Isuma.tv is a fantastic multimedia website for Inuit and Indigenous media culture, focusing on independent media content.
Launched in 2008, Isuma.tv presents cultural, digital media content from Inuit and Indigenous people. This platform encourages Indigenous people to share their stories through digital multimedia. Created by the producers of movie Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, Igloolik Isuma Productions, this webspace is open for people to share their past, present and futures through video, photos and audio.
By creating a channel on Isuma.tv you can share and network with other Indigenous people making digital media and artistry. There are currently over 2600 videos in 46 different Indigenous languages.
The site is available in either high or low bandwidth choices for those in more rural communities.
Igloolik Isuma Productions is winding down it's operations as a film company, but Norman Cohn, one of the Isuma directors, assures that the Isuma.tv initiative will not be affected.
To learn more, or to watch and upload your own films, go to Isuma.tv.
As a side plate to ourNew Traditional podcast, here's a YouTube playlist of some incredible Indigenous videos on YouTube.
Robbie Robertson and Ulali - Mahk Jchi (LIVE)
Russell Wallace - Gathering Song - Tzo'kam
A Tribe Called Red - Red Skin Girl
Moana & The Tribe
David R. Maracle - Pollution
9 Year Old Rocks Hand Drum (Aaron Potts Letendre at Alexis First Nation)
Traditional Expression - Jasmine Anderson and Joanne Soldier
Broken Hearts is a soulful duet Amero co-wrote and performs with Kim Oost and as the title may inform, it has a little something to do with break ups, longing and good ol' heartfelt crooning.
A heartbreaking statistic in the US is that Native Americans are 70 percent more likely to die by suicide than the general population. Almost 1 in 4 youth in our communities have attempted suicide. Called a "silent epidemic", a group of tribal youth recently created video, comic books and music to begin to give voice to this issue.
In an anti-suicide/healthy living workshop presented by the Portland Area Indian Health Board, 60 students from different tribes throughout the Northwest spent a week in Portland and had access to a video camera, drawing paper, notebooks and music producer.
"I know from personal experience living in a Native American community and being around people, depression is really common because for a lot of people it's hard to find your way to your culture or find your way to a certain passion when you don't who you are and you're confused," Sarah Hull [from Siletz Tribe] says.
Sarah's mother says there've been times she, the mother, could feel "danger in the air." The family has found an antidote in music.
Hull says she lay awake at night trying to find the right words for a song on the unusual theme of suicide prevention.
...
Suicide prevention coordinator Colbie Caughlan says the staff wanted help crafting health promotion messages that resonate with young people.
"Youth learn from youth," Caughlan says. "That's what has happened forever."
It's true - youth are the mostly likely to make a difference in their communities and what a remarkable program to provide tools and assistance for them to express themselves, share their experiences and break the barriers of secrecy.
Reportedly this project will feed into a media campaign called WeAreNative.org, coming later this year.
Listen to the song Sarah wrote, as well as work by other youth at the workshop, in the inspiring radio documentary on npr.org.
Sarah's voice is incredible. Here she is singing "The Art of Flying":
Many first nations, for many years, were matriarchal societies. For Plains Cree, historically, women were the makers and the keepers of the drum.
With the introduction of outside influences, this role of women shifted. Here, from APTN, an elder in Grand Rapids shares how the teaching of this history is reinstating, and empowering, women drum keepers.
We asked our buddy Ojibwe/Métis comedian Ryan McMahon to put together a YouTube playlist of what artists and tracks he's into this summer.
We got more than we bargained for - including impersonations of Schwarzenegger, Seinfeld, and a bear with, um, well, we wouldn't want to ruin it, but we will rate it PG and possibly NSFW, depending on how cool your co-workers are. Enjoy Ryan, enjoy the tracks and enjoy summer!
The undead walk amongst us in the streets of Winnipeg in this 10 minute video release from the Filthy Animals for their unreleased single Killing Me.
Taking a page from the George Romero zombie film era, the Filthy Animals out of Winnipeg bring to the summer time a new single called Killing Me accompanied by a video based on the old zombie movies.
The Filthy Animals consists of three members Broms, P-Nutty formerly of Dead Indians and Deep Cave Records founder Big Bear. Together they have formed a gritty, deadly and awesome trio and have used their cunning talent to create this edgy and macabre video using a movie-like format, creating for us dope bit of entertaining and very great film making directed by Ryan Cheale. Also included is a cameo by Winnipeg's own Jon-C.
Pura Fe’ and the Pura Fe’ Trio are taking on the Blues world with a new LIVE double-CD and an ambitious international travel schedule that’ll be remembered in the annals of Blues music history.
Consisting of Cary Morin on lead guitar, Pete Knudsen on percussion and Pura Fe’ on vocals and slide guitar, the Pura Fe’ Trio is a collective that can roll with the best of the Blues music world and still bring you a pure Indigenous sound that will shake your spiritual core. On her fifth solo album project, Pura Fe’ shares with us a live performance from Spring of 2011 in the form of a double-CD album - A Blues Night in North Carolina.
Born in New York City and raised within a family of talented traditional Tuscarora singers Pure Fe’ has been groomed into musical mastery since a young age. Her mother, Nanice Lund, was a classically trained opera singer who toured with Duke Ellington and his Sacred Concert Series. With her traditional roots stemming from the Tuscarora Nation in North Carolina in addition to the history of integration between Indigenous peoples and the slave trade, Blues music has become a large part of who Pura Fe’ is to this day
As the founder of the world famous female drum group, Ulali, Pura Fe’ was afforded the chances to travel the world and be a part of a greater musical movement while playing to crowds around the globe. During this time of Ulali’s world travels, the group went on to work with people such as Robbie Robertson on the song Mahk Jchi which was featured on the Jay Leno show and also reached platinum status in Italy. She has performed in huge showcases such as the World Festival For Sacred Music for the Dalai Lama, was featured on the soundtrack for the Miramax film Smoke Signals and has opened for artists like Neil Young, Taj Mahal and George Duke to name a couple.
After pursuing a solo career, she learned to play the acoustic lap slide guitar, which is an instrument identified with a large part of the native music culture in North Carolina. Teaching herself to play songs on the slide guitar, she proceeded to record the album Follow Your Heart’s Desire on the Music Maker label. From there she has gone on to win a Nammy in 2006 and a L’Académie Charles Cros Award (France’s version of the Grammy) for “Best World Album”.
Now touring with her group the Pura Fe’ Trio, she brings to the musical universe her live performance album that features Justin Robinson of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Deer Clan Singers, mixing Blues and traditional sounds along with her vocals to create this double-CD masterpiece. Released in February 2011, this album is sure to be part of music history for both the Indigenous music community and the Blues circuits worldwide.
Pura Fe’ says she is now splitting her time between sun dances, community work with women and families and canoeing the rivers of her traditional territories. Starting this September, she will be teaching at the University of Toronto and then will begin touring with her trio in the upcoming spring into the summer.
Now working on stage with her pedal looper, she is creating innovative sounds using percussion and traditional vocals, proving that new techniques can be employed into traditional styles and evolved into something that is both beautiful and inspiring.
In today’s climate of commercially marketed music, Pura Fe’ shows us that raw heart and soul can create the most amazing music. As an Indigenous woman in the arts, she proves herself to be of ultimate talent while maintaining her self-determined identity within both the Native and non-native music community.
To learn more about the Pura Fe’ Trio, check out her website Purefe.com
To purchase A Blues Night in North Carolina, visit her page on iTunes.
This past weekend marked the 10th annual Komasket Music Festival at Nkampulx on Lake Okanagan in unceded Syilx Okanagan Territory. Indigenous artistsBuffy Sainte-Marie,Dallas Arcand and Geroge Leach were there and houseofinvention captured Buffy's voice, Dallas' moves and George's fast fingers.
This week #PowwowWednesday takes a look at the Grass Dance. Largely considered intertribal, the Grass Dance is one of the most competitive forms of dancing found at powwows today. But like many other dances, it has disputed origins.
Legend has it, from the Northern Plains, that a young man born without the full use of his legs longed to run, dance and play like the other children. He sought a Medicine Man for help and was advised to seek a vision on the prairie. There, the young man saw himself dancing like the long swaying grass. Upon returning to the village, his mother made an outfit with prairie grass and his father created a dance from his son's description. A celebration was held to share this with the village, during which time, the young man's legs were healed.
Yet another story tells of the grass dance coming from the movements of the early scouts seeking a site. The grass being high in new areas, the scouts would dance in a special way to flatten the grass and make it acceptable for a new camp or meeting site.
In another version of the origin of the Grass Dance is that the grass dancers were called out to the place where feasts and special events were to take place. The dancers blessed the ground while they danced in time with the beat of the drum. While the grass dancers danced, they flattened the grass with their feet in preparation for the ceremonies to take place.
Many believe that the Omaha tribe originated the dance in their warrior societies. The grass dance movements reflecting warrior movements such as stalking the game or enemy and fighting the enemy (including one movement representing one of the warrior's legs being staked and unable to move and battling with this leg in a held position).
It is widely practiced as a mens dance, but it has not always been - women have danced it on occasion. In the height of women's rights in the 1970s, women participated wearing men's regalia and reportedly 19th-century photographs document women grass dancing. Today, women will still perform it during switch dance.
Like other dances, balance and symmetry are essential. What the body does on one side, it must do on the other. The movements evoke the grass-trampling theory of the dance’s origins, as dancers seem to be stamping down grasses. Its evolution has led to a broader repertoire of moves: The kicks are a shade higher now, the spins a hint faster, and dancers are likelier to travel around the arena than they were even 15 years ago. Yet the dance remains unmistakably true to its roots: While Charging Eagle consistently honors his ancestors and tribe by sticking to the roots of grass dance, he also acknowledges that adding one’s own essence helps keep the dance alive. “I try to outdo myself, not the other dancers,” he says. “Grass dance is about movement, footwork, and style—the beat is medium so there are so many things you can do with your body.”
Watch some Grass Dance moves from the finals at this past weekend's Kamloopa Powwow:
Speaking of Kamloopa, this photo captures the incredible setting and beautiful weather they had:
Revolutions Per Minute is a global new music platform, record label, and boutique agency for Indigenous music culture. RPM’s mission is to build a visionary community of Indigenous artists and to introduce Indigenous music to new audiences across Turtle Island and around the world. Our main site, RPM.fm, has featured the work of more than 500 Indigenous artists and shared their music across our social networks of more than 275,000 followers.
RPM Records is the first of its kind: a label for contemporary, cross-genre Indigenous music, run by Indigenous people. Selected by The FADER as one of “5 New Canadian Record Labels The Entire World Should Know”, RPM Records artists include Ziibiwan, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Exquisite Ghost, and Mob Bounce.
Broken Hearts is a soulful duet Amero co-wrote and performs with Kim Oost and as the title may inform, it has a little something to do with break ups, longing and good ol' heartfelt crooning.
