Vote online for favorite artist

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The promotional material for the Aboriginal Peoples Choice (APC) Music Awards describes the initiative as the only one of its kind where the fans choose which Aboriginal artists will win the hardware.

"The Junos, the Canadian Country Music Awards, the East Coast Music Awards and the Western Canadian Music Awards (WCMA) are all awards systems that are adjudicated by a panel of judges," said Errol Ranville, executive producer of the Manito Ahbee Festival and the APC awards show, scheduled for Nov. 3 in Winnipeg. "In our case here for the APC music awards, they're voted on by the people."

He said the process is open to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike from any community because the voting takes place online. Aboriginal artists in 122 categories can be found on the Web site at www.aboriginalpeopleschoice.com.

"Every artist has their own page with a picture of themselves, a short bio and a 45-second music clip," said Ranville. "We're really amazed with all of the artists' submissions I haven't even heard of before."

Voting for the music awards began on Aug. 7 and in order to see your favorite artist win in their category, it is suggested that people vote as many times as they like before Oct. 13. Ranville said they're hoping to generate community involvement and interest people in using the new technology. "It's the way of the future and computers are not going away," he said, adding the voting is an easy step-by-step process. For those who don't own a computer, however, well they'll just have to take a few more steps, literally, to obtain computer services.

"In some cases, like on some of the reserves and northern communities where they don't have a PC in their homes, they'll have to trek over to the band office or schools and vote online," said Ranville.

The music awards will showcase new and existing Aboriginal music and give artists an increased profile, bringing them closer to the music industry and fans.

The people's choice awards is just one of five components of the Manito Ahbee Festival. From Nov. 2 to 5, visitors to the city will celebrate Aboriginal music and culture through participation in a competition powwow, an education day, a music festival and Indigenous marketplace and trade show.

During the powwow held Saturday and Sunday, there will be a total of $150,000 in prize money awarded to dancers competing in nine different categories, ranging from tiny tots to senior men's. In addition, during the powwow, the Manito Ahbee Princess will be crowned.

According to Ranville, the festival has something for every family member. For example, education day is one of the highlights of the festival with a series of fun-filled workshops open to Grade 7 to Grade 9 students.

For one day only, youth from all nations will come together and participate in any of the 10 workshops on offer. They are required to attend one of the three traditional teaching workshops and then they can choose two or three of the other workshops, which include sports, language, television/film, writing, acting, art on canvas and photography.

The music festival will take place at several venues during Thursday and Saturday.

Ranville said that although this festival is a new initiative, it has obtained IBM and Function Four technology to help the festival run smoothly. Function Four is a Winnipeg technology company that has linked with IBM to produce an automated online voting, registration and artist catalogue system.

Ranville said people who can't attend the awards show will be able to watch it on television.

"APTN will be broadcasting this live and that's something that we haven't even dreamed of.

"Most of the award shows like the CAMAs (the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards held in Toronto Nov. 24 to 26), WMCAs have been operating for 13 years. They still haven't gotten live television, and here we've managed to acquire live television in our first year because we've proven that we can produce the show."

Just two mons shy of the event, Ranville said they have already sold 1,000 tickets at $20 a piece for the show. With 2,000 more tickets available, he anticipates them going fast.

"We made sure they were affordably available to everyone," said Ranville.

For information on the Manito Ahbee Festival visit www.manitoahbee.com.