N’we Jinan goes from music collective to art festival

The first ever N’we Jinan music and art festival took place June 24-25 in Mistissini, bringing together a delegation of 80 youth from Eeyou Istchee and beyond who were involved in the production of N’we Jinan’s three music albums.

They were joined by locals and youth from other James Bay communities and an Ojibway group from Lac Seul, who made the trip to share their talents and take part in two days of workshops, live visual art displays, DJ sessions and other artistic and musical performances.

Day one of the N’we Jinan’s festival focused on educational workshops and speaker sessions at Voyageur Memorial School. For instance, DJ/dancer Classic Roots gave a powwow boot camp, while singer/songwriter Matt Iserhoff talked about love, life and music. Meanwhile, representatives of the Nikaan Project, OJ’s video game design program, spoke about virtual reality and creating the future

“We wanted to give the young people an in-depth look at Cree people’s lives,” artist, music educator and festival organizer David Hodges told the Nation. “These are artists who have achieved success but had to overcome certain obstacles along the way. The kids are seeing themselves in the artists and the artists are seeing themselves in the kids and that’s an important exchange.”

“The thing I enjoyed most was trying something new with music,” related Quinn Blacksmith from Oujé-Bougoumou. “It was really exciting, it was fun to see all of the Nations doing song and great to see people come together.

“The Mikw Chiyâm really spoke to me, I could express myself and say what I felt,” he added. “I heard about N’we Jinan and was wondering what it would be like to perform a song and my parents said I could go ahead so I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll do it’.”

Saturday featured a full day of music kicked off by an hour-long DJ performance from Classic Roots at 12 noon. A number of musicians and singers from the three N’we Jinan albums – such as trumpet player Alexandre Blacksmith and R&B singer Joshua Salt – shared the stage with the Waseshkuun Singers from Waswanipi, Matt Iserhoff, the NorthStars, pop singer Mariame Hasni and others. The festival finale was a one-hour performance from the ensemble of youth featured on N’we Jinan’s latest album, N’we Jinan Volume 3.

“By the end, we had over 1000 people in the room,” said Hodges. “For the final performance we did nine songs back-to-back with some skits in between.”

Hodges founded N’we Jinan in 2014 as a community tour that saw youth across the Cree Nation collaborate to produce Eeyou Istchee Volume 1. Since then it has grown to support Cree artists, like Mariame Hasni and the NorthStars, as a record label. Hodges also worked closely with the Cree School Board to develop the Mikw Chiyâm artist residency program and produced two more N’we Jinan albums.

Hodges said future festivals would likely be held on alternating years in different communities, depending on the development of the Mikw Chiyâm program.

This year’s inaugural festival happened largely due to the Cree Justice Department’s Youth Engagement Fund, from which N’we Jinan secured most of the funds needed to run the festival in one shot.

“It all just came together at the same time,” Hodges concluded. “There was a lot of chemistry between all the people who were involved in the festival – the performers, the artists, the kids, all the people who came to support it. It was a great success for Eeyou Istchee and for N’we Jinan. When you hear the testimonials of the kids, how they’ve changed, how alive they become when they hit the stage and the confidence they have, it’s amazing!”