The 2025 edition of the International Indigenous Music Summit launched on June 2, 2025, in an opening night reception and gala concert at the TD Music Hall in downtown Toronto, under the theme of Bemaazhid E-niigaanzijig, which translates to “Soaring Together as Leaders.” The seventh annual edition of the gathering, as always, is guided by the purpose of uplifting and celebrating music made by First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and global Indigenous peoples, and includes a diversity of music wide enough to encompass Pow Wow chants, bluesy rock, fiddle tunes, throat singing, drag, and hip-hop.
After opening remarks from summit organizers and Ishkode Records founders Shoshona Kish and Amanda Rheaume, and shared wisdom from elder/healer Gerard Sagassige, host Cherazon Leroux took the stage. Leroux, a two-spirit, Dene Nation drag queen (who appeared on Season 2 of Canada’s Drag Race) was loud, proud, and funny throughout the evening. Leroux offered a very entertaining between-set drag bit, dancing, posing, and lip-synching.
First up in the show, a series of short sets, was Grammy-winning Pow Wow group Northern Cree – five men chanting loudly and intensely to the powerful beat of five hand drums, making a pure and ancient sound. Along with their traditional Cree repertoire, original songs like “Red Skin Girl” and “Earth Angel” included verses sung in English, and the group’s performance inspired a spontaneous round dance in the audience.
Manitoba-based Métis fiddler Alex Kasturok followed, stomping on a board for the rhythm, and working with two piano players, Mary Frances Leahy and Robbie Fraser. With traditional material deeply rooted in Québec and Scotland, Kasturok provided a bit of a jigging lesson, and the crowd responded with plenty of dancing.
Guatemalan singer-songwriter Sara Curruchich, a Maya Kaqchikel woman, sees her identity itself as a kind of political statement. Backed by a marimba/piano player, bassist, and drummer, Curruchich proved a diminutive dynamo onstage. With her impressively forceful voice set to poppy, accessible melodies from her propulsive acoustic guitar, she sang her conscious anthems in Kaqchikel, Spanish, and English. Once again, the audience responded with enthusiastic dancing.
The iconic Polaris Prize and multiple JUNO Award winner Tanya Tagaq, who began her career with the throat singing of her own Inuk culture, closed the night’s performances – in this case, accompanied not only by her drummer Jean Martin, but contemporary classical cellist and composer Cris Derksen. A unique, mesmerizing performer, Tagaq offered completely improvised vocal acrobatics, electronically treated for maximum effect, that literally and repeatedly moved from an angelic whisper to a demonic scream, and all points in between. As always with Tagaq, it was a unique, extremely compelling performance.
The Summit continues throughout the week of June 2-6, 2025.