Voices Across The Water
Voices Across the Water follows two master boat builders as they practice their art and find a way back to balance and healing.
Cultural Festivals
Adäka Cultural Festival Comes Back Into The Light—Renewed and International
The Adäka Cultural Festival returns with the light of many suns, in full swing and in person this year! June 29 to July 5 2022
Coming into the light
The Adäka Cultural Festival is quickly growing into one of Canada’s premiere Indigenous arts and culture festivals
The Junction and JAR (Junction Artist in Residence)
Landing in Whitehorse for the first time, Henry Navarro Delgado arrived in the Yukon knowing nothing about the place. Delgado wanted to remain as open-minded as possible when he settled into the coveted Junction Artist in Residence (JAR) Program in Haines Junction.
The Adäka Cultural Festival … celebrating our diverse First Nations arts and culture
The 2018 Adäka Cultural Festival is just around the corner! The annual multi-disciplinary arts and culture festival will be held this summer from June 29 to July 5 at its idyllic location, the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre located on Whitehorse’s beautiful waterfront.
The ODD Gallery showcases Tamika Knutson’s Skin
Tamika Knutson is a Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in citizen who began her art training at the Yukon School of Visual Arts, in Dawson City.
Make the Most of Your Canada Day!
Summer sun brings with it loads of visitors to the various Yukon campgrounds, especially on the long weekends. Those folks joining the campers for the Canada Day long weekend will be missing out! On July 1, Canada is celebrating its 150th birthday. The festivities, therefore, will be 150 times bigger than they have been in …
Celebrate First Nations Culture
Take some time off work – that’s the only way you’ll be able to enjoy all the programming offered by the Adäka Cultural Festival this month. That’s the suggestion from Lynn Feasey, director of arts for Yukon First Nations Culture and Tourism Association, which hosts the festival each year. Feasey is joking, but, looking at …
Arts, Culture and Creation
“Artists show the world unseen,” says Tahltan First Nation artist Rhoda Merkel. “Teachers show students a better form of themselves.” Merkel, who was raised in Whitehorse but lives in Atlin, combines both talents in her newest project, the Sam Johnston Storytelling Festival, which takes place Tuesday, March 7 in Teslin. The festival is a collaboration, …
Calling Aboriginal Artists!
The Yukon First Nation Culture and Tourism Association is looking for artists, artisans, musicians and performers from the Yukon and abroad to be part of the seventh annual Adäka Cultural Festival, which takes place at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre from June 30th to July 6th. “We generally reach out to the well-established group …
Resisting and Resurging
This year the Yukon Film Society (YFS) returns to the Adäka Cultural Festival with more First Nations programming. The collaboration between Adäka and YFS allows all the screenings to be free. Screenings run July 3 and 4 at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre during the festival, which takes place July 1 to 7. Screenings begin …
2016 Adӓka Cultural Festival: An Exploration of Old and New
2016 Adӓka Cultural Festival: Kaska drummer Dennis Shorty , Gwich’in fiddler Boyd Benjamin, & Inuit throat-singer Kathleen Merritt
Invitation for an Authentic Experience
Yukon First Nations are planning ways to offer authentic cultural experiences for visitors. The plan to bolster cultural tourism among the Yukon First Nations has been in the works for a while, but this week people from across the Yukon Territory are getting together for a conference in Whitehorse to discuss ways to strengthen this …
Writing Across the Borders
An ambitious pan-Northern ensemble of seasoned musicians from all three territories will make its debut in Whitehorse next week as one of the performance highlights of the fifth annual Adäka Cultural Festival. The New North Collective will bring together the songwriting and performing talents of four Yukoners, two residents of the Northwest Territories, and a …
Playing With Fire by Theo Fleury
I heard Theo Fleury speak at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre in Whitehorse last summer during the Adäka Cultural Festival, but hadn’t had a chance to read his autobiography, Playing With Fire, until recently. I finished it quickly. He writes forcefully about his addictions and the abuse and neglect that underpinned them. Much of the …
First Nations share through fashion
It’s her first day on the job and Chantal Rondeau is starting with a list of the Yukon’s 14 First Nations. “I cross them off when I get a piece of their clothing on the runway,” she says. The producer of the Adäka Fashion Show, the splashy finale of the upcoming Adäka Cultural Festival, June …
Ancestral Ways
Juanita Growing Thunder-Fogarty lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the tiny community of North San Juan, on the same property her paternal ancestors settled during the California Gold Rush of 1849. But her heart is inextricably linked to the Great Plains territory of her Sioux and Assiniboine forebears, and the beading …
Makushan-maker
Florent Vollant’s first exposure to music was in his family’s cabin on a trapline in Labrador. After a successful caribou hunt, the family would celebrate with traditional songs and dances, in the Innu tradition of the makushan, or pow wow. “I was four or five years old the first time I remember the sound of …
Feels Like a Celebration
First, she says, it allows artists, performers and cultural sector workers “to come together once a year to share inspiration, to share ideas, to learn new skills, to inspire each other.” Alexander is a co-founder and executive producer of the four-year-old festival, which runs this year from Friday, June 27 through Thursday, July 3 at …
One Foot in a Moccasin, and One in a Sneaker
Culture has been described as the immune system of a people, and in a world where so many distractions are coming at us on a regular basis, Yukoners can take comfort in knowing that we are home to a beautiful and thriving culture. Last year, Yukon First Nations celebrated the 40-year anniversary of the document, …
Sharing Traditional Art with Europeans
On May 30 Dennis and I left a big flood behind in Ross River, and landed in Germany where many cities, towns and villages were also flooding. We are here on our annual trip to promote tourism, culture, and Yukon artists, including and Dennis’ artwork. It’s something we volunteer to do – we are promoting …
The Adäka Cultural Festival Aims to Include Everyone
The Adäka Cultural Festival will kick off for the third time in Whitehorse on Friday, June 21, which is also National Aboriginal Day. Adäka (pronounced Aw-daw-kah) means “coming into the light” in the Southern Tutchone language and each year this festival continues to expand, like the sun rising on a new day, spreading its light …
The Adäka Cultural Festival Aims to Include Everyone Read More »
Making New Tracks
In the past 10 years more and more First Nation dance groups have been popping up. People have decided it’s pretty cool to learn their traditional drumming, singing and dancing. Bracken Hanuse Corlett calls it de-colonization. Hanuse Corlett is an audio-visual artist with the group Skookum Sound System, which uses current technology and traditional sounds …
Pelly Dancing
After their initial inception, the Selkirk Spirit Dancers had a hiatus, and some wondered if they would ever dance again. Started by Carmen Baker, the dance group is based in Pelly Crossing and is now comprised of 45 dancers. The large number in itself is enough to set the group apart, however what makes the …
African, French and Japanese Groups Showcase Their Culture
They are not always featured in history books, but since the Klondike Gold Rush people of many ethnic backgrounds have called the Yukon home. On Sunday, June 23 the Adäka Cultural Festival will host the Sharing Our Spirit Community Celebration, a day of events bringing together the culture of these different groups that have put …
African, French and Japanese Groups Showcase Their Culture Read More »
Healing and Transformation: Ravenstail Weaving
“A woman needs to have an art form,” says Tlingit Tutchone master weaver Ann Smith. And she feels a responsibility to pass on the art of weaving to the next generation of First Nations women – which is exactly what she and Alaskan Tlingit Chilkat master weaver Clarissa Rizel will do during the Adäka Cultural …
Keeping the Stories Alive
Tammy Lee Josie was literally pushed onto the stage at 14 years old. She was watching her grandmother, Edith Josie, perform her family’s Vuntut Gwitchin stories at the Yukon International Storytelling Festival in 1998 when festival coordinator Louise Profeit-Leblanc asked if Tammy Lee knew Edith’s tales. “Then my grandmother pointed at me and said ‘Your …
From his Basement to the Stage
If you’ve had your ear to the Yukon ground in the past year, you’ve probably felt a vibration shaking from 86Heaven – they’re an informal conglomerate of Yukon hip hop artists headed by Warren Strand a.k.a. Abstract Original. Strand is of Southern Tutchone decent, representing the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations and the majority of …
Yukon Fashion to Swarm Ottawa Runway
When you live in a place where it is winter for half the year you would expect fashion to be restricted to parkas and boots, but that’s not the case. Tomorrow night in Ottawa three Yukon designers will show their work at Northern Scene’s contemporary themed evening, SWARM, which features music, art, fashion and a …
Adaka – A Festival for Sharing
Boyd Benjamin & Kevin Barr, ambassadors of Yukon music at the Vancouver Olympics will play at new Adäka Cultural Festival
Nomination Hat Trick
Les Walker had a particular goal in mind when he teamed up with guitarist Clancy McInnis in 2009 to form the band, Common Knowledge. He wanted to perform at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards (CAMA) and have an album in nomination. When the alt-rock group’s debut album, Colour Blind, came out this May, it brought …
Blending Colours and Cultures
Later this month, the Adäka Cultural Festival will bring to the Whitehorse waterfront its second year of celebrating the diverse heritage of the Yukon. The festival has gathered an impressive lineup of First Nations musicians and artists from B.C., Yukon, NWT and Alaska to entertain and educate festivalgoers. One artist eager to return to the …
