THUNDER BAY – Saturday was Thunder Bay’s inaugural Maamawe Summer Festival and showcase.
James Wilkinson, indigenous Liaison, says that this is an event that the community has been trying to put together for almost 10 years and that they’ve been doing it at a grassroots level and haven't quite gotten to the point that they could actually create a festival until now.
"So we've done little individual events. So it finally came together this year, this is our first one,” he said.
“We have local talent, the majority of people are indigenous so we’ll be sharing indigenous art, Indigenous music. We have crafters here as well as a couple of food vendors. We're having a sacred fire as well as a teepee. This event, the idea behind it is to bring the community together."
The festival promotes the inclusion, diversity and well-being of all community members as well as those visiting our region and will feature local talent while highlighting the contributions of indigenous artists in our community.
"One of the things we want to do is we want to have music but we also want to have art, film, fashion,” said Wilkinson.
“Just kind of expand its indigenous contributions as well as the diverse community and the multicultural contributions that we have from the community."
This festival is the first of many to come in the future and organizers hope to keep expanding on entertainment and acts.
