Squamish Nation hosts musical smorgasbord

Page 9

Celebration 2010 and Cap Folk 'n' Roots Series offered up an incredible evening of entertainment on Feb. 28 when they presented St(lmexw "Xw(lm(xw "The People" --A Celebration of Song.

Held at the Capilano College Performing Arts Theatre, the event was part of a province-wide campaign from Feb. 14 to March 8 to showcase the province's creative culture in support of the Vancouver/Whistler Olympic games bid.

Master of ceremonies Deborah Jacobs pointed out that this is the first time in Olympic history that there has been such strong involvement by Aboriginal people in the bid book, "in that we have a protocol agreement, and we'll have a strong presence in the ceremonies in the 2010 Olympics."

Squamish Nation Chief Gibby Jacobs conducted the opening ceremony, demonstrating his obvious excitement for the future games and the opportunity for the world to discover "who and what our nation is all about." Jacobs, who sits on the board of directors for the 2010 bid committee, said, "We're all part of a team. We must pursue it for our young people -a lot of young athletes could one day participate and potentially win." He too referred to the Aboriginal component in the bid book: "We've been creating partnerships . . . how we can work together and all walk away with something."

Calling the 2010 Olympics "a springboard to the future," Jacobs commented on the importance of "never forgetting where we come from but knowing where we're going in the future."

After the opening ceremony, Wayne Lavallee and band took the stage and rocked the house with powerful acoustics and a voice than ran the gamut -hard and soft, rich and deep, and always soulful. The Metis singer/songwriter has been playing guitar since the age of five and was nominated for best rock album at the 2000 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. Whether he was singing what he calls his "Indian Love Song" and asking "the girl with the green dress to dance" or he was "Caught up in a Jam," the audience was clearly exhilirated by Lavallee's performance.

After a brief intermission, the musical experience continued with Nitsiwakun ("good friends") and the Sandy Scofield Band. Scofield, Juno-Award nominated and winner of two National Aboriginal Achievement awards, first sang a few solo tunes. Scofield's musical diversity left the audience mesmerized-her voice, denying one genre alone, mixed folk, rock, pop, country, R&B and alternative. And while Scofield alone was engaging, when Shakti Hayes and Lisa Sazama of Nitsiwakun took the stage, their combined vocal efforts were nothing less than magical.

Leonard George of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation conducted the closing ceremony.

The event was followed by a reception hosted by the Squamish Nation Department of Education.