Photo courtesy of Telford Eliot
Last weekend I had the honour and the pleasure of hosting the Redpath Stage at Planet Indigenus at the Harbourfront Center. Thanks Marc Merilainen! As I blogged about earlier, Planet Indigenus is the largest contemporary international Indigenous cultural festival in the world, and featured 10 whole days of theatre and dance, music, food, film and visual arts from Canada and around-the-world. And it only happens every three years, which makes it that much more special.
It all started on Friday night when I hosted the Sage Paul Fashion Show (but I’ll save that for another entire post). I snuck over to the Westjet Stage to catch Arthur Renwick before this handsome Australian crooner Benny Walker performed. His music is pretty stellar, and I already have his ‘Summer Sun‘ song running through my head.
Cris Derksen and Eric Pipestem.
All photos w/ Red Works watermark by Nadya Kwandibens.
isKwe
Tjimur Dancers
Then onto Saturday evening where I caught most of Cris Derksen’s performance. She had Eric Pipestem hoop dancing up on stage with her. Her performance was enchanting, as per usual. IsKwe began her set on the Westjet stage and her version of Beyonce’s Halo gave me shivers. Loved it! Then back on the Redpath Stage the Tjimur Dance Theater performed. They are one of Taiwan’s most exciting Indigenous contemporary dance companies, and they were captivating to watch. Before I was ready for the Red Hot Nights event that I was hosting, I took a bite out of Wolfman’s Buffalo Burger (minus the bun of course).
I got into the burlesque mood and put this number on for hosting.
Kitsune Soleil brought it with her Cat’s Caboose crew.
Dolly Berlin nailed it with her Cherokee Half Breed number.
Tanya Tagaq conquers the crowd.
Tanya does traditional competition throat singing with her cousin, the beautiful Selena.
Once Red Hot Nights came to completion, it was already 1:30 AM and I had to be back on site the next day at 1:oo PM. Time to pack it in and head home. The day started easily with guitarist Don Ross doing two performances before the big finale. I hosted the closing performance of Planet Indigenus.
Morningstar River kicked it off with some pow wow beats. Hi Tee!
Tjimur Dance Troupe performs
Round Dance with young/old, black/white.
Morningstar River ended on a high note.
The final performance ended with APCMA nominated Indian City. They were a joy to watch, and they are only five months into their group formation! Being a part of Planet Indigenus was amazing as I got to see friends, get reunited with friends from out of the province, and meet some new Indigenous buddies. I was entertained, inspired, and educated during the festival. Also, I got to eat the best bison sausage of my life. My only regret is that Planet Indigenus doesn’t happen each and every year.
Nish Dish Bison sausage was CRAYMAZING!
Great pictures! I love the Nish Dish business. Found their website — http://www.nishdish.com.
I would love to go to this some time in the future!