Tag: ojibwe

Aysanabee and the festival in Hamilton

Helen Polishuk Leave a comment

To your delight, I’ll turn to the posts on my page.
Unexpectedly, it was almost three months away, but it was not so wasted, I went to Europe, to the distant native Ukraine, spent an hour there, completed difficult important inquiries, turned back through all of Europe to Canada.
Now I can give you news about the past, as well as about the current events that are happening around me.

You all know from past posts that I grew up listening music, I love both classical and modern music.
I follow the music of the Renaissance, supported by an organization in Toronto, developing this directly.

I love music so much.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Gkhva192HIs?si=5oTla0Sts27mfh9-
In the sense of the music of the indigenous peoples of Canada, the singer that has recently become known is especially dear to me, a singer with a very garish fantastic voice and a unique way of singing.
This is Aysanabee.

He is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who performs indie-pop and alternative rock music.

He made his debut in 2022 with an album WATIN(2022).The album is named after his grandfather; the name translates from Ojibwe as “quiet” and “weather.”

The album told the story of life in residential schools for Indigenous children and enjoyed immense popularity.


As his fame grew, he began receiving invitations to perform at major concerts across America and started winning awards; after all, his voice is captivating, as is his style of musical accompaniment.
I am delighted that his subsequent albums have been released: NOMADS,SOMEBODY ELSE,WE WERE HERE.

For this reason I came to the SUPERCRAWL festival last week, on the 13th of Sunday in Hamilton.

He turned to perform at this festival. One of the first performances was at this festival, so he was able to continue the tradition and the completion of the festival was the performance of Aysanabee’s songs.

I arrived early for the concert to get a spot near the stage.
I had a wonderful opportunity to watch this talented singer preparing for the show.
It was great to see how meticulously and carefully he tuned his guitars and set up the microphones and sound system.
And then, the highlight for me began—his performance.
He has a band that I think is exceptionally well-chosen; the musicians are fantastic.
He performed songs from all his albums.
Within half an hour, the area near the stage was packed—there wasn’t a single empty spot left. People sang along, applauded, and danced.
It was a magical experience.
I left having bought his latest album, as it had just been released-EDGE OF THE EARTH.

This is a full-length album that was released in June 2025 ISHKODE RECORDS.For this album, in March 2026, the artist received two prestigious awards -JUNO AWARDS -in the categories “Alternative Artist of the Year” and “Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year”.

Some of the first artists who were signed to a label ISHKODE RECORDS ,created by First Nations women to promote authentic Canadian music

The album’s title serves as a metaphor for a crossroads in life—a step into the complete unknown. While creating the album, the musician had to make difficult decisions and venture into the unknown.
I wish him continued success and a steady, unhurried pace—free from pressure, and full of enjoyment.
I see Canadian music transcending boundaries and embracing innovation. It is a pleasure to hear such talented artists, and I truly hope their work marks a new milestone in the evolution of our multifaceted Canadian culture.


After all, we are a multicultural society, and this diversity is both our heritage and our future.
May the voices of Indigenous peoples ring out alongside others—openly, diversely, and far and wide. Wish you best luck,AYSANABEE!

We are love you !

Huronia was waiting for us.

Helen Polishuk

A trip always leads to new discoveries and wonderful impressions and long memories. And now a week has passed, the road dust has settled, my thoughts are already cold and I return to those days with memories.And everything was cool.Just a trip to Huronia. For you this is something, then I will reveal a secret. This is a peninsula adjacent to the large Lake Huron (by the way, the name of the lake comes from the same name as the peninsula). The lake is divided by the borders of America and Canada. On the other side is Michigan, and from here we, the residents of Ontario.

Previously, and this was 400-500 years ago, this neighborhood was intense. Then somehow the activity died down, then in the 1900s everything was actively revived again and looking at the photographs – there were huge ships with tourists, grain and wood were transported on ferries, cars and equipment were brought here. Ladies with lace parasols from the sun walked along the shore, cars with mustachioed men in tailcoats with canes drove. And a railway went to the main desks.
Interesting?
That’s great.
It all started with the fact that I looked in one word in Wikipedia. And word for word, and off we went. I could not sleep and when we went to the peninsula, I wanted to see everything with my own eyes.

We decided to visit two cities, namely Penetanguishene and Midland.

Penetanguishene is town in Simcoe Country first appears in records in 1882, but probably has an older history due to the terrain. The city’s buildings descend from the mountain to Lake Huron and has a beautiful harbor, where I already wrote above, at the end of the 18th-19th centuries life was booming. Most of the residents were from Quebec and French, so even now the main part of the city has French or French-named streets. Very little remains of the former city now, since its inhabitants are less than 10,000. Once this city received its name from the Wyandot Indians and means a place where the sand quickly grinds or land of the while rolling sands.

I didn’t see it there, as well as the lake itself, since in mid-January there are huge mountains of snow and the lake freezes. It turns into a road for snowmobiles. And the snowmobile traffic is active. Apparently, the snowfalls are heavy and people get tired of removing snow near their houses. The snow falls constantly and sometimes in waves, forming blizzards. The time I was there – gray clouds of snow, snow sometimes in flakes, sometimes in a solid wall. Then the locals leave their cars near their houses, dig out a small path from their house to the main road, where the snow is removed perfectly. And they go using snowmobiles. Reliable, fast and cheap. So these are the routes and lively skating I found on the lake and on the pier, a frozen boat crashed into the ice, which was waiting for spring and warmth to ride tourists around the lake.

The city was famous and popular precisely when in 1793 the governor of Upper Canada visited it and saw that the place was strategic and decided to build a military base here. It was built and in 1813-1814 a railway was built there. Life in this area was very active in those years. It was a stronghold against attack by the Americans and was connected to another important city in this region – Berry.

It is difficult to even imagine now that there were powerful defensive structures, as history says, along the entire coast and even on the Wasaga beaches, where there are now a huge number of beaches and hotels.

The same story also writes that these defensive structures along with the ships did not stand for long and sank several years later.

Gradually, from the middle of the 19th century, this place ceased to be military, at the beginning of the 20th century it turned into a commercial and industrial one. Well, now it is dying, since the main income comes from tourists who come for a short Canadian summer and settle in hotels, relax, enjoy local parks and fishing.
It is necessary to mention one more attraction – there are three islands near the city. Ferries go to these islands even today (though not now, everything is frozen). Indian families still live on the islands. I think that the movement of snowmobiles that I saw when I arrived at the harbor is the movement to the islands. I did not see a boat, and in such winter temperatures a ship cannot sail on ice. I read that there are ferries to the islands. One of the islands is the largest and it is closest to the city. We decided to go and see a tourist place called Discovery Harbour.

This place is located at the mouth of the harbor and has many restaurants and a famous local theater. But unfortunately they were closed. Apparently we chose the wrong time.
However, there is a certain charm in this, when you arrive at such a time. This is that there are no tourists, few people and in the hotel a hot tub awaits you, in which you sit and watch the snow fall. The feeling is indescribable. The ratio of temperatures, the magic of water and the play of water with temperature.
How can you forget this? And then just hot tea.

For further information see other post