It’s not just Black Friday in Sisters, it’s the Sisters Arts Association’s Fourth Friday Artwalk this week. What’s out there to supplement your holiday décor, fulfill a gift wish, or create that special element for your home? Gather the family, the visiting friends, and the kids for some fun and good treats between 4 and 7 p.m., in the galleries of Sisters. Most galleries will be open all day, with QuickDraw tickets available. Sign up for the monthly drawing one time in each gallery. Two $50 gift certificates will be awarded, thanks to a generous donation from Coldwell Banker Bain in Sisters.

Raku After Dark is the draw at Canyon Creek Pottery, 310 N. Cedar St. Master Potter Ken Merrill will be pulling pots from the raku kiln, starting at 5 p.m. Raku is a type of low-firing process inspired by the Japanese. Western-style raku involves removing pottery from the kiln while red-hot and placing it into a container with combustible materials. Once the materials ignite, the container is closed, producing an intense reduction atmosphere, which creates the colors in glazes and produces deliberate crackling.

The Stitchin’ Post staff’s Handcraft Boutique opens from 4 to 6 p.m., with a variety of fiber arts and handmade crafts for sale – everything from holiday décor like Christmas ornaments, gnome bottle toppers, and embroidered tea towels, to great gifts like quilts, little wallets, zippered bags, and earrings. Also featured are block printed panels and other items by Valori Wells.

The show of colorful work by Jill Neal continues all month at the Campbell Gallery in the Sisters Art Works building.

Hood Avenue Art Gallery’s focus will be on jewelry artists during the holiday season, from November through the end of February. The jewelry artists are: Alisa Looney, enamel jewelry; Karen Evans, fine handwoven beaded bracelets and necklaces; Danica Curtright, glass beads using a century-old process; Sharon Reed, handwrought items; Sunstone Store earrings, necklaces and rings; and Zantana Design, dichroic glass jewelry. Below are Sharon Reed’s jewelry pieces. She is a studio artist living in Bend, who creates one-of-a-kind jewelry and contemporary abstract paintings.

Raven Makes Gallery is stocked with new Hopi Kachina dolls, Navajo jewelry, and weavings acquired during late summer buys from Native artists. The gallery will be open regular hours during Fourth Friday. Please see the website for hours and new arrivals.

Toriizaka Art will not participate in this Fourth Friday event, but will be available by appointment during December. The gallery, featuring contemporary Asian art and works by local artists, has a lovely selection of affordable items, perfect for the holiday season. Call 650-580-6551 or email [email protected] to make an appointment.

Wildflower Studio is ready for the gift-giving season. Small batch candles, diffusers, linen sprays, and lotion collections are made in-house and boast unique seasonal blends. The studio is also stocked with new products from Rough Cut Soap Co. handcrafted artisan soaps, felted soap, soap bars and shampoo bars. Shop local art, prints, original paintings, and handmade works by local artisans. Art, consumables, and locally made products make unique and affordable gifts.

At Space in Common, Taylor Manoles will display a series of paintings inspired by “October Skies.” This moody collection reflects the colors of late autumn and the vastness of the Central Oregon skies. Manoles is an oil painter whose work explores themes of faith and the human experience through contemporary landscapes. Space in Common will hold a Small Business Saturday sale all weekend. Purchases over $60 will get a $10 gift card; purchase over $100, a $15 gift card, and over $200 will get a $30 gift card.

The Rickards Gallery’s Wendy Vernon has been designing and making jewelry for decades, and her jewelry has been a fixture there for many years. Color, line, stones, and gems – including their healing properties – are all part of Vernon’s design story. More than 50 new pieces have been added for this show, and Vernon will be in house to help select just the right piece for you or your special someone.

Sisters Gallery & Frame Shop welcomes the colorful work of Sandy Melchiori, an oil painter and landscape designer who paints bold canvases and boards with liberal brushstrokes. This show features mostly Pacific Northwest landscapes with some colorful still life for good measure. Also new are hats, cowls, and scarves to keep you warm or gift to a friend. They are all made by owner Helen Schmidling. During Artwalk, pick out a hat and then draw a ticket for $2 to $22 off the price of your item, in celebration of our new gallery location at 222 W. Hood Ave.

Editor’s Note: The following article is derived from officially released information, published with few or no editorial changes. The Greylock Glass  occasionally provides our readers with such content if the information is factual in nature, and requires little to no interpretation or analysis, often when original reportage would not provide additional relevant information.

WASHINGTON, Conn. — Once again this year, the Institute for American Indian Studies located at 38 Curtis Road in Washington is hosting a one-of-a-kind holiday shopping experience that celebrates Native American culture. What makes this Holiday Market unique is that it offers both deeply traditional crafts and more contemporary artistic expressions rooted in Native American cultural experience. Artists represented here are some of the finest working in the area today. It is a celebration of Native American diversity and inspiration.

The Holiday Market throughout the Institute’s impressive exhibition galleries takes place on Saturday, November 25 and Sunday, November 26, and Saturday, December 2, and Sunday, December 3. The final weekend for the holiday market is on Saturday, December 9, and Sunday, December 10. The market is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. This is one of the few Holiday Markets that showcases only Native American-inspired artwork.

There will be gifts to choose from including Native American jewelry, paintings, photography, apparel, and candles, to decorative gourds, pottery, rattles, flutes, and more at a variety of price points. The chance to talk with the artists who have created these one-of-a-kind objects and to learn about the culture that inspired them makes your gift purchase even more meaningful.

For music lovers, musicians, and collectors, the magical-sounding authentic Woodland Native American flutes handcrafted by Allen Madahbee are truly unique. Madahbee is an Anishinaabe, born on Manitoulin Island, and is a registered Native American in Canada and the United States. In addition to the one-of-a-kind flutes, Madahbee is offering handmade beaded moccasins, woodcarvings, rock sculptures, and original paintings inspired by his ancestors and experiences.

Another vendor, Kim Lewis from Native Visions will be offering an astounding array of Native American Art from Oklahoma and the Southwest including a fine selection of original paintings and prints, Zuni Fetishes, silver jewelry, pottery by Mel Cornshucker, plus Hopi, and Navajo Kachinas.

A long-time favorite of the Holiday Market is Primitive Technologies, a nationally known small business that has worked with everyone from filmmakers to museum curators to recreate the material culture of prehistoric Native American life. They offer exquisite wood-fired replica pottery, hand constructed from local river clay, hand-carved flint arrowheads and flint animal necklaces, carved stone art, traditional stone tools, containers made out of natural materials, unusual jewelry, and decorative gourds.

Jeanne Morningstar Kent, a recognized Abenaki artist and enrolled member of the Nulhegan Band, Coosuk-Abenaki of Vermont will be offering her artfully crafted decorative gourds in all sizes. Kent’s work is housed in many museum collections including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Indian Studies, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Roger Williams University, Chimney Point Museum, and many more. What makes these gourds unusual is that they utilize traditional Abenaki and Wabanaki designs.

Brandy Sawyer Emmans of Cherokee descent and owner of bthunder will once again be at the holiday market. Runway model for the Sky Eagle Collection, Native American educator, and advocate for MMIW (Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women), bthunder offers an evocative selection of contemporary Native American-inspired art, jewelry, apparel, candles, and accessories.

Not to be missed is Eva Newell, of Nauset and Cree descent and an enrolled member of the Pokanoket Wampanoag Tribe. Newell is offering distinctive hand-cut glass mosaic vases. These one-of-a-kind art pieces depict Native American culture and legends and tell some of Newell’s favorite stories from her Native heritage. Newell’s baskets are also extraordinary. Eva will be participating during the December 9th and 10^th market only.

The Museum’s Gift Shop will be open and brimming with gifts large and small in many price ranges. Here you will find a distinctive collection of Native American jewelry, including wampum jewelry crafted by Annawon Weeden, Mashpee Wampanoag, and Pequot artist Dan Simonds, head of the Wampum Wear Collective. A highlight is the jewelry and gift items from Eighth Generation, owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe in Seattle, which partners with Native artists across the country. The result is some of the most beautiful and authentic items available. For foodies, there is a wonderful selection of traditional Native American food products from Sweet Grass Trading Company from the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. And, in the spirit of the Metis culture, Pemmican Patty’s products offer a selection of bison berry-blended jerky that will connect you with Native foodways and nutrition. The gift shop also has a good selection of books and children’s items.

Although entrance to the museum and the Holiday Market are free, donations are always appreciated. A tour of the museum for a nominal fee is a fun and insightful experience that compliments this unique shopping experience. 

About The Institute for American Indian Studies 

Located on 15 acres of woodland acres the Institute For American Indian Studies preserves and educates through archeology, research, exhibitions, and programs. They have a 16th c. Algonquian Village, Award-Winning Wigwam Escape, and a museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present allows visitors to foster a new understanding of the world and the history and culture of Native Americans. The Institute for American Indian Studies is located at 38 Curtis Road, Washington, Conn.

Time to update that playlist! Colorado Public Radio shared a small list of Indigenous artists from the Four Corner States making awesome music.

This listicle highlights one Indigenous independent band or artist from each of the Four Corners states. In case you need a refresher, the Four Corners states are Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Four Corners is the only place in the U.S. where four states meet. The Four Corners region is 25,000 square miles of Native Land and home to Navajo Nation and the Ute people.

Check out the list.

Tweed Regional Gallery is proud to present Three Echoes – Western Desert Art, a national touring exhibition, which will open at the gallery Friday 8 December 2023.

The exhibition, an initiative of Museums & Galleries Queensland, explores the poetic notion of echoes – how metaphorically and metaphonically we can echo a thought, a sentiment or a consciousness.

Curated by celebrated curator, writer, artist and activist, Djon Mundine OAM FAHA, Three Echoes – Western Desert Art showcases works by 57 acclaimed First Nations artists from Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff), Papunya and Utopia Aboriginal communities in the Western Desert regions of the Northern Territory, Australia.

Artworks from the exhibition have been drawn from the private collection of Andrew Arnott and Karin Schack and reflect the significant artistic developments and moments in time that contributed to the meteoric rise of the Western Desert Art movement, which developed in the 1970s.

At the time, Aboriginal people from the desert began talking to the world through art, transferring their creation stories of the land and people to canvas. Now, in the 2020s, this foundational echo is going back and forth. No longer a one-sided, outward calling, it reverberates multi-dimensionally within wider Australian and global communities.

These works hold special meaning for First Nations peoples, communicating important stories of tjukurrpa (Dreaming) and Country. The relationships within families and ancestors; with flora and fauna; and the unique land formations are the foundations of this art.

Exhibition Curator Djon Mundine OAM FAHA spoke of his familial and cultural connection to the theme of Three Echoes – Western Desert Art,

“In the early 1970s, my father once told me of how, when he was a child in Bundjalung country, people coming along the river or through the woods would ‘Coo-ee’ to announce their presence at certain places where their voice would echo repeatedly, reverberating into the distance; to which the receiver would, ‘chant-like’, respond,” he said.

Executive Director at Museums & Galleries Queensland Rebekah Butler said she was honoured to be showcasing the exhibition.

“We are immensely proud to have developed this beautiful and multifaceted show of works, that includes paintings, prints and batiks – and to share these works with a national audience,” she said.

“Featured are some of Australia’s most critically acclaimed artists including Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, Narputta Nangala Jugadai, Long Tom Tjapanangka, Dr George Tjapaltjarri, Gloria Petyarre and Emily Kame Kngwarreye.”

Acting Tweed Regional Gallery Director Ingrid Hedgecock said the exhibition was an incredibly exciting addition to the Tweed’s cultural repertoire.

“We invite everyone to join us in honouring our world’s oldest continuous living culture through these incredible pieces and view the tremendous selection of works by First Nations artists,” she said.

A Curator’s Floor Talk will be held prior to the exhibition opening on Friday 8 December. In this talk Djon Mundine will speak about the exhibition and touch on significant moments in the history of Western Desert Art. This is a ticketed event and bookings are essential.

Three Echoes – Western Desert Art is on display at Tweed Regional Gallery until 25 February 2024.

The exhibition will travel to 13 regional centres in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory.

To view the itinerary and find out more information visit magsq.com.au/touring-exhibitions/three-echoes.

Public Programs:

Curator’s Floor Talk: Djon Mundine OAM FAHA 
Friday 8 December | 5.15pm | $8/$10 

Join celebrated curator, writer, artist and activist Djon Mundine OAM FAHA for a Curator’s Floor Talk of Three Echoes – Western Desert Art. In this talk, Djon Mundine will speak about the exhibition and touch on significant moments in the history of Western Desert Art from the early men’s paintings of Papunya Tula, to the artists of Ikuntji, through to the Utopia women’s paintings and batiks.

Bookings essential djonmundine.eventbrite.com.au

Summer Opening Celebrations
Friday 8 December | 6.00pm for 6.30 pm speeches | Free

Join us for the opening celebrations for Three Echoes – Western Desert Art curated by Djon Mundine OAM.

Bookings essential sumopen23.eventbrite.com.au

ART MAKER painting workshop with Jason King
Friday 19 January | 10.30am – 12.30pm | $25

Join Aboriginal artist Jason King at the Gallery and create a painting inspired by the exhibition Three Echoes. All materials included. Suitable for young people 9-15 years.

Booking essential JKing24.eventbrite.com.au

The Canadian Press

Published Tuesday, November 21, 2023 5:29PM EST

Last Updated Tuesday, November 21, 2023 5:29PM EST

This week, Canada’s Heffel Fine Art Auction House is set to present their fall live auctions to an international audience—which is expected to bring between $13–20 million CAD ($10–15 million) overall. The two primary events making up the season’s sales are both scheduled for November 23, 2023, opening with the Post-War and Contemporary Art sale at 5 p.m. and Canadian Impressionist and Modern Art at 7 p.m.

Across the sales are examples of work by some of the most important 20th- and 21st-century artists and artworks, including Andy Warhol’s Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (1985), hailing from the “Reigning Queens, Royal Edition” series, an iconic screen print replete with diamond dust. Works by some of Canada’s most well-known artists, including the celebrated landscape painter Emily Carr, are also up for sale.

Below, we explore six intriguing lots from the forthcoming sales.

Emily Carr
Alert Bay (Indian in Yellow Blanket) (1912)
Est. $1,000,000–$1,500,000 CAD

Emily Carr, Alert Bay (Indian in Yellow Blanket) (1912). Courtesy of Heffel.

Considered one of Canada’s most important and historically significant artists, Emily Carr (1871–1945) is best known for her works depicting Indigenous peoples and cultures of the Pacific Northwest. A pioneer within the Canadian art scene, she was an early adopter of Modernist and Post-Impressionist style, and frequently employed a Fauvist-inspired color palette in her compositions. A highlight from the Canadian Impressionist and Modern Art sale, the present lot features all the hallmarks of Carr’s inimitable style.

Jean Paul Riopelle
Sans titre (Composition #2) (1951)
Est. $3,000,000–$5,000,000 CAD

Jean Paul Riopelle, Sans titre (Composition #2) (1951). Courtesy of Heffel.

Coinciding with the centenary of his birth, the Post-War and Contemporary Art sale includes seven works by Canadian Abstract Expressionist artist Jean Paul Riopelle (1923–2002). Working in parallel with the AbEx artists of New York like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Riopelle’s distinct approach to the all-over painting technique is evident in Sans titre (Composition #2) (1951). While Greenbergian theory posited that the all-over approach eradicated the traditional hierarchy of elements within the composition, Riopelle instead saw the hierarchy in the third dimension; here, the first layer is comprised of heavily impastoed pigment, and the genre’s hallmark drips are laid over top.

Alex Katz
Ada in the Sun (1976)
Est. $70,000–$90,000 CAD

Alex Katz, Ada in the Sun (1976). Courtesy of Heffel.

Recently the subject of a major career retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Alex Katz (b. 1927) has continually found inspiration in his wife Ada since their meeting in 1957. Ada has been the subject of over 250 portraits appeared in some manner in hundreds more over than six decades. Her visage combined with Katz’s signature style of employing flat plates of color and simplified forms, has become one of the most recognizable depictions of the 20th century.

Henry Moore
Family Group (1944)
Est. $500,000–$700,000 CAD

Henry Moore, Family Group (1944). Courtesy of Heffel.

English artist Henry Moore (1898–1986) garnered worldwide acclaim for his pioneering—and often monumental—semi-abstract sculptures. Moore’s practice centered on the human form, and he continuously explored the compositional and abstract possibilities of the body and the boundaries of figuration. The present lot, Family Group (1944), matches the work of the same edition within the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery in London, and has a single-family provenance originating to its acquisition from Dominion Gallery in the 1950s.

Jack Hamilton Bush
Burgundy (1968)
Est. $300,000–$500,000

Jack Hamilton Bush, Burgundy (1968). Courtesy of Heffel.

A preeminent 20th-century Color Field painter, Jack Bush (1909–1977) was friends and associates with contemporaries such as Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland, and Anthony Caro. An influential member of the artist group Painters Eleven, which formed in 1954 before disbanding in 1960, Bush was at the forefront of bringing modes of abstraction to the Canadian art scene. Like fellow Color Field painters of the time, Bush was influenced by the work of Helen Frankenthaler and subsequently Morris Louis, and much of his work employs the technique of thinning paint to achieve his distinct, physically saturated planes of color.

Paul-Émile Borduas
Miniatures empressées (1955)
Est. $900,000–$1,200,000

Paul-Émile Borduas, Miniatures empressées (1955). Courtesy of Heffel.

Paul-Émile Borduas (1905–1960) was a Quebecois artist recognized for his early experiments in abstraction. The founder of Les Automatiste—an avant-garde movement inspired by surrealism and the psychology of artmaking—his work with the group culminated with his primary contribution to the Refus Global manifesto in 1948, which rejected the prevailing norms of academic painting traditions, as well as the of the greater Quebecois society of the period. His work and legacy are considered one of the most influential within Canadian art history.

Heffel’s fall auctions will take place Thursday, November 23, 2023. Explore these lots and more here.

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With her latest project, conceptual artist and photographer Carolyn Monastra has been traveling to places where birds are in danger of habitat loss. She hopes to spur viewers to take action around climate change.

With a passing glance, the Canada jay overlooking Peyto Lake in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada, appears to be completely real—but if you hold your gaze, an unnatural outline becomes clearer, and you realize you’re looking at a facsimile. The photo below is part of a project called The Divergence of Birds, in which artist Carolyn Monastra, FCRH ’88, photographs paper cutouts of birds in their native habitats—a nod to a future in which the real birds may be forced out of those current homes.

“Canada Jay” in evergreen tree overlooking a glacial lake

Monastra said that the idea for the project came out of reading a 2014 National Audubon Society climate report that found that 314 North American bird species will lose more than half of their climatic range by 2080—a number that increased to 389 species in a 2019 report.

Monastra, who also teaches photography at Nassau Community College, plans to photograph cutouts of each of those 389 birds for the project. Where she cannot travel to the actual habitats to shoot photos, she said, she will recreate the environment, and she’ll gradually document all the photos on the project website, along with some behind-the-scenes photos and videos of her process.

“I want people to understand that they’re cutouts from the time they come to it,” she said, “using that as a way to get them to pay attention to the birds in my photographs, see what’s happening to them, and then go outside and get engaged.”

“American Robin” with empty nest

“Brown Thrasher” in a magnolia tree

“Great Black-backed” Gull flying over sand dunes

Committing to Photography and Finding Inspiration

In the 1980s, Monastra majored in English at Fordham College at Rose Hill, where she was a member of the honors program, but she also took several photography classes at the Lincoln Center campus. One of her photography professors, Joseph Lawton, saw her talent behind the camera and encouraged her to pursue an M.F.A. after she graduated in 1988.

After several postgraduation years serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Santa Monica, California, and exploring a career in social work, Monastra followed Lawton’s advice. She enrolled in the M.F.A. program in photography at Yale Universityto “finally commit to being a photographer,” she said.

Once she had her master’s, she began teaching, and she has held several high school and college jobs, including a year as a photography instructor at Fordham. She has been teaching full time at Nassau Community College since 2005, all the while pursuing her own projects outside the classroom, like lovely, dark and deep, in which she turned to “the fragmentary space of dreams and my experiences with the environment to discover and create mystery in the natural world,” and The Witness Tree, which immediately preceded The Divergence of Birds and also dealt with climate change, in that case through a series of landscape images showing the effects of climate disasters.

Monastra first saw the Audubon Climate Report while working on The Witness Tree, and the wheels for a bird-centered project began turning. She thought about her own history with the animals, and she began buying books for research—books that would ultimately provide a more material kind of inspiration.

“I was really interested in how birds build their nests,” she said. “I’d never really been a birder until I started this project, but my mom always had bird feeders, so we always had birds around. I was buying all these secondhand bird books to learn about birds building their nests, and then I just started cutting them out.”

She also was reading Philip K. Dick’s science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? around that time, and she said that the dystopian world of the book, in which electric versions of animals are so realistic that no one can tell the difference between them and the real thing, resonated with her.

“That little part also made me think about this idea of facsimile and simulacra, and how sometimes we’re fooled by that. And in a future warming world, if we don’t protect what we have, that’s all we’ll have left.”

“Sharp-shinned Hawk” sitting on a rock with view of cityscape

“Yellow-billed Loon” swimming on a lake

“Rose-breasted Grosbeak” in forsythia bush

An Artist’s Responsibility

In addition to updating the project website on a rolling basis, Monastra has been thinking about ways to bring the project to a wider audience in various settings. In October, she had a residency at NYC Audubon’s environmental center on Governors Island, where she used the images for banners she could string throughout the center.

And much like a Postcards to Politicians project she created for The Witness Tree, in which she encouraged people to handmake postcards from her collaged images and send them to politicians to push for climate action, she would like to engage communities with The Divergence of Birds directly.

“Adopt a Bird will be something similar, using recycled materials,” she said of her next planned public project. “I’ll have all the pictures of the birds in people’s area, wherever it happens to be. There will be a pledge they’ll make, as they adopt that bird, to promote climate change legislation.”

Beyond hands-on, collaborative art, she hopes that the photos will not only get viewers interested in birds but also spur them to take action around climate change in other ways. That is, she feels, one of her guiding forces as an artist.

“I think artists do have a responsibility to use their gift to talk about these issues,” she said. “Whether it’s climate change or social justice or anything else, I think we have the ability to translate numbers and statistics into something that can move people.”

“Common Redpoll” in winter landscape

“Pine Siskin” in evergreen tree

“Canyon Towhee” in desert landscape

“Northern Saw-whet Owl” at dusk

First Light’s Spirit Song Festival is back for its 11th year beginning on Tuesday, showcasing Indigenous music, art and more from across Canada.

The festival runs from Tuesday to Sunday in St. John’s, and will feature over 60 Indigenous creatives from across the country. It started as a small event in St. John’s a decade ago, but Elder Emma Reelis of Happy Valley-Goose Bay said it’s great to see how it has grown over the years.

“Every year it gets bigger and bigger,” Reelis told CBC News Tuesday.

“I’m just really pleased, you know, that we are here today after 11 years,” added Charlotte Winters-Fost of Hopedale. “There’s been a lot of growth, and I’m really looking forward to hearing many of the talented Indigenous artists that we have.”

The festivities will begin on Tuesday evening with the opening ceremonies, featuring performances from Kilatuiup Spnguninga and the St. John’s Mi’kmaq Women’s Circle.

The event will bring Indigenous people from all over North America together, which Elder Majorie Muise said is always a highlight for her.

WATCH | 16-year-old Fred Fost, the grandson of Charlotte Winters-Fost, spoke with CBC Radio about what it will be like to perform at the festival:

He attended the Spirit Song Festival as a kid. Now he’s making his DJ debut

1 day ago

Duration 4:41

Featured VideoFred Fost, 16, is performing for the first time at Spirit Song Festival in St. John’s. He is among the youngest performers this year, but he’s no stranger to the festival, which celebrates Indigenous cultures. He’s been attending the festival since he was a young boy. Fost came on CBC’s First Light Fridays to talk with Amanda Gear.

“Tonight is going to be a celebration mostly of our own communities coming together. Our local communities, so that’s going to be really awesome,” Muise said. “And throughout the festival is going to be like a celebration of contemporary and traditional.”

Many events are open to all ages, which Reelis says is part of what defines the festival. She says events like Spirit Song are key in connecting youth with Indigenous culture.

“I think our youth is our today, and our future. I think we need to … get them more involved in things like this to learn more about the culture. Because it sort of went to the wayside with residential [schools] and the Sixties Scoop,” she said.

“A lot of the culture was lost, and I think through Spirit Song it’s all coming back.”

A schedule of events can be found on the Spirit Song Festival Facebook page.

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