Native American Dance & Music Festival - This Weekend!

Be sure to come out and visit our 18th annual Native American Dance and Music Festival this weekend!

Our performers this year include:

Arvel Bird
World music violinist Arvel Bird is the ultimate fusion artist, integrating his Native American and Scottish heritage with a variety of musical styles to deliver an accomplished sound that spans nearly every genre, including classical, folk, Celtic, country, fusion jazz and bluegrass.

Chef David Wolfman
Chef David Wolfman is a culinary arts professor at George Brown College in Toronto and is Host, Writer, and Executive Producer of the nationally televised Cooking with the Wolfman program on The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). David discovered his love for cooking at a young age and has devoted himself to the preservation and promotion of traditional Aboriginal foods and cooking methods.

Cercle Celtique
The award-winning 'Cercle Celtique,' was founded in Rennes, France in 1932 to preserve and promote traditional Breton dance and music. The dancers and musicians wear traditional Breton attire. Round dancing, square dancing, line dancing and the gavotte are all part of their repertoire and are traditionally performed during a Fest Nzo event. The music is performed with authentic instruments, such as the biniou and bombarde. This Celtic ethnic group located in northwest France, trace their heritage to first Celtic indigenous peoples from southwestern Great Britain.

Iroquois Social Dancing
With Ganondagan's Spirit Dancers and Buffalo Creek Dancers.

We also feature master traditional artist demonstrations including:

William (Bill) Loran - Traditional Gustoweh
Bill Loran will demonstrate making the traditional Iroquois men's headdress, the Gustoweh.

Marilyn Isaacs - Fingerweaving
Marilyn Isaacs will demonstrate making sashes in a traditional fingerweaving style, which is a weaving style that does not use complicated loom equipment.

Tonia Loran - Moccasin Making
Tonia Loran is an accomplished leatherworker and beadworker with pieces shown in national art shows as well as adorning the Native clothing of her friends and family. She will demonstrate moccasin making.

Rosemary Rickard-Hill - Raised Beadwork
Growing up in a family of beadworkers, Rosemary Rickard-Hill seemed to be destined to become internationally recognized her skills as a fine beadworker. She will demonstrate raised beadwork.

Please see our website www.ganondagan.org/NADMF.html for more details.

-kim