The International Indigenous Music Summit (IIMS) is the largest global event dedicated to celebrating, creating awareness, sharing resources, and building opportunities for the Indigenous music community.
IIMS provides a unique space for Indigenous artists to discuss, exchange, and share and connect with one another, in a culturally sensitive and appropriate space directed at building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships between artists and industry professionals.
Participants and collaborators include creators, event organizers, presenters, key knowledge holders from the arts sector, and cultural connectors from many parts of the world. An elder advisory committee has foundational input on thematic material, organization, and execution. IIMS embeds international buyers as delegates, selecting cultural connectors within regions that represent particular opportunity for Canadian based Indigenous artists.
ShoShona Kish is an Anishinaabekwe community organizer, producer, activist, songwriter and JUNO award-winning touring artist. ShoShona leads the multi-award-winning band Digging Roots, with her husband, Raven Kanatakta. Their music breaches categorization, seamlessly blending global and traditional Indigenous sounds with roots, blues and soul.
SHOSHONA KISHAmanda is a Citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario and a singer/songwriter that has self-managed her music career for over 15 years. She has released 5 full length albums. Her album “Keep a Fire” was nominated for a JUNO Award and won a Canadian Folk Music Award for Indigenous Songwriter of the Year. Amanda is a proud member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
AMANDA RHEAUMENicole Auger is the IIMS Manager of Programming and Community Engagement and has been supporting the development of the National Indigenous Music Office on northern Turtle Island. Nicole is part of the Music Canada Advisory Council and is a member of the Board of Directors for Women in Music Canada, CPAMO, and the Tranzac Club in Toronto.
NICOLE AUGEREmily Smart is the VP of Marketing & Publicity at Six Shooter Records. Smart also operates independent publicity company Tire Fire Press . With over 15 years of experience in the music industry, Smart has overseen and executed the publicity and marketing campaigns for JUNO Award winning, internationally acclaimed artists and albums.
EMILY SMARTRaven is Anishinabe and Mohawk, from Winneway, Quebec.
RAVEN POLSON-LAHACHEBanakonda is the Elder in-Residence with the Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Indigenous Field of Study at Wilfred Laurier University. She is an Indigenous cultural advisor, teacher, and Traditional Practitioner, and has served Indigenous communities for over forty years.
BANAKONDA KENNEDY KISH BELLKawennison Louise Lahache is a Turtle clan woman from Kahnawake. Louise has spent most of her life working in education at the community level, on and off reserve. Louise has also done much research and policy work in between teaching gigs, serving the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Assembly of First Nations, and the National Association of Friendship Centres.
LOUISE LAHACHENimkish is Cree (Opaskwayak Cree Nation of Manitoba), and Kwakwaka’wakw. Nimkish is a Queer Indigenous pop artist and has released 2 albums “Heartbreak on the Coast” (2019) and “Damage Control” (2021). She has spent the last 5 years on the music team as an Artistic Producer for the Talking Stick Festival and as a grant coach for Creative BC’s Career Development program.
NIMKISH YOUNGINGNathan Mudge, Māori Kūki ‘Āirani from Aotearoa New Zealand, is an artist, producer, and consultant based in Vancouver. He champions Indigenous sovereignty and accessibility in the arts, currently as Producer for Full Circle: First Nations Performance, drawing on his experience in festival management, theatre production, and Indigenous governance.
NATHAN MUDGEOUR PARTNERS
