Image Source: National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI)
Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture tells their stories and histories, and provides visitors the opportunity to hear samples by music greats and discover musicians with whom those exceptional musicians collaborated.
This exhibition, on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, educates and entertains visitors about artists who inspired the musical greats as well as the contemporary artists who they themselves influenced. Highlights include Native people who have been active participants in contemporary music for nearly a century. Musicians like Russell “Big Chief” Moore (Gila River Indian Community), Rita Coolidge (Cherokee), Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree), and the group Redbone are a few of the Native performing artists who have had successful careers in popular music. Many have been involved in various forms of popular music—from jazz and blues to folk, country, and rock.
Location:
Woodland Cultural Centre
184 Mohawk Street, Brantford ON
About Planet IndigenUS
We are all from “somewhere”.
Indigenous people trace ancestry back through time immemorial to places of origin; places where they are rooted; and places that brought forth a unique culture, language, spiritual framework and environment.
Since 2004, Planet IndigenUS, in partnership with Brantford, Ontario’s Woodland Cultural Centre, has explored such ancestry and cultures through Indigenous artists. Through a 10-day, international, multidisciplinary arts festivals attended by over 700,000 people – the largest and first Indigenous festival of its kind in 2004, repeated in 2009 and 2012 – Planet IndigenUS has raised public awareness, broken stereotypes and fostered a cross-cultural dialogue between Canadians.
Planet IndigenUS gives prominence to the voices, stories and cultures of Indigenous people that are largely absent from the Canadian narrative, and has since evolved from its original festival format to encompass education, outreach, youth projects, commissions, professional development for artists and their communities and internships throughout Ontario and Canada.
What began as a festival has grown to become the Planet IndigenUS Initiative with year round programming and resource building between festivals. Highlights of the Planet IndigenUS Initiative can be found on this page.
We look forward to seeing you at Planet IndigenUS 2015!
Janis Monture
Artistic Director, Planet IndigenUS
Cultural Engagement and Activation
Harbourfront Centre
Melanie Fernandez
Artistic Producer
Director, Cultural Engagement and Activation
Harbourfront Centre
planetindigenus@harbourfrontcentre.com
woodland-centre.on.ca
