October 30-November 4, 2012 in Winnipeg, Manitoba

There’s a quiet movement stirring in dark, chilly nights of late-autumn Winnipeg. It’s a movement that spans continents and harnesses the youthful energy and long experience of a burgeoning scene: The sonic creativity of Native American, Inuit, Métis, and Indigenous musicians who are making an impact on genres from blues to rap.

Doubling ticket revenue from one year to the next, Aboriginal Music Week and its organizers are determined to prove that this movement has relevance, not only for increasing numbers of urbanized Native peoples in North America, but also for broader audiences hungry for cool sounds.

The diverse lineup reflects the long-standing engagement with genres like hip hop and country among Aboriginal artists. Many of the younger performers—stylish MCs, avant storytellers, baile funk darlings—push the envelope by employing technology, from looping pedals to video mash ups, to both channel and challenge their diverse identities and profound heritage.

It gets dance floors hopping and people of all backgrounds talking. “Live music performances can really show both Native and non-Native people that Aboriginal culture is rich and vibrant and really interesting, especially when the quality is outstanding and the artist is innovative,” explains festival curator Alan Greyeyes. “It’s a different story from what you hear on our six o’clock news, about violence and troubled lives. Though we’ve always focused on building our young Native audience, we’re seeing more and more non-Native people coming to the festival.”

It’s not hard to understand why. This year’s line up features:

* Brazil’s funk carioca idol Zuzuka Poderosa

* Edgy, otherworldly Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq

* The bumping electronic music and multimedia audacity of global bass favoritesA Tribe Called Red

* The gritty, bluesy country of elder musician Murray Porter

* Bluesman, actor (Jarmusch’s Ghostdog), and Aboriginal arts advocate Gary Farmer

* The fresh electro-pop-tinged hip hop of LightningCloud

*Artful alt-country singer-songwriter Samantha Crain

* Métis storyteller Moe Clark, who uses loops of words to evoke striking, grooving soundscapes.

Festival passes go on sale August 7, 2012. See www.aboriginalmusicweek.ca for details.

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More than a music festival, AMW and organizers like Greyeyes are working on several fronts to shift the conversation about Aboriginal arts, both within and outside of their communities. The festival is not merely about showcasing established, well-honed artists, but also inviting newcomers to the performance circuit to show their stuff and perfect their craft.

“For newer artists, we do our best to help them get ready for the next level,” Greyeyes explains, “from giving them templates for stage plots and technical riders, to editing biographies and providing feedback on press materials.”

This gentle mentoring aims to bring more Indigenous voices to mainstream stages. AMW and Greyeyes are striving to demonstrate the vibrant viability of Aboriginal audiences to mainstream arts presenters, as well as show that native artists have merits outside their ethnic heritage, as artists in their own right and not only representatives of their communities.

“I hope that our festival’s rapid growth demonstrates to bigger festivals in Winnipeg and beyond that the Aboriginal community is interested in live music and will buy tickets,” Greyeyes explains. “I feel strongly that the best way to attract this emerging audience is to program Aboriginal artists and I think that a lot of the Canadian folk festivals are definitely booking more than one token Aboriginal act each year. That’s really encouraging.”

AMW is also working to support and further develop artists via Canada’s network of Aboriginal media, the radio stations and Winnipeg-based national TV station that serve the country’s 633 First Nation communities. That’s why the festival is creating its first compilation CD, to be distributed to stations as giveaways to community listeners and to highlight this AMW edition’s artists.

“A lot of the major cities in Canada have their own Aboriginal radio station, and there are a number on reserves throughout Canada,” notes Greyeyes. “Their programming services the community and they play music that community members request. We’re hoping to develop fans for our festival artists, one song at a time.”