New Constellations builds on an increasing national interest in Indigenous music: from three of the last four Polaris Music Prize winners being Indigenous women (Lido Pimienta, Tanya Tagaq, and Buffy Sainte-Marie), to the success of Gord Downie’s Secret Path project, to A Tribe Called Red’s MMVA win for Video of the Year, Indigenous artists and stories are taking the spotlight as they never have before. New Constellations offers an unprecedented celebration of the Indigenous Next Wave.

This half-music, half-literary, national tour is the first of its kind: a unique tour travelling to cities, towns, and Indigenous communities featuring a core roster of Indigenous artists alongside a rotating cast of some of the country’s most celebrated musicians, writers, and poets. New Constellations offers an intimate evening of song and storytelling featuring alternating sets by musicians and writers. The tour includes a two-part mentorship program where established artists connect with Indigenous youth online and in a series of community-based arts and music workshops. New Constellations offers new possibilities for creative collaboration across communities.

With a commitment to giving back to the Indigenous community, New Constellations features a two-part mentorship program — The online Music Mentorship program allows Indigenous youth from across the country to submit music to be mentored by established artists like Anishinaabe electronic musician DJ NDN, Iraqi-Canadian hip-hop artist, educator, and MMVA award-winning video director Narcy, Afro-Indigenous musician Lido Pimienta, Cree/Dene musician IsKwé, and singer Jasmyn Burke (Weaves). Community-Based Workshops are also hosted at six stops, including two Indigenous communities, for Indigenous youth to learn creative writing, songwriting, music creation, and DJ/production skills with artists from the tour and local mentors. Indigenous artists and youth can apply to participate in both parts of the mentorship program at newconstellations.ca/mentorship.

New Constellations is the brainchild of The Basement Revue and Revolutions Per Minute (RPM), two successful music organizations that have partnered to co-curate this national celebration of creative collaboration. The Basement Revue’s 2014 Benefit Show for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women inspired the original idea for the tour, which now features many of the artists who were on the original bill. The project will also include a tour documentary produced by Antica Productions, the producers of Gord Downie’s Secret Path project, and directed by Mohawk filmmaker and documentarian Tracey Deer (co-creator of “Mohawk Girls”). The tour is presented with support from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba and the Government of Canada.

“Besides being a rotating roster of festival-style performances, New Constellations is an intimate opportunity to listen to voices of resurgence — of what is clearly an Indigenous Next Wave,” said Jason Collett, musician from Broken Social Scene, and founder of The Basement Revue. “The momentum is palpable, and it’s inspiring to be a part of such a special celebration.”

“The power of New Constellations is in the new relationships and creative connections that are being made”, said Jarrett Martineau, Cree/Dene media maker and co-founder of RPM. “Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists rarely perform or create together, so this is an amazing opportunity to see what happens when they do. With where we are in this country’s history, that collaboration is more important than ever.”

“New Constellations is an incredible platform to support collaboration between artists across a range of literary and musical genres,” said Damian Rogers, poet and co-curator of The Basement Revue. “We’ve always had great writers perform alongside musicians with The Basement Revue, but bringing this line up of Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists together is something really special.”