Shannon Thunderbird | |
---|---|
Origin | Canada |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, speaker, educator, playwright, author |
Website | www |
Shannon Thunderbird is a Coast Tsimshian First Nations singer-songwriter, speaker, educator, recording artist, playwright, and author. [1] [2]
She is an Elder of the Giluts'aaw tribe, Royal House of Niis'gumiik, Gispwudwada (Orca) Clan. [3] She is a medicine wheel teacher and artist/educator who communicates time-honoured indigenous knowledge in a variety of ways, workshops/seminars, drumming circles, stage shows, written word. [4] Thunderbird has worked with thousands of people all over North America, Europe and Asia. In particular, she and her performance partner, Sandy Horne of the Canadian synthpop band the Spoons, have presented to over three hundred and fifty thousand students in elementary, secondary schools, universities and colleges across Canada and the United States. [5] She is President of Teya Peya Productions, a First Nations arts/education company she founded in 1991 that includes the Thunderbird Native Theatre and Red Cedar Sisters Vocal Trio to which she is the Artistic Director. [6]
Her touring shows include "Wolf Thunder: Big Drums Are Calling!", "Turtle Thunder Sings", "Sweet Thunder Medicine Wheel", "Daughter of the Copper Shield", "Thunder Rolling in the Mountains", Thunder Wolf Songwriting, Vocals and Drumming, Spirit Thunder Drumming and vocal workshops celebrating cultural diversity and North American indigenous cultures. [6]
Thunderbird is a strong voice for Missing and Murdered Women and Girls. She is also a speaker on the culture, history and spirituality of Indigenous people. Her Fireside Chats, include: Seven Steps to the Colonization of Indigenous People; Power of the Matriarchy: Women Take Back the Drum; Indigenous Restorative Justice: Truth and Reconciliation; Truth and Timelessness of the Medicine Wheel. [7] She is a strong advocate for the right of Indigenous women to practice their culture wherever, whenever and however they choose. This includes the playing of the big drums. She is currently the keeper of two big drums, Gyemk Loop and K'ool Gyet Nah Hool and speaks widely about the CORRECT history of Indigenous women and their powerful places within tribal structures including the creation of stories, songs, ceremonies and the playing of the big drums. [8]
The Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw, also known as the Kwakiutl, are an indigenous group of the Pacific Northwest Coast, in southwestern Canada. Their total population, according to a 2016 census, was 3,665 people. Most live in their traditional territories on northern Vancouver Island, as well as nearby smaller islands and inland on the adjacent British Columbia mainland. Some also live outside their traditional homelands, in urban areas such as Victoria and Vancouver. They are politically-organized into 13 band governments.
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Lori Campbell is a Two-Spirit Cree-Métis educator and advocate from Treaty 6 territory in Northern Saskatchewan and a member of Montreal Lake First Nation. She was appointed the inaugural associate vice-president Indigenous Engagement in 2021 at the University of Regina. From 2017 - 2021, she was the Director of Shatitsirótha' Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre at the University of Waterloo and an adjunct lecturer in Indigenous Studies at United College. Campbell holds undergraduate degrees in Indigenous Studies and Psychology and a master's degree in Adult Education from First Nations University of Canada and the University of Regina. Her MA thesis, completed in 2016, was titled Nikawiy: A Cree Woman's Experience. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
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Lax-Kwʼalaams, previously called Port Simpson until 1986, is an Indigenous village community in British Columbia, Canada, not far from the city of Prince Rupert. It is located on Port Simpson Indian Reserve No. 1, which is shared with other residential communities of the Tsimshian Nation. The Nine Allied Tribes are: Gilutsʼaaw, Ginadoiks, Ginaxangiik, Gispaxloʼots, Gitando, Gitlaan, Gitsʼiis, Gitwilgyoots, and Gitzaxłaał.
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The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities. They share certain beliefs, traditions and practices, such as the centrality of salmon as a resource and spiritual symbol, and many cultivation and subsistence practices. The term Northwest Coast or North West Coast is used in anthropology to refer to the groups of Indigenous people residing along the coast of what is now called British Columbia, Washington State, parts of Alaska, Oregon, and Northern California. The term Pacific Northwest is largely used in the American context.
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