenous Music Summit

“I feel like the very best, possible way for us to begin today is by song.”

With that statement, ShoShona Kish kicked off the Folk Alliance’s first International Indigenous Music Summit, a one-day event held in Montreal on Feb. 14.

Hosted during the Folk Alliance International Conference held Feb. 13 to Feb. 17, the summit was an invitation-only, global event that focused on Indigenous realities within the music industry.

The summit aimed “to discuss the most important issues facing the Indigenous music community” and create awareness, networks and change within “mainstream and Indigenous channels.”

Attendees were mostly Indigenous artists or industry workers, although a few non-Indigenous allies were invited too.

Inuit were well-represented at the event, including Nunavik artist Jaaji from Twin Flames, who was also part of Folk Alliance’s artists in residency program this year.

“We are so often presenting to the larger community and educating and creating these bridges,” Kish explained, who wanted the summit to be “a safe space.”

Participants created a diverse gathering of Indigenous cultures. The opening performances alone represented Māori, Sami, Cree and Australian Aboriginal cultures.

As Kish and other facilitators often said, simply coming into and creating that space was a major achievement.

“My dream is for us to be together,” explained Kish. “I want us to fill our wells together and inspire each other and I want us to lift each other up.”

A powerful gathering

“This is a rare room,” said Gerald Torres, a professor at Cornell University and visiting professor at Yale. “We endeavor to make it less of a rare room, but I could feel the power.”

Torres, an authority on critical race theory, environmental law and Indian law, helped facilitate the summit at the request of Kish, who is a friend. Artistic director Denise Bolduc also facilitated for part of the summit.

After a smudging ceremony, prayer and introductory performances, a roundtable let attendees introduce themselves and speak about some of their struggles. There was so much to say, it became a running joke that Bolduc had to hover behind people to speed them up and meet time restrictions.

“I felt like it was a really good opportunity to build alliances within our own community,” explained Kathleen Merritt, in an interview after the summit. Merritt is an Inuit artist, who mixes throat singing with Celtic fiddle. She’s also a member of Qaggiavuut and on the Alianait Arts Festival’s board of directors.

For Merritt, the summit emphasized how “having numbers gives you power.”

Alannah Johnston, another participant and festival coordinator for the Alianait Arts Festival, said that she’d been to past Indigenous industry gatherings but not of this scale.

Other highlights included a networking lunch hosted by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and Buffy Sainte-Marie’s summit keynote.

“All the young Inuit artists that were in that summit were snapping selfies with Buffy Sainte-Marie,” said Heather Daley, Alianait’s previous festival director, who retired in 2018.

Daley, who came to “listen and learn,” described the gathering as “magic, and inspiring and hopeful.”

After going to the summit, Merritt described feeling “rooted.”

“It kind of prepared me for the bigger conference and making connections over the weekend,” she said.

And the gathering wasn’t restricted to just one day. On Feb. 13, there was a welcome ceremony and feast, and on Feb. 15, a summit summary let attendees further discuss how to approach challenges in the future. The summary was not invitation-only.

Issues in the music industry

One phrase repeated throughout the summit and summit summary: “The struggle is real.”

Conversation covered various issues unique to Indigenous artists and the Indigenous music industry. Despite coming from different countries and environments, many of the issues faced by Indigenous groups were similar.

For example, one re-occurring discussion was how to negotiate with the broader mainstream.

As Torres said in an interview with Nunatsiaq News:

“You need to figure out a way to negotiate the structure and the discourses of colonialism, in order to be able to create an infrastructure that supports an Indigenous vision.” That vision, in some ways, “is always necessarily going to be in competition with colonialism. But not being subject to colonialism,” Torres said.

Many artists spoke to this problem, with some saying that just being an Indigenous artist was difficult in of itself.

Tapping into cultural resources affected by colonialism is hard work, and it’s made even harder when the exclusion of Indigenous voices is institutionalized.

We need support, many commenters said.

Merritt remembers that mental health was another popular topic, especially among young artists.

“We tend to work the deadlines and forget about self-care,” she said.

And transportation issues also came up. Johnston has experienced this, since bringing talent to participate in festivals is expensive in the Arctic. It’s a common topic for her when connecting with other organizations. The cost also makes touring difficult for artists.

Not every challenge reflected Nunavut’s music industry, though. Johnston felt like some issues didn’t match with the territory’s circumstances.

For example, many people at the summit spoke on the difficulty of getting industry attention. But in Nunavut, Inuit artists often own the stage. The territory and its organizations, like Alianait, don’t have as much trouble reaching Indigenous artists and usually put a lot of focus on Inuit talent.

She also noted that some of the talks at the summit seemed more oriented towards artists and their challenges, even though industry representatives made up about half the room.

Other topics in the summit ranged from ageism to getting an Indigenous category at the Grammy awards.

Creating the summit and moving forward

“I think the summit was just the beginning,” says Merritt. “Now the real work begins.”

The idea for the summit came last year, when Kish performed at Folk Alliance. One night, she and other artists met backstage to talk about life and art. Kish said she wished her friends could have been part of that conversation, and was saddened by the lack of Indigenous participants.

So, she called Aengus Finnan, the executive director of Folk Alliance.

“The journey here for me has been as much about building an ally relationship with a colonial organization that had depth and meaning and respect at the very centre of it,” Kish explained.

Many individuals were involved in the creation of the summit, but Kish is often credited as a driving force along with Finnan.

“If you met Sho, you’d know she’s kind of like a force of nature,” said Torres.

A number of people at the conference and summit said that, without Kish’s invitation, they wouldn’t have come. That includes Folk Alliance’s keynote speaker, Tanya Tagaq.

Now, with the summit and Folk Alliance conference over, it’s up to participants to continue the initiative. As Merritt says, “we know that when we work together in true partnership that we can get more done.”